When: Sunday 28th April 2013, 15:00 onwards Where: Adam And Eve, Bradford Street, Digbeth, B12 0JD
Free Entry
Hosted by the Bard of Brum, Brendan “Shopping Shopping Shopping” Higgins, the Sunday Xpress Open Mic is the ideal platform for the beginner, the seasoned professional, and the artist who wants to try something new.
The Sunday Xpress offers a strict freedom of speech policy. Anything goes. We’re spoken word friendly so welcome poets, storytellers, fiction and non-fiction writers. We showcase drama, one-person-shows, stand up comedy, even people talking about their artwork and interpretive dance!
The Sunday Xpress now has its own resident house band, The Asexuals, who play a mix of riot grrl classics, grunge covers and hair metal pleasures. Also appearing this month are two more bands amongst the chaos: Derrick D and the Backbones and The Supercilious Miss T.
Doors open at 3pm; the show starts when there’s enough people to get it going.
The University of Birmingham’s Chrysalis project is digitalising the vast quantity of historical photographs in possession by the institution’s various departments.
The photographic records act as reminders of what Birmingham looked like in the past, and help log the developments in the city by spotting the changes in pictures taken from the same vantage point at different points in history.
For example, these pictures taken in 1960 and 1968 respectively, show a major change in the city – the building of the iconic rotunda:
Photograph of Digbeth, Birmingham. The photograph was taken in mid 1960. Image copyright: University of Birmingham
Photograph of Digbeth, Birmingham. The photograph was taken in early 1968. Image copyright: University of Birmingham
As the birthplace of Birmingham, it’s not surprising that the project has accumulated plenty of images of Digbeth. The plaque that used to reside on Moat Row below states: “This tablet was erected in the year 1914 to indicate the site of the Moat House, the ancient seat of the Lords of Birmingham.”
Photograph of the "site of the Moat House" plaque, Manor House, Moat Row, by the entrance to the fish market. The photograph was taken in 1968. Image copyright: University of Birmingham
A selection of other images have been provided below, but to see the full archive for yourself, please click here.
Photograph of the site of manorial moat, with Moat Row to the left and Moat Lane to the right. The Drovers' Arms at the corner of Smithfield Street and Bradford Street can also be seen, as can Smithfield Market (built 1883, extended 1892 and 1903). The photograph was taken in 1968. Image copyright: University of Birmingham
Photograph of the Drovers' Arms in Bradford Street, near the meat market in Smithfield, built in 1895-7. The photograph was taken in early 1954. Image copyright: University of Birmingham
Photograph of Broadbent's corner, in Mill Lane, Digbeth. The photograph was taken in early 1954. Image copyright: University of Birmingham
Photograph of Deritend High Street in Digbeth, at the crossing with Rea Street. The site of St. John's, Deritend is the viewpoint. St. Martin's church can be seen. The photograph was taken in mid 1960. Image copyright: University of Birmingham
Photograph of the corner between Little Anne Street and Milk Street, in Central Birmingham. The photograph was taken in mid 1953. Image copyright: University of Birmingham
Photograph of the interior of B.K.L. Alloys Ltd., in Bradford Street, near the meat market. The photograph was taken in late 1968. Image copyright: University of Birmingham
Photograph of Bradford Street, Deritend. The estate was begun in 1767, while the end house; no.178 was probably built pre-1817. The photograph was taken in early 1954. Image copyright: University of Birmingham
Please see below for a communication from the St Patrick’s Festival organisers. If residents of Digbeth have not received this letter from the organisers in their postboxes, please email stpatricksbrimingham@gmail.com as soon as possible.
Dear Resident/Business Owner,
The Birmingham St Patrick’s Festival Parade is being held on Sunday 17th March 2013.
The Parade will start from Camp Hill at 12 noon. However, to ensure the safety of all concerned in the Parade, it is necessary to close some roads in the Digbeth area. The list of road closures can be found here (PDF file link).
Access to Digbeth will be restricted on Sunday 17th March from 06:00 to approximately 16:30. Certain roads in the area will be closed until 21:00, mainly those around Bradford Street.
All times for reopening roads are provisional, as roads will only be reopened when it is safe to do so.
If you are trading, or need access to your premises on Sunday 17th March, please contact the Festival Office as soon as possible, and no later than 8th March to enable us to process access passes:
Please note that access passes will only be issued to provide car access to private/off-street car parks. Passes do not entitle holders to park on a closed road.
Whilst we wish to keep disruption to a minimum, and allow you or your customers/users access to your premises, there may be times throughout the day when, for safety reasons, we have to restrict access completely. This is kept to a minimum and is usually when the Parade passes.
As well as being supporters of DRA, The Anchor is arguably best known for its fine selection of real ales, and nothing is changing in 2013! For more information about the festivals below, check out their Facebook page.
Thursday 24th – Tuesday 29th January 2013 Burns Beer Festival
To celebrate the famous Bard of Scotland haggis, neeps and tatties will be available to compliment Scottish Ales. Live music on Saturday 26th January with an acoustic set from Johnny Macs.
Thursday 14th – Monday 18th February 2013 Valentine’s Weekend
Hearty beers for (real ale) lovers
Tuesday 5th – Monday 11th March 2013 Church End Brewers Festival
30+ ales all from one microbrewery!
Thursday 14th – Tuesday 19th March 2013 St Patrick’s Festival Weekend
15+ imported Irish ales to celebrate the ‘craic’
Coffee & Cake Club present an all-acoustic gig at the Adam & Eve.
To get you in the festive spirit, there is not only free entry and free turkey curry, but all the artists involved will also be including a Christmas cover version in their set. The organisers “guarantee this will be the Christmasiest thing since Santa got drunk on Baileys and snogged Rudolph.”
The line up includes:
Barnesy
Tom Peel
Mike King
Neil Ward
Chloe Leone
Anna Palmer
Simon Gregory
Tom & Jimmy
Tom & Krishan
…and other acts that won’t be revealed until the night!
The party will be followed by a Christmas Disco Afterparty ’til late to get everyone in the seasonal mood! For more information, check out the Facebook event page.
The BUPA Great Birmingham Run takes places today. The event will see around 50 elite athletes taking part, along with a supporting case of 18,000 runners, so there’ll be more people than usual pounding the pavements of Digbeth!
The half-marathon sets off from Sand Pits Parade with an elite wheelchair race at 09:45. Before and during the race, a number of road closures will be implemented for the safety of the runners and the spectators lining the route.
For residents of Digbeth, the following roads will be affected:
Bradford Street
Barford Street
Moseley Street
Rea Street South
Macdonald Street
Any vehicles parked along the marathon route overnight will have been moved to an adjoining road, and may be subject to parking fines.
A residents’ hotline is available from 07:00 until 13:00 today. For any enquiries about road closures, parking arrangements or access, please call 0121 303 0067.
For more information about the Bupa Great Birmingham Run, please visit the website.
Birmingham City Council is organising the Bupa Great Birmingham Run, a half marathon, on Sunday 21st October 2012. Anyone aged 17 or over on race day can enter, and the event is expected to attract around 18,000 runners, along with elite wheelchair athletes who will compete in a separate race earlier in the day.
Before and during the race, a number of road closures will be implemented for the safety of the runners and the spectators expected to line the route. The full route is visible in the video below, but for residents of Digbeth, the following roads will be affected:
Bradford Street
Barford Street
Moseley Street
Rea Street South
Macdonald Street
Along with the road closures, any vehicles parked along the marathon route after midnight on Saturday 20th October will be removed to an adjoining road, and may be subject to parking fines. Therefore all residents and visitors to Digbeth are advised to avoid the afore-mentioned streets.
For more information about the Bupa Great Birmingham Run, please visit the website.
Graffiti has a bad reputation, fostered by ‘youths’ mindlessly vandalising cities with their tags. Digbeth, however, seems to attract a rather more discerning street artist, who do more ‘art’ than ‘graffiti’.
It’s an unwritten rule among all street artists to not paint over somebody else’s work, unless you have permission to do so. This is why some local authorities have begun commissioning full-wall murals in graffiti/vandalism hotspots to discourage anti-social behaviour. Aesthetically too, a well-painted mural can make a place looked cared for and discourage, in the case of empty buildings, arson and squatters.
Digbeth has a lot of empty buildings. As such, we also have a lot of hoardings. The first to be painted ‘properly’ were those on Digbeth High Street, which were turned into advertising space, closely followed by the hoardings opposite Digbeth Coach Station, with the now famous words “Welcome to Digbeth Bab“. The hoardings on Stone Yard were also painted by the same artist, Newso.
Although the “Welcome” mural was undertaken as part of a structured project, the other love-ins with graffiti artists along Bradford and Alcester Streets seem to have been organised by the artists themselves. The last month or so has seen the majority of the remaining hoardings around the doomed Connaught Square site on Bradford Street painted (with a brown background), along with the hoardings on Alcester Street which were painted two weekends ago.
Digbeth resident Lisa Zdravkovic has taken some fantastic pictures of both sites being painted (below).
Along with hoardings, sometimes buildings can be painted to great effect. Case in point: Suki10c. The new music/art/anything creative venue based in the former ‘other’ Spotted Dog on Meriden Street has received a dramatic makeover. I’ve recently come across some excellent photographs taken by Stuart Hyde on his Daily Photo Blog. One is included below, but if you’d like to see more, just click on the image.
But it’s not just the hoardings that are subjects for a coat of spray paint, there are other, more hidden, parts of Digbeth which are awash with art. Bert23 has explored some of these areas on his Don’t Believe the Hype blog; click here to visit and see more pictures of “dirty Digbeth”.
Nanny Marney’s Café on Bradford Street has recently started offering a “fully professional” ironing service for residents of Digbeth.
The very affordable service will turn your clothes around in 24 hours, and why not grab some scrummy snacks from Nanny Marney herself while you’re there?
For more information and a price list, please see the poster below, or simply pop into the Café in Bradford Court, just up from Rea Place. (Click the image for more address details.)
Thursday 24th – Tuesday 29th January 2013
