Julie and Val getting to grips with DiG

I was pleasantly surprised to get interest from several local people in contributing to Digbeth is Good after my post announcing Changes in Team DiG on 16th December. So yesterday I held a little social media surgery in my flat and got Michael the Shopkeeper, Val Woodward (Digbeth Residents Association Chair), Dr Julie Brown (University of Birmingham’s Centre for Urban & Regional Studies) and local resident John Gordon logged onto the website as contributors and practising publishing posts. If you happened to notice a couple of strange, sheep-themed posts that went momentarily live yesterday, you now know why!

It was a fun afternoon, getting the group familiar with the website’s dashboard over tea and some beautiful Christmas cupcakes baked by John. Michael the Shopkeeper’s first post on Nisa Local Shop Opening hours over Christmas/New Year has stayed up as it’s something a lot of local residents will want to know! I can’t wait to see what the new contributors will use this website for in 2012.

If you’d like to join them in contributing to Digbeth is Good, either regularly or just for a one-off post, let us know either by commenting or emailing digbethisgood@gmail.com.

Me (left) and Pamela (right) in Digbeth

As some of you may be aware, Carl and I are moving to Cardiff this month. But rest assured service will proceed as normal here on Digbeth is Good. This website will continue to stay in the very safe hands of Pamela, secretary of Digbeth Residents’ Association, who’s been blogging on here more than me of late. Midge will still be posting his music-related updates and I’ll chip in from afar when I can.

But that’s not to say that Pamela couldn’t use more support in keeping Digbeth enthusiasts in the know. So if you’d like to contribute to Digbeth is Good, either regularly or just for a one-off post, let us know either by commenting or emailing us on digbethisgood@gmail.com. It would be great to hear from you.

That means tomorrow is Breakfast Club with Richard Trengrouse from 7.30am in Eastside Cafe. Join us for great food, good coffee and stimulating conversation!

Nicky will not be there, she is in Cairo (well returning from) but I Carl shall be there.

I hope you like the new place. Find your way around with the navigation bar at the top of the page, some of which are drop-down menus.  This includes the website’s categories, which used to be a side-bar menu.

This change in look also coincides nicely with a change in direction for the site, which isn’t a change at all really, just a continuation of where it’s headed anyway…

When I first started on Digbeth is Good back in June 2008 it was pretty much just me (with a lot of help from Pete) talking about what I came across whilst living, working and playing in Digbeth.  Since then the community have joined in and started using it for themselves, which is great – Digbeth is way too big and eventful for one person to cover the lot!   Midge, Carl, Birmingham Irish Heritage Group and more recently Digbeth Residents’ Association Secretary Pamela have joined the site as contributors to talk about their own pockets and perceptions of Digbeth.

If you’d like to join them and publish your Digbeth-related words, images, films, sounds or thoughts on here, either for a one-off guest post or as a regular contributor, please get in touch by emailing me at nickygetgood@gmail.com and we’ll arrange something. Obviously, this website isn’t the slightest bit commercial, so this isn’t an opportunity for free advertising, but if you’ve something interesting and insightful to say about the area and you’d like to see it on here, it would be great to hear from you. If you feel you might not have the technical skills, teaching you how is something I’d be more than happy to help with.

In the meantime there are already few new contributors lined up who will be popping up on here in the near future, who are:

• The Newswaves team, who will be carrying forward last year’s investigation into the derelict houses Moseley Road (in which two squatters died in a fire) as well as covering local events both large and small.
• Aimee and Nav, who are both second year Online Journalism students at Birmingham City University looking to get a bit of experience. Aimee will spend the coming months concentrating on local music gigs and clubnights at venues such as The Rainbow and the HMV Institute, whilst Nav will be delving deep under the skin of Digbeth, featuring key local people who have helped to make this area great.

Please  make them feel at home with a cheery hello in the comments box and do get in touch if you’re keen to see your own work on here.

Sleep well hairy dude
Midge

via Bradford Street, Birchall Street, Cheapside and Lombard Street | Prop. | – SkyscraperCity.

A user at SkyscraperCity forums has found this planning proposal for Bradford Street

View Larger Map

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2011/00738/PA

Former Harrison Drape & St Annes Bounded by Bradford Street, Birchall Street, Cheapside and Lombard land adjacent St Anne’s Church Digbeth Birmingham

Application for outline consent to determine layout, access and scale for a mixed use development comprising 3* and 4* hotels, a conference centre, retail and office accommodation and associated multi storey car park with all matters reserved.
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The application is for outline planning permission for the principle of mixed use development, with details of siting, access and scale presented at this stage, but with landscape and general elevation matters reserved for determination and approval at a later date.

It should be noted, however, that the façade of the Harrison Drape building is proposed for retention, given its prominence and its positive contribution to the surrounding street scene.

With respect to the Harrison Drape site, the proposal incorporates:

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A 3* star hotel with 204 bedrooms, lounge bar, dining facilities and associated ancillary support spaces.

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A 4* star hotel with 276 bedrooms, restaurant, fine dining area, lounge bar and associated ancillary support space.

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A conference centre with a main auditorium for approximately 1000 people and 29 smaller conference, meeting rooms, a bar/café area, administration support and storage areas.

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In addition, a number of breakout and meeting areas are proposed, providing for a number of balcony/garden areas.

The St Anne’s site proposals comprise of:

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4 retail units totalling 3100 sq.m. which front onto Lombard Street and
Cheapside;

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2103 sq.m. of space which is spread out over three storeys, facing onto Bradford Street and part of Lombard Street;

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In addition, there will be a car park spread over 5 storeys of the site, which will provide for a total of 513 spaces. An entrance and exit point to the car park is made onto Cheapside.

Furthermore, in between the retail unit facing on Bradford Street and St Anne’s Church, a courtyard feature is proposed.

The Big Bull's Head by Steven Roy Brown

You may remember that one of my new year’s resolutions was to spend a leisurely afternoon in a different Digbeth pub each month and write about it here on Digbeth is Good.  This January I decided to treat myself to the perfect winter warmer – a meal in The Big Bull’s Head.

Dinner is served

The Big Bull’s Head, a traditional Irish pub and bed and breakfast, stands on the corner of Bradford Street and Milk Street opposite the advert for Melox Marvel’s Dog Food. I would have taken a photo of its exterior but the above painting by artist Steven Roy Brown, which hangs on its lounge wall, does the job much better.

The Smoking Room window

The Big Bull’s Head is not really a pub for real ale connoisseurs, as the bar has just Ansells Dark Mild and the usual small selection of lagers, bitters, ciders, wines and spirits. But it is the place to go for a warm welcome, a good game of pool and an incredibly hearty meal. It has two rooms – a large front bar where the drinkers tend hang out and chat or play pool and a cosy back lounge for the hardcore diners. There’s also a nicely decked-out back yard for the smokers, where there is a bar but the service here is a bit slow.

Slow service in the back yard's bar

We headed to the back lounge to look at their selection of meals – a lot of traditional Irish fare (Irish stew, beef and Guinness pie, etc.), a three course Sunday dinner for those really wanting to make a meal of it and their Pièce de résistance - The He Man’s Grill. The He Man’s Grill consists of ‘Lamb Chop, Pork Chop, Rump Steak, 2 Sausages, 2 rashers of Bacon, Fried Onions, Egg, Chips & Beans’ on a large silver platter.

Specials Board in The Big Bull's Head

I first came across this years ago when I watched a bouncer from The Dubliner, who had been up all night and was after a big breakfast, devour one in mere minutes. It took us a little while longer (about half an hour according to my Twitter), after which we fell into a food-induced lull, gazing at the old black and white photos of Ireland that decorate the lounge’s walls whilst our bodies concentrated on the mammoth task of digesting. There are smaller meals available on the menu suitable for children (who are welcome) and people who want to be capable of conversation after eating.

A He Man's Grill getting ketchuped

The front bar is a slightly livelier affair than the lounge with a good crowd of regulars who make strangers feel more than welcome. But be sure to take your sense of humour with you as they seem fond of a bit of banter and practical joking – being incredibly gullible, I well and truly fell for one guy’s fake Irish Lottery ticket that told me he’d won £6 million. Also watch out for Birmingham’s best peddlar Mr Ralph whilst you’re in there – The Big Bull’s Head seems to be one of his regular haunts and I saw him entertaining the crowd with a song once.

Framed 1938 photograph in The Big Bull's Head

If Mr Ralph isn’t around to provide the music try the Emerald Ice jukebox, which has a good selection of traditional Irish, country and western and pop music. When we walked in Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man was on at full volume.

Children are welcome!

So that was the January pub of the month – which one should I visit for February? Comment if there’s a particular one you’d like to me to go to, otherwise I’ll just choose one on a whim.

At the Old Wharf Saturday is the first of this years Punks Alive alldayers, headliners are The Varukers with support from various including Mangled, Bite Back, Freakshow, I’m a Mess and personal flavour of the Month The Ramonas (an all female Ramones tribute act, geddit?)

£8:00 entry, first band starts at 12:15 (at least that’s the plan) and headliners take to the pallets (sorry, stage) at ‘around’ 11:15 pm

On Sunday, a quick change  into the Sta Press and you’re ready for Scooterist Sunday at  The Adam & Eve, tunes from DJ Richy Taylor, (Soul (Northern & regular), Ska, Jazz, Funk, BritPop) and live music  supplied by The Sound.

2 pm till 7 pm, free entry (there’s another two similar events on the books to be held fortnightly)

So if your liking is for  Leather or Lambrettas Digbeth’s got you covered this weekend.

Midge x

Graven Images, who moved into the old Cocoon shop unit from their old premises just three doors up the road in October 2010, seem to be settling into their new home well.  I popped in there on Saturday and commented on how much more inviting the new place seems compared the old one and they agreed, saying they’d definitely seen a change for the better in custom since the move.  Above are a few photos I took in their very nicely decorated front reception area.

At the last Digbeth & Highgate Residents’ Association Dr Julie Brown, a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Urban & Regional Studies, came along to present the above three questions, which we will hopefully have time to ponder over productively at the next Residents’ Association meeting on Monday 10th January 2011 at 7pm in The Paragon Hotel.  Please come along and contribute to Julie’s Digbeth Residents’ Visioning Exercise, which will be fed into the Digbeth Summit which Birmingham City Council’s Andy Munro will be calling in February or March 2011.

As our Neighbourhood Manager Andy Sheppard said, December’s meeting was a ‘lively and well attended meeting where Andy Munro talked further about the future of Digbeth and how residents can get involved in the planning and regeneration process’.  Some very welcome news was that the Section 106 money given to Birmingham City Council from the developers of Abacus on Bradford Street for improvements to Digbeth’s environment should be put to good use in the new year.  Bradford Street will be getting a much-needed makeover with lighting, trees and blue-brickwork.

Andy Munro also spoke about planned improvements to the wider Digbeth area in terms of physical environment, marketing, signposting, etc. – such as uniform ‘Brunswick green’ lampposts and a marketing website updated by South Birmingham College students.  However residents such as Spotted Dog landlord John Tighe were keen to stress the need for the basics to be taken care of first and foremost:

“We don’t want subtle, we just want basics…it doesn’t matter what colour the lampposts are just as long as they work.”

The Residents’ Association themselves are looking at what practical steps can be taken to transform Digbeth, such as starting a resident’s grow site and planting trees.  Val Woodward seems to be leading on getting us to sort out the paperwork and become constituted so we can apply for relevant funding as a group for such projects.

Hopefully the snow won’t dampen the momentum built up in the last meeting and the next will be even more lively well attended – come along to join in the discussion and have your say on the future you want for Digbeth!