WordCamp UK 2008 Blog

I run a website called Birmingham:It’s Not Sh*t, and since WordCampers may be making their first visit to our wonderful city I’m going to try to point you in the direction of some good (cheap or free) things to do, places to go and er, things to see.

First batch is shamelessly copied and pasted from a couple of articles I wrote some time ago for The Guardian (so if you’ve read it before you’ll know why). I’ll do some more stuff over the next week or so, so if there are any Brum-related questions, fire away in the comments:

Rush Hour Blues: Free Commuter Jazz
Symphony Hall, Friday evenings
Don’t worry, it’s not free jazz as in a wizened old saxophonist honking and squeaking with a split reed until your eardrums bleed. In fact the definition of jazz as it relates to these smashing gigs is pretty loose, as is everything about the experience, there’s none of the snobbery normally associated with jazz. Just trot up to the Symphony Hall bar after work on a Friday and you’ll get some of the finest chill-out sounds around.

Cannon Hill Park - including the MAC and Nature Centre
Pershore Road
A vast expanse of greenery near to the centre of town, it has all the usual park features, boating lake, dilapidated putting green, but it’s also home to the Midland Arts Centre (huge variety of exhibitions, films and performances) and the wonderful, otterific Nature Centre. Where else can you see hundreds of furry creatures for under two quid?

Ikon Gallery
Brindleyplace
Simon Patterson, of Great Bear fame, and Olafur Eliasson are just a couple of the artists to have had shows at Birmingham’s premier modern art gallery. With a nice policy of mixing up the bigger names with some artists with local connections, there should always be something to scratch a conceptual itch on display. Also has a nice café.

The Back to Backs
Hurst Street
Birmingham has a lovely knack of opening any old shite to the public, there’s a wonderful variety of privately as well as publicly-owned museums. Right in the city centre there’s the lovingly restored court of early C19 back-to-back housing, which is now run by the National Trust. Also worth a visit are Soho House - once Mathew Boulton’s home and meeting place for the Birmingham Lunar Society (members included James Watt, Erasmus Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood and Joseph Priestly) and Sarehole Mill which, despite it’s over-played Tolkien associations, is a interesting working flour mill.

Rag Market
Its disparaging name, which harkens back to its roots as a cloth market, disguises one of the most varied shopping experiences in Britain. There are still fabric bargains to be had, but there is a variety of bric-a-brac and recent antiques that would shame many of London’s more famous marketplaces. There are also approaching-their-sell-by-date toiletries.

Mr Egg
22 Hurst St
If you’re hungover, or drunk, Mr Egg - Brum’s most famous takeaway/ greasy spoon, opposite the Hippodrome theatre - offers egg-based dishes and promises you can “eat like a queen for £3″. It used to be “eat like a king” but Mr Egg now finds itself in Brum’s official gay quarter.

Al Frash
186 Ladypool Rd
If you simply must have a balti, the Al Frash is Brum’s finest. Yes, you can order a naan bread the size of a dinner table, but the food is actually really good. Take your own drink.

Disorder
Needless Alley
A quirky clothes shop on the fabulously named Needless Alley, with handmade gear by a Brum-based designer. Not too pricey, but some top stuff.

Where to stay

I’ve never stayed in a hotel in Birmingham, but if I did I’d stay at the Old Crown, in Digbeth, which is Birmingham’s oldest pub dating to the 1400s and claims Queen Elizabeth I and Dick Turpin as past guests. You won’t need the wallet of a Tudor monarch to stop there though; a room can be had for £35.

Also had good reports of Birmingham Backpackers at The Merry Maid pub, 263 Moseley Rd, Moseley. £15 a night. birminghambackpackers.com, 0121-440 6126. NOTE: This is around 3-4 miles away from the city centre. Moseley has grown up over the last few years from being very ’studenty’ area to having a nice selection of pubs and restaurants.