Post by cleefarqhuar on Oct 11, 2014 7:55:25 GMT
This series is quite fascinating, as a social document of the '20's as well as a fascinating drama
Birmingham is portrayed as a dark dirty industrial hell -hole where ghastly dingy back-to-back terraces are occupied by an underclass, ignored and despised by the corrupt establishment of industrial millionaires and politicians and the middle classes of Edgbaston and Solihull. The grandeur of the city created by Chamberlain and his ilk contrasted starkly with the black ugliness of its 'inner city' ring
Birmingham was a sewer capped with a jewelled carapace
Compare that with today.
The industry has largely disappeared of course and there are still quite large wastelands once the sites of those industries. Some of te grand buildings survived the WW2 bombings and it is still possible to get a sense of just what a lovely city Chamberlain created, especially in the area around Victoria Square. There are modern buildings of course, the ghastly glass and concrete monstrosities of the Fifties and that awful round tower block in the Bull Ring.But overall the centre of Birmingham is quite a pleasant place to visit - in particular Victoria Square compares favourably with many Italian cities and the new library that has replaced the old concrete carbuncle is very interesting architecturally
But outside the centre Birmingahm (like most English cities in my experience) is still the corrupt depository of the despised and disposessed. Except that in 'Pinky Blinders' they were English or Irish, now they are mainly Asian. To travel on a bus in Birmingham is a truly disorienting mulitcultural experience with people shouting into their mobile phones in a kaleidoscope of languages from Africa , Asia, and Eastern Europe
Birmingam has ceased effectively to be an English city. like London its indigenous population is now approaching a minority
Isn't it odd that we have successively voted in referendums to replace our English population with an foreigners?
Birmingham is portrayed as a dark dirty industrial hell -hole where ghastly dingy back-to-back terraces are occupied by an underclass, ignored and despised by the corrupt establishment of industrial millionaires and politicians and the middle classes of Edgbaston and Solihull. The grandeur of the city created by Chamberlain and his ilk contrasted starkly with the black ugliness of its 'inner city' ring
Birmingham was a sewer capped with a jewelled carapace
Compare that with today.
The industry has largely disappeared of course and there are still quite large wastelands once the sites of those industries. Some of te grand buildings survived the WW2 bombings and it is still possible to get a sense of just what a lovely city Chamberlain created, especially in the area around Victoria Square. There are modern buildings of course, the ghastly glass and concrete monstrosities of the Fifties and that awful round tower block in the Bull Ring.But overall the centre of Birmingham is quite a pleasant place to visit - in particular Victoria Square compares favourably with many Italian cities and the new library that has replaced the old concrete carbuncle is very interesting architecturally
But outside the centre Birmingahm (like most English cities in my experience) is still the corrupt depository of the despised and disposessed. Except that in 'Pinky Blinders' they were English or Irish, now they are mainly Asian. To travel on a bus in Birmingham is a truly disorienting mulitcultural experience with people shouting into their mobile phones in a kaleidoscope of languages from Africa , Asia, and Eastern Europe
Birmingam has ceased effectively to be an English city. like London its indigenous population is now approaching a minority
Isn't it odd that we have successively voted in referendums to replace our English population with an foreigners?