by Stuart Weir
Cannon Park Hill, photo courtesy of Birmingham City Council
Selfridges, photo from Birmingham City Council
Cathedral Square, photo by Birmingham City Council
The City of Birmingham, England is one of my favorite places in the world. Birmingham, in case you did not know, has more canals than the city of Venice, Italy. The food is great and the city has great art and culture. Stuart Weir likes to provide an introduction of the cities than host the Diamond League meetings. Here is his intro to Birmingham!
Birmingham
So the Diamond League circus moves on and comes to rest in Birmingham. So let’s start with 10 things you might not know about Birmingham
1 The City of Birmingham has a population of just over 1 million but if you include the Birmingham Metropolitan area, there are 3.7million people.
2 46% of Birmingham people are under the age of 30.
3 People from Birmingham are affectionately known as ‘Brummies’.
4 Birmingham has six million trees and more than 8,000 acres of parks and open space. [OK, I read that I haven’t counted the trees].
5 You won’t go hungry. There are over 100 Balti – a type of curry – restaurants. (And RunBlogRun loves their curry houses).
6 For more than 250 years, Birmingham has been a center of jewellery design and manufacture.
7 There are 30 other Birminghams around the world and even a crater on the moon called Birmingham.
8 Birmingham is home to many past and present rock bands and musicians, including Ocean Colour Scene, Duran Duran, ELO, UB40, Black Sabbath and Laura Mvula.
9 If all the Creme Eggs made every year at the Cadbury’s chocolate factory in Bournville, Birmingham, were put in a line end to end, they would reach Australia!
10 Place names in Birmingham include California, Hollywood and Broadway.
Birmingham is a center of sport. Potentially it has three Premier League soccer teams Aston Villa, Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion. However, all three of them have slipped out of the Premier League [Each year the bottom three clubs are relegated and replaced by the top three in the league below] but will undoubtedly return soon.
Birmingham hosts international cricket matches and a top tennis tournament every year. It has hosted golf’s Ryder Cup, the All-England Badminton Open and the Gymnastics World Cup. As well as the Diamond League, Birmingham hosts the British Athletics Championships ever year and an indoor Grand Prix every second year. It hosted the 2018 World Indoor Championships.
Birmingham will host the 2022 multi-sport Commonwealth Games.
