Birmingham is a city full of different cultures, religions and people. Having lived here my whole life the city never seizes to surprise me, I’m still trying to work out if that’s a good thing or not. However, growing up here comes with many cons, here are 10 things that are all too real when growing up in Birmingham:
Birmingham is home to the Balti Triangle which is where most of the restaurants are based, you are literally spoiled for choice when it comes to food. Cuisines ranging from Thai to Mexican, Indian to Lebanese, it’s all here and it makes it so hard to decide where to go.
Right outside the Bullring is a bull, the people who have grown up here always think “why on earth are people waiting to take a picture with it? I’ts just a bull”. You will never go past it without at least a group of foreign exchange students or children or families trying to take a picture with it, some even try getting on it.
I’m sure everyone who has ever grown up in Birmingham has been to Stratford Upon Avon at least 20 times in their life. My dad always insists on going every time the sun decides to come out, summer holidays, bank holidays and sometimes even weekends. Is it even summer for us Brummies if we don’t visit Stratford Upon Avon?
Everyone who lives in Birmingham knows that if you want to go out you have to leave the house an hour before, going anywhere in a car or public transport will take you 20 minutes just to go somewhere that is 3 miles away, and that’s on a quiet day. Going from Birmingham city center to Solihull town center can easily take you 2 hours on a bus, which brings me to my next point…
Nothing in Birmingham is walking distance, so that means having to get a bus or train. Trains are much quicker, it takes around 10-15 minutes from Birmingham city center to Solihull town center, the problem is the waiting times, you could be waiting up to half an hour for a train and even then it might not turn up. Like I said before traffic is a nightmare so buses take forever to go from A to B, these turn up late most of the time if at all.
Luckily, I don’t have a very strong Brummie accent but I still get teased for it when I visit people elsewhere. Studies into accents show the Brummie and Scouse accents are the most hated and have engraved stereotypes attached to them, which is very unfair to all of us who have grown up here.
Birmingham hosts the biggest German market outside of Germany, it’s great for a week or so but you get annoyed at it after a while. The main high street becomes overcrowded by drunk people and most of us who live here have given up even going to town a week before Christmas.
In a big city like Birmingham all it takes is the first three digits of your postcode for someone to judge you. For example, B11 is where a lot of Asians live so this itself has many connotations to it like crime and prestige, B11 is so well known that the BBC made the comedy show Citizen Khan based there which emphasised these stereotypes.
People who live in Birmingham and Solihull have an understanding that “Town” means Birmingham city center, “Touchwood” is Solihull town center and “The Village” is Acocks Green Village. Anyone who doesn’t live in these places would have no idea what those mean, we also have a few others like this.
Probably the most exciting thing that has ever happened in Birmingham is when bits of Lord Of The Rings was shot in Sarehole Mill, the teachers at school go on and on about it. This city is underrated, with all its cons it is still a great place to grow up and anyone who has grown up here will agree.
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