ABSTRACT
The headlines in the local press at the time spelt it out: ‘Proud day for nation's most progressive city’ (Hastilow 1991), ‘Royal visitors set the seal on city's rebirth’ ( Birmingham Post 1991), ‘A symphony of new life for the city’ (Morley 1991) and ‘Jewel in our crown’ ( Evening Mail 1991). The summer of 1991 was a significant time in the history of Birmingham. The opening, by the Queen, of the International Convention Centre (ICC) in June 1991 was heralded within the city as the culmination of eight years of hard work by the City Council and other influential figures to turn the city's fortunes around. The event was almost universally heralded within Birmingham as marking the birth of a new Birmingham, a transformation from a prosaic, provincial, industrial city to a vibrant, cultured, futuristic, international metropolis. Although the primary motivation behind the development of the ICC was economic, the moment of the ICC s opening was felt as something cultural, almost emotional, a change in the ‘idea’ of Birmingham, its identity and its image. Birmingham felt like a confident city, a city on the up. It is probably fair to say that all of the considerable transformations of Birmingham's central landscape since 1991 have been predicated on the seismic shift in the idea of Birmingham that occurred around 1991 as the new Birmingham began to emerge.
