Stories

Handsworth was hit by serious disorder in both 1981 and 1985. The two events had different immediate causes, different targets, and different political aftermaths. Understanding the difference matters as much as understanding what the areas had in common.

The Bull Ring has been the commercial heart of Birmingham since the twelfth century. The medieval market, the 1960s brutalist Rotunda, and the 2003 Selfridges building are all chapters in the same eight-hundred-year story.

On 21 November 1974, bombs in the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town killed 21 people and injured 182. The six men convicted and jailed were innocent. Their story is one of the most serious miscarriages of justice in British legal history.

Birmingham's city centre has been rebuilt more comprehensively than almost any other British city. The opening of Grand Central in 2015 completed a transformation that began in the late 1990s and changed what Birmingham means as a destination.

Lenny Henry was born in Dudley in 1958, the son of Jamaican immigrants. He won New Faces at 16, became a national figure, co-founded Comic Relief, and changed what British television looked like. The Black Country roots never left him.

George Cadbury moved his chocolate factory to open farmland south of Birmingham in 1879 and built a model village for his workers. Bournville still exists, still largely intact, and still tells you something true about what a business can be.

Professor Carl Chinn MBE has spent his career preserving the working-class history of Birmingham - the people, the places, and the communities that official history overlooks. His radio show and oral history archive are irreplaceable.

Birmingham's claim on the balti is robust and extensively documented. The dish was developed in the restaurants of the Balti Triangle in the 1970s, and the cooking method, the vessel, and the experience are distinctively Brummie.

Four men from Aston, Birmingham formed Earth in 1968, renamed themselves Black Sabbath, and invented a genre. The connection between heavy industry, the working-class midlands, and the sound they created is not accidental.

At its peak, the Jewellery Quarter in Hockley produced 40 percent of all jewellery made in Britain. The workshops, the trade, and the community that built that reputation are still there, if you know where to look.