Birmingham, United kingdom

[Bella896123]

Anyone live in birmingham? Feels so full of crime and just generally an awful place to live compared to London and Manchester which are full of nice areas. AIBU?

I taught in secondary schools in Solihull for 20 years and 75 percent of the DC I taught were white.

and?

Do people who write responses like this not realise that they are hardly a good advertisement for the population of the place they are defending? Quite the opposite in fact.

I've lived in Brighton for 10 years and am now moving back home to Brum

One of the things that really boils my p*ss is the widespread acceptance of slagging off Birmingham.... i've had so many arguments in pubs!

Brum is such a great city. The food scene, theatre, dance, music, history.... It's the second city; it was the industrial heart of the country during both world wars, its the birthplace of heavy metal, produces almost half of all the UK's jewellery (one of only 8 centres of excellence in europe) and we do it all with everyone laughing at our accent. I wont stand for it anymore.

Justice for Brum, its an amazing city

Birmingham was the Birth place of Black Sabbath ( there is much debate whether this was truly the birth of HM). Birmingham used to be fantastic for all the reasons you state. Not any more. Manchester has long claimed de facto second city status.

I haven’t been for about seven years, used to really enjoy going shopping there. The last couple of times I remember there being loads of people with microphones and speakers shouting religious stuff very loudly in the city centre. It wasn’t nice, keep your religion to yourself, don’t force it on other’s

I never enjoyed driving in Bham but it’s no different to London and probably all big cities

I lived in Birmingham for 3 years and now own a rental flat there. We just visited last week, and I was honestly shocked. It looked scruffy, didn’t feel safe and we were approached by drugged up beggars at 3 sets of traffic lights. It really upset us.

Manchester City centre is much nicer than Birmingham.

Grew up just outside Birmingham, and it always felt super sketchy. Of course other big cities have their share of crime / antisocial behaviour, but in somewhere like London, this is compensated for by amazing architecture and culture. Birmingham feels like it got all the downsides of a big city without many of the upsides.

I lived in Birmingham for years and I’ve lived in Manchester for years. Manchester is marginally more interesting (to me), but I like the vibe in Birmingham. It has a mild feel even in areas that aren’t as lovely. I used to live around Cotteridge, Stirchley etc and never felt anything approaching unsafe - just a kind of mild anonymous vibe. Manchester feels a little more interesting your face.

I think you’d be hard pushed to find a single place in the UK, it probably the world, that doesn’t have its not so nice parts.

What an incredibly strange post

It's my closest city and I go to a lot of gigs, nights out there. Always had a nice time and felt safe.

Brighton is not as lovely as when I arrived in this area 15 years ago. Used to love going there, avoid it now. The Lanes certainly aren't as nice as they used to be

Born in Solihull so knew Brum well as a teenager/young adult. Saw Black Sabbath at the Odeon, Deep Purple at the Town Hall! Haven't been back for some time.

Sometimes in Brum, as in London and many cities, you need to stop and look up at the architecture. The Art Museum is a beautiful building. I used to work near Canal Street and that had it's own beauty there.

An often forgotten fact but there are more canals in Birmingham than Venice. Shame there isn't quite the same architecture but I believe a lot of the old factories/warehouses are being converted into apartments.

It annoys me as well the constant slagging off of Brum. It's always been like this though as long as I can remember, I've never understood why.

That would explain the recent ruling that they can no longer do that, it’s about noise levels and covers buskers too (which I thought was a shame). I’ve not been in the shopping centre eg New Street, Corporation street since before Covid, I’ve heard it’s not too nice now.

I agree with others though that there are plenty of nice suburbs in terms of places to live with their own high streets with shops and restaurants, and in terms of the city centre I would feel perfectly safe on a busy day or evening near Brindley Place or even down by the Hippodrome (although if going there I would probably only walk between the Hippodrome and nearby restaurants). I think the area around Snow Hill, banking quarter and Council house is OK too. In the day time anyway.

Solihull may be joined on to Birmingham now, but it's not part of Birmingham. When I grew up there were lots of people still living there who referred to Solihull as "the village" as that's what it used to be within living memory.

Do you mean the people begging at the lights when you are driving? They are often controlled by gangs. I just make sure the car doors are locked.

@Purplebunnie
I remember concerts at the Odeon in the early/mid 1980s. Not sure when they changed the venue to the multi screen, but I think by late 80s the larger live gigs moved to the NEC.

Most big cities are awful but that’s part and parcel of having a diverse population (I don’t refer to specifically ethnically diverse- just generally socio-economically diverse). I’m a Yorkshire girl… love Yorkshire but some of it is awful. Have lots of brummie family- again lots of no go areas but some parts are nice.

Thinking about it, I guess that Birmingham is a lot more grubby than normal at the moment as refuse collectors have been striking for the last 6 months.

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea

According to my stash of old ticket stubs the last time I can definitively say I saw at band at the Odeon was Wishbone Ash in February 1980. Most of the time the bit of the ticket stub you got back just said time and venue. Sabbath was December 1973. I left in '83 and didn't attend anything at the NEC

@VerinMathwin it was quant how we used to pop to the village. I can remember when there was a chemist in the High Street with wooden floors way before they built Mell Square and cars still used to be allowed to use the High Street. Having just had a quick google would be around where Cafe Nero, Interflora/Timpsons - that part of the town and side of the road

I haven't been back for about 7 or 8 years. It is just so busy now from the lovely little town/village it used to be

Every city has rough bits and nice bits. Visitors to a city rarely see the rough bits, because by definition they tend to be areas with little commerce or culture and are usually residential with high % social housing, which is normally occupied by people with their roots in that area... so not many visitors from out of town have a reason to visit the rough bits in most cities.
We live in the borough of Lewisham, which was slated by a PP as dangerous and prone to knife crime - that doesn't fit with my experience of the bit where we live - I walk home from the station late at night quite often and never felt unsafe, but I know that we could go a couple of miles down the road and it would be a different story, so I won't say they're wrong, they might live in a different bit and have a different route home.

@Purplebunnie
The gigs I saw would have been 83 / 84 ish .

Think this is very inflammatory post OP.

I assume you are a newcomer to Lewisham. Someone who would have preferred to live in Blackheath or Dulwich? Do you honestly, really think you’re likely to get stabbed ? I have lived in Lewisham all of my 64 years, feel completely safe and have never experienced violence of any kind, let alone a stabbing. And neither have any of my friends and family.

Attacks on white female strangers are very rare. In Lewisham, Birmingham or anywhere else. Just because a place doesn’t have a Gail’s bakery, it doesn’t automatically mean it’s the pits.

There’s nice parts but many parts are really filthy. No pride in surroundings. Even my nice area has increasing amounts of dog shit and litter. I think many people just don’t care anymore although this isn’t Birmingham specific. There’s also lots of anti social behaviour everywhere.

The city centre feels more run down and neglected than it did pre covid. Lots of empty shops. It still is nice by the canals but new street itself is grubby.

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSeaYes! And near Edgbaston too. It’s just the first time we have experienced that in Birmingham.