Route Developer: Mohini Howard/Sameena Parvaz
Starting from Town Hall entrance, Paradise Street.
[1] From the Town Hall cross Paradise Street at the traffic lights and turn right along the road (passing Athens Restaurant). At the end of the road, turn left around the corner into Suffolk Street and continue ahead, crossing Brunel Street.
[2] Continue down the ‘ramp’ or slope (parallel to Suffolk Street), then at a signpost for New Street / Chinese Quarter, turn left into Lower Severn Street. At the end of the street turn right onto to Hill Street, and shortly use the zebra crossing/dropped curb to cross to the left-hand side of the road, then continue in the same direction (passing the Pallasades). When you reach the junction at the end of the road, cross to the central traffic island using the zebra crossing, then cross another zebra crossing towards the Crown pub (on the corner of Hill Street /Station Street). Outside the Crown pub, turn left along Station Street towards the Old Rep.
(A) The Old Rep was built in 1913 and was home to the Birmingham Repertory Company led by Sir Barry Jackson. It was Britain’s first venue to be designed specifically as a repertory theatre. Notable landmarks in its history include Bernard Shaw’s premier of “Back to Methusalah” in 1923, the world’s first modern dress production of Shakespeare and the directing debut of Peter Brook in 1945. Some of Britain’s best known actors have performed in the theatre, including Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft and more recently Paul Schofield, Brian Cox, Julie Christie and Timothy Dalton.
[3] Continue along Station Street passing by the Electric Cinema.
(B) The Electric is a cinema and recording facility. It opened in Station Street in 1909, showing its first silent film on 27 December that year and is now the oldest working cinema in the country. It predates its namesake, the Electric Cinema in London’s Notting Hill by two months. Originally called the Electric Theatre, the cinema has undergone a number of changes since its opening, but returned as ‘The Electric’ in October 1993.
[4] Continue along Station Street, turning the corner at the end onto Dudley Street. Take the next right onto Hinckley Street, cross the road and take the first left along Theatre Approach. At the end, turn right (crossing Theatre Approach) and walk along Smallbrook Queensway, passing A1 stationers.
[5] At the first set of traffic lights, turn left to cross over Smallbrook Queensway into Hurst Street and continue along Hurst Street, passing Oceana Club; you are now in China Town.
(C) Birmingham's Chinese population is the result of a largely post-war migration. Prior to 1945 there were only a few dozen Chinese people in the city. The population then grew from just under 200 in 1951 to the 3,315 recorded in 1991 (data from successive Population Censuses). The main source of this growth was emigration from the former British colony of Hong Kong, in particular the rural New Territories areas. In line with the rest of Britain, in the three decades after the war, Birmingham became home initially to Chinese men, but thereafter their families, working largely in the Chinese catering trade.
The by now familiar Chinese restaurants and suburban takeaways provided migrants who often had little formal education and knowledge of English with a niche from where a viable familial presence could be established. An informal clustering of Chinese businesses, community organisations and social clubs emerged around the Hurst Street area of the city centre in the 1960s. By the 1980s this became officially recognised as Birmingham's "Chinese Quarter".
[6] Cross over to the right-hand side of Hurst Street and turn right after Hippodrome onto Inge Street, where the back to backs are housed:
(D) Go back in time and visit the last remaining court of back-to-back housing in the Midlands. This courtyard of back-to-backs has been carefully restored to reflect four different time periods. Visitors can explore the four houses on a guided tour, visit the 1930s sweet shop for a taste of nostalgia and browse through the interactive exhibition and learn more about the lives of the ordinary people who made Birmingham an extraordinary city. National Trust.
[7] Continue along Inge Street and at the end of the road (where you meet Essex Street), turn right to shortly reach Horsefair Street. Turn right along Horsefair Street and at the end of the road take the ramp down to the subway under the main road to bring you out onto Holloway Head, passing a Pagoda.
(E) The Chinese Quarter has a prominent landmark in the form of a seven storey granite pagoda surrounded by Chinese style gardens and sculpture. It was erected in 1998 and is situated on the outskirts of the Chinese Quarter in Holloway Circus also commonly referred to as 'Pagoda Island'. The Pagoda was donated by the Wing Yip Group - a Chinese owned business with links with Birmingham.
[8] On Holloway Head, continue up the slight incline, passing Bethel Eglws Church on the other side. Take the second right onto Blucher Street, walking up to Singers Hill Synagogue.
(F) The Birmingham Hebrew Congregation (Singers Hill) Synagogue is a Grade II listed building. Built in 1856, it was designed by Yeoville Thomason. It replaced the Greek Revival, 1827 Severn Street Synagogue which survives as a Masonic Hall and was the fourth synagogue building to be erected in the city. It features a Norma-wheel window, which combined neo-classical, romanesque and Italianate details.
[9] Continue to the end of road, turning right on to Severn Street, cross over passing along the Mailbox:
(G) Previously the location of canal wharves, the site was the location of the Royal Mail's main sorting office for Birmingham (hence its name), which was completed in 1970. It was designed by R. H. Ousman of the Ministry of Public Building and Works. When completed, it was the largest mechanized letters and parcels sorting office in the country with a floor area of 20 acres (81,000 m2) and the largest building in Birmingham. A tunnel was constructed between the site and New Street station for letters to be delivered directly to the office.
The building was converted by the Birmingham Development Company to include two hotels, office space retail space and a similar area for restaurants and a health club. Crosby Homes constructed apartments above the space. The redevelopment of the sorting office involved demolition of all but the steel sub-structure.. A public square the size of Chamberlain Square was created to the front of the Mailbox beneath Suffolk Street Queensway. It was paved with natural stone and as well as being a social area, it was also designed to allow the easy movement of visitors to, from and around the building. It cost £150 million overall and opened in December 2000.
[10] At the end, turn left onto Suffolk Street Queensway, continue ahead (alongside the entrance to Mailbox, on your left). Passing Alpha Tower, take a right into the underpass to Fletchers Walk and continue along, exiting at Paradise Circus. Cross over at the traffic lights and walk to the Town Hall.