During part of my tour, I spent a few hours hanging around Birmingham International Railway Station, which forms an unholy architecture triangle with the NEC and the Airport. It was a dark afternoon near dusk, and it was raining. It was all irredeemably ugly.
Futility, Utility
Birmingham, your light is flat,
your buildings, terminal.
20 comments:
Lol, welcome home!
Hi Sorlil, thanks. Didn't miss the rain, but boy, I missed the family!
Birmingham rail station has to be amongst one of the drearyest places I have ever had to navigate...it's like wandering around the behind scenes area of the play of your worst nightmare!
I spent much of my youth in nearby Wolverhampton.
Your photos certainly capture something of the spirit of the area. I'm reminded of a fantastic book I used to keep looking at in shops but never bought: a collection of (supposedly)"boring" postcards ('Greetings from Newport Pagnell Services', and suchlike).
Good things do come from there. Who could forget "Dooooo the funky moped..." ?
Rachel, hi! I suspect you may be remembering Birmingham New Street, which does indeed qualify as the worst railway station in Britain.
I like the total nightmare of the lifts, which from certain platforms only take you down to the ninth circle of hell, which you then have to walk through in order to find a lift to take you back up to the delightfully titled "concourse level". Of course, "concourse level" is only a euphemism for the seventh circle of hell.
Your description, "like wandering around the behind scenes area of the play of your worst nightmare!" is perilously close to perfection.
Dominic: I'm not dissing Birmingham, which I really like as a city and have spent some time in. This "between the motorways" area is not truly Birmingham, although it steals the name for ease of recognition. Birmingham's got lovely buildings, galleries, restaurants, museums, canals and a jewellery quarter. And that cricket pitch.
Was "Funky Moped" Jasper Carrott? I've forgotten.
Futility, Utility
Birmingham, your light is flat,
your buildings, terminal.
Oh! That is a good poem.Groovy!
You're right, Titus, I am muddling my midlands mind, it was the other rail station...and yet...
Hi TFE, and many thanks!
Rachel: I like the "...and yet...".
Missed you.
x
Missed you too. Very glad to get home before the house is washed away, as God appears to have reneged on his "never again" flood promise this morning. Cars are currently being swept down the street. Sort of.
Great to have you back!
That all looks like scaffolding to me - I've never seen windows in scaffolding before though!
It's wild here and the river is roaring and the wind raging round the cottage. The remaining leaves are plastered on my windows. Och well, back to normal then!
Hi Wigeon, good to be back. Especially after overdosing on Premier Inns and Express by Holiday Inns.
Yep, methinks the Whitesands will be submerged by this afternoon.
Birmingham has an airport?
I have been in the US so long England amazes me.
Was last in Birmingham train station in 1969!
Ah now, that's very interesting Elizabeth. Was the infamous Birmingham New Street built then, or was that before the development of the Bull Ring? I shall research ...
You were at the current one, which was finished and opened in 1967. The fact that they sold the "air rights" tells you much about the subterranean feel of the whole place.
Yeah, you're back!
Wow, the lengths folks will go to build something "Modern"...which is synonymous with UGLY. :)
Jasper Carrott? Certainly was, in his pre-game show glory days.
hope: oh so true, and why? Why?!
Dominic: Ah, they were the good old days. The mole story ... I nearly fell off the sofa.
Ugly, ugly indeed... Le Corbusier, much as you made delightful dreams, your followers made repulsive hells.
PS I like the dragon at the top... I've been in a non-visiting mood for about a month. :os
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