I just went back as my son had an open day at the uni. He was born there, but we left ten years ago. The city was already being done up a decade since, but the Bull Ring and down by St Martin's is unrecognisable, now, even from ten years ago. Loved it. I hope to go back many times if he gets in (he has a lower offer from another uni, so he probably won't end up back in his home town!)
Museum just as we remembered it. And now everything pedestrianised - maybe twenty years after the cities in the North of England were, but still - it's lovely to walk down New St, now. Would be very interested to see old photos.
I have a slight link to Bham. We lived in a small row of houses that had a certain name - the smallest area in Bham. On the end house. Was our first home when we got married and we loved it a lot, an old Victorian terrace. Recently we broke down the biggest brick wall in my family tree and found my great grandad had grown up in Yorkshire with a stepfather. His stepdad, as a child (1850s)... lived in the end house of the same terrace where we lived for a decade. Same house! What are the odds of that in a city of a couple of million!
Chris, we lived in Kings Heath just before we left Bham. Just off the High St. Went back to look at all our old houses - two in KH. Felt quite nostalgic although we wre glad to get out of Bham at the time, now I have gone back, I realise how much we loved it, too.
that's the one! Our paths have crossed!