This is one of those cases where the
historic counties diverge from the current ones. Birmingham and
Coventry are now in the County of West Midlands but in the past they
were part of Warwickshire. The last time in Birmingham it was in a real
state, exhibiting everything that’s bad about 60’s architecture and
town planning. A lot of that still remains but the centre has been
massively improved. The Bull Ring is actually a nice place to be with the most impressive bit of retail architecture I have seen in this country in the Selfridges store.
Likewise, Coventry is improving rapidly in the centre with lots of new bars, restaurants and tourist attractions. The Coventry Transport Museum
uses the areas history as the British centre of car manufacturing to
form the basis of an interesting look back (and forwards) at all things
car related. The most bizarre section of the museum is dedicated to the
80s car, who ever would have thought that a Peugeot 309 or a Mini Metro would ever be considered design classics?
I have let the county trips slip for a bit recently, with work and
family matters taking precendence but hopefull over the next month I
will get things back on track. I’d better get a move on as it only 15
down with 24 to go!
