ABSTRACT
As a child my heart always lifted when I caught sight of Spaghetti Junction—it meant only ten more minutes to my Nan's house and the excitement of a city where things were made and the world was concrete, large and loud. My brother solemnly announced the appearance of ‘Fort Dunplop’ on the horizon as his first contribution to a repertoire of family jokes about the industrial Midlands that was home to both sides of my extended family. All very unlike the suburban order of the new town my parents had relocated to. This nostalgic love of the networks of roads that make up Birmingham's distinctive concrete modernism stays with me to this day, but I'm aware it's not a widely shared experience even amongst Brummies. As many of the essays in this collection attest, Birmingham is again giving itself a makeover, attempting to get out from under its concrete brutalism. We are seeing those Liam Kennedy calls the commercial imagineers project a sexy new Birmingham; a cosmopolitan centre, tolerant of its many communities with good shopping and spaces for people to walk. Birmingham is experiencing an unprecedented urban renaissance; the city of roads is racing to realize its potential as city of culture—city of learning—city of diversity. A Creative City, to use one of Birmingham City Council's many epithets, where the requirements of twenty-first-century creative life, from lattes to ‘authentic’ South Asian food, lively gay village, independent music and arts sectors and loft apartments are all making their presence felt on and in the (post) industrial cityscape of Birmingham (Lacan Florida 2002). 1
