BIRMINGHAM

On the way south towards Stratford-on-Avon, we decided to break our journey and we stayed overnight in Birmingham.

There's nothing too much to report about Birmingham except that I felt I had to share these remarkable pieces of architecture.

These two are of the Travelodge at Fort Dunlop, an area in Birmingham so named as it once hosted the head office and factory of Dunlop Rubber in the UK. (The older style building attached to the Travelodge). Apparently, way back in the 1920's it employed over 10,000 people. It has stood empty for nearly 20 years prior to being revitalised in 2007, and is now an offices/shops complex, with the Travelodge (with porthole windows in each room) stuck on the end.

These following pictures are of the Selfridge store (a famous UK department store in Oxford Street, London) in Birmingham, at the 'Bullring' shopping centre. This store was built in 1999, and apparently has won several major awards.

I really don't know what to say except that it's little wonder Prince Charles is so worried about the future of British architecture - and we know he can recognise great beauty.

Well, I promised a pic of the Renault complete with its roof box and here it is:

Hmmmm.......not much else to pad this blog entry out with, so I guess it's on to Stratford.....