Transport World

Ever since the confident Victorian age, Birmingham has been known as England’s second city -- at the heart of the country and of England’s transport network. It’s in the middle of the motorway system, its railway station has more direct connections than any other UK city, and its airport has links with 50 cities in Europe. Now, it’s the centre of a transformation, too.

Birmingham has been given a thorough makeover, its urban landscape overhauled with the help of award-winning architects: “a butterfly emerging from a concrete chrysalis”. Where once this city was full of throughways and cars, it is now a place of pleasant open spaces with people walking and lingering. Visitors have commented on a ‘new European’ spirit, observing that its public spaces and grand buildings are among Britain’s best.

Some of these grand, but redundant, buildings have been turned to new uses: one hotel is in the shell of an old hospital; the former postal sorting office became The Mailbox, attracting up-market shops like Harvey Nichols, DKNY, Ralph Lauren and Armani. A new ‘shopping trail’ will include these newcomers and those in the historic Great Western Arcade. When the new Bullring, replacing its dreary 1960s predecessor, opens in early September 2003, it will be the biggest retail outlet in Europe, with open walkways and covered malls containing more than 100 shops, cafes and restaurants, dominated by the iconic Selfridges department store with its facade of reflective aluminium discs – its innovative design chosen for the Venice Biennale.

Birmingham has a long history of invention and integration: it is still a crucible, still a manufacturing city, but one that has recreated itself as an attractive place to live and to visit: a wide range of central hotels range from the Marriott to the Thistle. Birmingham, astonishingly, has more canals than Venice, and is now capitalising on them, with canal trips, guided walks and trail leaflets. Gas Street Basin – in the heart of the city -- is crowded with brightly coloured narrowboats, and Brindleyplace, named for the 18th century engineer who placed Birmingham at the hub of the canal system, is at the hub of this now-elegant area which has become a bit of a showpiece for architects, and a magnet for restaurants. Top restaurateurs Raymond Blanc and Terence Conran are in town: Le Petit Blanc in Brindleyplace, Conran’s Zinc Bar and Grill on Regency Wharf.

Birmingham also has pride in its old buildings, providing new settings to show them off to advantage. In newly-modelled Victoria Square, the Italianate Council House - gold-tipped cupola, lions, glinting doortop mosaic depicting Industry and Municipality - represents a golden era of local government. Now at the top of a cascade is the reclining lady, known as “the floozie in the jacuzzi”, who quite puts the statue of Queen Victoria in the shade.

Here, close to the biggest library in Europe, with its Shakespeare centre (Stratford-upon-Avon, the heart of Shakespeare Country, is an easy day-trip), the Museum and Art Gallery is solidly Victorian, with mosaic floors, arches and glass roofs supported by a delicate tracery of wrought iron. Exhibits include Old Masters and an unsurpassed collection of pre-Raphaelites. For contemporary art, the showcase is the Ikon Gallery, a stylishly converted former school in Oozells Street. And the Barber Institute, on the University campus in Edgbaston, is regarded as one of the finest small picture galleries in the world: small but star-studded, with Old Masters and French Impressionists.

As well as art, Birmingham has its own symphony orchestra, ballet company and theatre. The Symphony Hall has been described as Britain’s best concert hall. Night-clubs, bars and pubs abound. Cultural-package weekends include the major exhibition “Turner’s Britain” (in the Gas Hall, November to February) and Arts Fest - with its half-hour tasters of jazz, ballet, opera (September 14-15).

Other places to visit are Sarehole Mill, an 18th century water mill where author J.R.R. Tolkein played in his childhood and which provided inspiration for “The Hobbit”; and Bournville, the model village for workers at Cadbury, the chocolate manufacturers and now the home of Cadbury World, an essential attraction for anyone dedicated to chocolate.

Another excuse for a weekend is the National Exhibition Centre, just a stop down the railway line, and the new Indoor Arena, which between them host a variety of big events such as Horse of the Year Show, Crufts, the national dog show and the Clothes Show. Other excuses include Premiership Weekends - a city break, along with a football match, at one of the two Premiership teams, City and Aston Villa; the National Sea Life Centre, designed by Norman Foster; and Millennium Point, home of Thinktank, a fascinating, entertaining attraction devoted to the city's manufacturing past.

A few minutes from the centre is the Jewellery Quarter, a cluster of narrow streets and cramped workshops where trade carries on much as it always has. It is Europe’s largest working jewellery quarter, with the world’s largest private mint, its own assay office - and a museum, based in the old workshop of Smith & Pepper, makers of gold bracelets. One Friday in 1981, Mr Eric, 81, Miss Olive, 78, and Mr Tom, 74, who had no heirs and could find no purchaser, ushered out their 30 employees and locked the door behind them as if for the weekend. All was left untouched for nine years, a time capsule. But the industry thrives: in November will be a jewellery festival, Brilliantly Birmingham. Just one example of the many hidden corners of this fascinating city.