Exploring Birmingham Day1
Monday 31st January 2022
It was so windy last night - we expected to emerge in the morning to less things on our roof than we had last night!! Everything was still in place though! Paul believes that accelerated winds near skyscrapers causes a "downdraught effect". He thinks this happens where the air hits a building and, with nowhere else to go, is pushed up, down and around the sides. As our boat is moored along one of these building corridors, the impact of the wind on our boat is significantly magnified… maybe he’s just billowing nonsense.. lol
We went for a walk with Tilly and Winston along the canal and walked around Soho Loop, then back into Birmingham centre by The Mailbox and into Gas Street Basin - 6 miles altogether. As we walked under the bridges we noticed each bridge has a square hole that is typically covered by a RED plate. Apparently these holes are for The fire-brigade. These allow them to drop their hosepipes into the canal for water if they so need it. A simple but ingenious idea of making the most of what is around you. We would like to take the credit for knowing this but fortunately during one of our many excursions to the local pubs (it’s called investigative journalism, not that we enjoy it) It was The Captain that told us.
There are a lot of CRT information boards as you walk along the canal which are really useful and informative :)
Information Boards explaining the history, taking you back in time to provide the reader with a better appreciation of part of the Birmingham history. As we turned onto The Soho Ring there was a lot of construction work going on, it would be useful if some of the construction site had similar boards so you could have a better understanding of the future as well as the past.
The original Birmingham Canal was a “contour canal”, following the twisting and turning contours of the land.
This canal became so busy that another route was needed to be able to cope with all the traffic. A new main line, built by Thomas Telford in 1829, cut straight through, crossing the old canal at several places, and turning the remaining parts of the old canal into loops.
This is Asylum Bridge on the Soho Loop where the area was used to build large institutions for treatment, punishment, segregation and isolation - The Madhouse, The Badhouse and The Workhouse!
Some might feel we still face some of the same issues today as they did in the 19th Century.
A lunatic Asylum was built at Winson Green in 1850 along with Birmingham Prison separated from the Asylum by just a wall. Mental health awareness was even more misunderstood in the 19th century, as then nobody really understood the cause or treatment. They were typically kept out of sight, “out of sight, out of mind” springs to mind. Some 200 years later figures indicate one in five adults have had or currently have symptoms of a mental illness, we are still on the journey, however being able to talk about mental illness without judgment or fear must be a significant step forward.
The Workhouse with space for over 2000 inmates was the result of stopping small grants of money for the poor, forcing them to live in large communal buildings known as workhouses. Families were often split up and put to work in exchange for bad food and dismal surroundings.
Gas Street Basin is where The Worcester & Birmingham Canal terminates, and the Main Line of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) leaves.
The basin is a lovely place to sit outside (or inside a pub and look out the window) and watch the world go by.
We visited The Canalhouse pub in the basin - (what another pub I hear you say??? investigative journalism), which we enjoyed even though there was only a couple of beers to choose from - very friendly guy at the bar who was very accommodating and the pub is dog friendly. The location is perfect, there are pods outside where you can sit by the canal - may have to do that one night!
Next pub was The Malthouse - we had a nice pint in here - followed by a nightcap to celebrate Bob and Rosemary’s 4th anniversary of moving on board NB Sefton! Another lovely canal side pub! (serious investigative journalism or are we being led astray???)