To dislike Birmingham?

[redeoof]

I’ve worked in the city maybe 4 years now .. there really isn’t much appealing about it. I once overheard a woman on the train say she does guided tours for Manc, London and Birmingham - and Bham is a hard sell.

I’ve been coming into New Street station for years and there’s always been construction and it’s never seemed to progressed to anything.

I walk down New Street and actually feel unsafe. It’s depressing and dreary .. and it should be so much more

I've been there a lot for work and had some good times there but it feels a bit edgy for me. Always people wandering about on drugs talking to themselves, very high levels of obvious poverty.

The city centre is quite nice and I don’t mind going there but some areas outside the city centre are truly grim.

Similar in some parts of London and just about every other large city in the UK.

I’m American and I actually like Birmingham, so Birmingham being held up as some terrifying urban hellscape is killing me. I think London is mostly a dump unless we’re talking about the West End, but Birmingham? Where are you even from that Birmingham is the scary city?

I always felt like it was somewhere I passed through but never actually went to… I have a friend who moved there; to a posh suburban area. She likes it, been there 20 years.

😂😂

That’s some bad misinformation.

Based on police-recorded crimes per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to August 2026, Birmingham isn’t even on the list.

Source, if you need it https://policestatistics.co.uk/rankings/highest-crime-districts

Exactly. I don't know why some people throw shade on Birmingham ... It always gets a slating, (moreso than most other cities,) and so do the people, and their accent. Why are some people so angry and scathing about Birmingham? No-one is asking them to live there, or even visit the place!

I don't even live there by the way, I live 50 miles away, I just feel a bit sorry for the people there, as Birmingham is slated and berated so much!

.

This! I think New Street could win an award for worst station design in the UK, if not the world.

I’m from Birmingham. I agree some areas are complete dumps, like alot of suburbs around a big city. The city centre isn’t that bad, try having a walk around sparkhill bab. Also what’s with the accent bashing and slagging the people off ?!

I lived there for a while and loathed it. If you walked in the centre of town everyone seemed to be depressed and very pale - as though they rarely left the house. Everything was ugly. There were always roadworks going on. There was a motorway running through the middle of the city, with scary subways underneath it. I witnessed various acts of mindless violence on the street - for instance a man going into a phone kiosk, just for the fun of ripping the phone out. Once a man walked up to me and whispered in my ear that he was going to kill me. It was a grim place.

Why are you laughing? I hate going. I much prefer central London (even though London is not perfect as has it's issues as well).

Oooh spotted the racist

I stayed in a hotel in London recently. There was a man standing outside tube station next to my hotel completely off his head at 8am. He was still in the exact same spot at 6pm. It’s not a Birmingham problem.

I was actually there last weekend for a conference for work and it was the first time I'd been since 2009! I thought New St station was 100 times better than the last time I was there. Shopping/restaurant/bar scene was great and all the people I came into contact with were friendly and polite. I walked down New St alone at 9pm Friday night in the dark- it was packed so I felt safe. There were big groups of teenagers gathered around the street but they weren't doing anything wrong, just being teenagers socialising with each other 🤷‍♀️. Honestly I think a lot of it is racism when people go on about feeling unsafe in big city centres. It feels more safe to me to be walking around a big city centre at 9pm when theres people everywhere compared to walking around where I live in the suburbs of a big northern town where there would be far fewer people around.

It is true that there have been stabbings in the city centre, a quite high profile attack on a young woman last year. And a friend of my son’s was randomly attacked by a passer by in the area near the canals (normally safe area close to bars) a few years back.

However, I would think that these kind of incidents could be found in most areas of the UK, in cities at least.

Because I was imaging some snooty mumsnetter being all dramatic

👀

I visit the Jewellery Quarter reasonably frequently for my work. I don't do much other than get the train in, head to the JQ, do my business, then train out again. The other bits I've seen - the canal area, the library, and a few other things have seemed pretty nice.

The one thing that I've noticed is that there's hardly anywhere to sit outside. I've sometimes picked up food or a coffee and want to sit outside waiting for my train or something, but there's nowhere to actually sit! There seems to be no public benches or seating anywhere - never seen that in a major city before!

I'm POC myself and I agree. But many of MN will say that you're not allowed to say this and that Brum feels "perfectly British"

I hate it too.

Has anyone else noticed the groups of middle aged men that hang out in The Bullring Centre but don't ever actually buy anything? Pay attention next time you go and you'll see it clearly. Very odd indeed.

In other things that never happened 🤣🤣🤣

I agree there were loads of addicts hanging around but that is every big town/city centre now, absolutely in no way specific to Birmingham.