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DIGBETH WALK
Length30 minutes1.8 km (1.1 miles)
DifficultyEasy
SurroundingsCity streets, factories, railways, buildings, shopping areas
Start/Finish: BVSC, 138 Digbeth, Birmingham
This walk starts at the ‘old town’ and follows back streets lined with Victorian factories, and criss-crossed by railway viaducts, to an old burial ground. It then runs uphill to the new shopping centre and downhill past the parish church and outdoor markets.
(1)From BVSC turn left into Digbeth (busy road) and walk along to Allison Street, the first turning on the left. The Police Station on the corner, with a Baroque style turret, opened for duty in 1912 in an area notorious for drunks.
(2)Turn left into Allison Street. Some of the 19th century factories that lined these streets have been cleared and replaced by rather shabby car parks, but the 1870s Brolly Works, a brick building with pointed window arches and fine terracotta details, survives on the corner of Well Lane. The name of the lane is a reminder of the artesian well, Digbeth’s drinking water supply, which gushed here. Continue along Allison Street beneath the blue-black brick viaduct taking trains into Moor Street Station, and past a cast iron urinal.
Walk on past the Friends of the Earth offices (with jungle mural, and a good cafe upstairs) and past a busy cycle shop (with bike sign). At the end of the street turn left into Bordesley Street and cross it immediately into New Bartholemew Street (busy road, please take care).
(3)Follow New Bartholemew Street around a right hand bend, past the Birmingham Dogs Home and turn sharp left into Fazeley Street, under the first railway bridge. The open area to the right has been cleared to create a new Eastside park. Beyond it stands the huge Ionic portico of Curzon Street Station, built in 1838 (by Hardwick) as the terminus of the London Railway, and counterpart to the original Euston Station.
Turn left off Fazeley Street into Park Street Gardens (part of the extended churchyard of St Bartholomew’s, demolished 1943) and walk through it, past a cluster of old tombstones on the left, to the exit on Park Street. Turn left into Park Street, crossing it at the pedestrian crossing (busy road), and turn first right at the boarded up Fox and Grapes pub into Freeman Street.
(4)Walk along Freeman Street and bear left through the station car park. Exit the car park onto Moor Street and turn left to the pedestrian lights. Before crossing the road look at the recently renovated facade of Moor Street Station, which opened in 1909 as the terminus to the Stratford Railway. Cross Moor Street by the pedestrian lights and walk ahead up Carrs Lane, past Marks Spencers on the left, and the ornate premises of W Powell (gun and rifle makers here since 1860, until recently) on the right.
(5)Turn left into High Street and walk along to the busy concourse where all roads meet, and street performers gather. This is the beginning of the Bull Ring shopping area, a long established part of the city which has been much changed by railway building, wartime bombing and post-war redevelopments. The Brutalist architecture of the 1960s has fallen out of favour and only the cylindrical Rotunda (by J Roberts) survives. Tragedy occurred here in 1974 when IRA bombs planted in the street level pub, and in another nearby pub, killed 21 people.
The new Bull Ring, rebuilt and refocused in 2000-3, is planned around enclosed shopping malls, but has also reinstated the historic vista down to St Martin’s church. Notice the large bronze Bull, a great favourite with tourists and Brummies alike, and on the podium of the Rotunda a smaller white bull (to see it stand with your back to the Nationwide Building Society and look up above the Zara shop).
(6)Turn half left (not left) at the concourse, walk down the slope towards the church spire, and take in the broad view of Eastside from the balcony. The bronze statute here, the first and the smallest memorial in the country to Lord Nelson (1807 by Westmacott), was paid for by donations from working people.
Descend the steps (or use the slope to the right if you prefer) to the Parish Church of St Martin’s and look inside, if it’s open. Some original (C13) stonework survives at the base of the tower but much of the rest was rebuilt in Gothic Decorated style by Chatwin in 1875. In the north chapel there are C14 tombs with effigies of the de-Bermingham family, and in the south transept major stained glass work by Burne-Jones (1877).
(7) Leave the church by its main entrance, turn left and walk down to the pedestrianised market area on Edgbaston Street. To the right is a striking memorial of clasped hands (Tree of Life, by Lorenzo Quinn) remembering the 2,241 Birmingham citizens killed during the Blitz. Ahead is the renowned Bull Ring Market, with open stalls to the left and covered markets to the right; the market gained its charter in 1166 and was key to the town’s growth.
Turn left, and then bear right, skirting the market stalls, to the pedestrian crossing on Moat Lane (de-Bermingham’s moated manor house stood here). Cross Moat Lane and turn right into it, then turn left into a passageway between the buildings, just after a blue door. From the end of the passageway look across Digbeth, the main road, to see a row of unusual buildings (left to right: BVSC with strip windows, 1936; Makepeace’s second-hand clothes store with parapet sign, 1913; Cold Store with heavy arches, 1899). Turn right into Digbeth, cross it using the crossing by the Police Station (busy road, please take care) and turn left back along Digbeth to BVSC.
MH/ES 26/11/2010
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