Dear Friends, March 1
Lucia was still struggling with the remnants of her bout of ‘flu as the week started, but she had recovered enough by last Sunday to allow us to take a drive to Oxford. A few of Lucia’s colleagues live in Oxford and its surrounding areas and say that it is ideal for their jobs as it lies more-or-less half way between London and Warwick. For them, it’s a relatively quick train ride into London, or on the other hand, a fifty minute drive to Warwick. So, we wanted to see what Oxford looks like. We drove around for a bit taking in the neighbourhoods, and then took a stroll around the colleges and city centre (nothing too strenuous to put strain on Lucia’s recovery.) I could certainly live there so long as I didn’t have to do the commute. Although it is a way of life for many people, spending an hour or two on the road every day just getting to and from work isn’t my scene; never has been.
This is the first week that I haven’t visited the animals every day. They’re looking happy and healthy now and I’m sure they’ll survive without seeing me every day.
On Tuesday Lucia went to London on business and I went to Birmingham to stroll around. Birmingham is Britain’s second largest city with a population of something over one million people which stood at the heart of the industrial revolution. It’s not very far away from Warwick – the centre of Birmingham is just 22 miles from Warwick. The greater metropolis includes Solihull, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton and Walsall which probably add another one or two million people to the mix. Nearly all the descriptions of Birmingham will, at some point, include the words industrial and depressed. While that may well have been true two decades years ago, it rings a false note now. Much work has been put into rejuvenating the city centre over the past 15 years, and it looks stunning – well, at least all the bits they’ve attended to. Everywhere else is a construction site with smart new marble and glass clad buildings soaring into the sky, or a mass of scaffolding wrapping older buildings which are being given a new lease of life.
Given the various descriptions I had read, I was expecting an entirely new city that had been rebuilt from rubble after the War. But that clearly isn’t the case. Approaching the city it looks like a modern metropolis of skyscrapers, but walking the streets one finds that it still has a good stock of architecture running from before the industrial revolution through to the Victorian era. Most of the ugly concrete monoliths that rose after the War have been torn down, to be replaced with the modern genre of glass and marble. And the new buildings are not just square blocks; there is plenty that is different and daring that I think could still look fresh 50 years from now.
The most radical redevelopment has occurred around the canals which fed Birmingham’s industrial machine. This was the area that suffered most from German city planning in the early 1940’s. Only the canals and a few buildings from before the war are left and have formed the nucleus of the city’s redevelopment since 1990. I think it looks great. It’s a mixed use development with apartment and office blocks side by side. Yes, it’s all modern, but it has a warm look and feel with the canals as the central feature.
The most daring design in the central business district is undoubtedly the Bullring, a shopping mall of massive proportions. I never thought I would say that I think a shopping mall looks appealing, but this one does, both inside and out. The centre of Birmingham is built on a hill, and they’ve built the mall into the hill over several levels. From the outside – and depending on your vantage point – it looks like a space age stadium. What I didn’t like was the £8 (R120) parking fee for six hours parking.
I also came away with a small stack of concert, theatre and other cultural programmes and leaflets. Birmingham has a very active symphony orchestra and many more music ensembles.
That’s not to say that all of Birmingham is like that. I drove through some fairly grotty, depressed looking neighbourhoods on my way in and out. But there’s always a satellite dish stuck to the side of each house no matter how poor the neighbourhood may look.
The other thing that struck me was the mix of cultures. Birmingham has the highest concentration of non-European cultures in the UK, the vast majority of them coming from the Indian subcontinent. But there are plenty of Chinese, West Indians and Africans too. Most of them tend to wear traditional dress. The dominant religion is clearly Islam with most women walking around covered from head to toe, although most don’t wear a full face veil. I also saw a scattering of men dressed in the full gear of a Pashtun tribesmen (Pakistan/Afghanistan). This is also reflected in the type of shops available in the high streets of these neighbourhoods which seem to cater exclusively to the oriental market. When you do see a white face, you wonder what the hell they’re doing there.
On Friday, I went to Caerdydd (Cardiff, for all those non-Welsh people.) I took my computer’s AC adapter to the store to be replaced first thing in the morning, and then carried on driving instead of going home. I thought I would go and look for our nearest beach. I now know it’s a 250 mile (400km) round trip. My heart skipped a beat when I laid eyes on the sea as I crossed the Severn Bridge into Wales. I miss seeing the sea.
Cardiff was interesting. It’s a major industrial hub. The massive steel plants stick out the most as you drive through the industrial outskirts between Newport and Cardiff. But, like Birmingham, the city itself is getting a massive facelift. The old docks on Cardiff Bay are being transformed into smart new apartment and office blocks on a similar, if not bigger scale to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town. Once again, I thought it looked great. And the parking was cheap.
I had cheese and ham baguette and cappuccino for lunch in a coffee shop right on the bay, and then wound my way home on a different route that took me into the Welsh countryside and valleys. Not that I saw much though because it poured with rain most of the way.
I’ve got some more pictures up on the Picasa website. (http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/llewellynijones - look in both albums.)
That’s it for now.
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
