The place is a small area of Edgbaston in Birmingham, right by the border into Sandwell through Bearwood (more on Bearwood anon). The Hagley Road is the most prominent feature nowadays, which is a long road leading out of Birmingham which manages to encompass a lot of different spirits of places on its way. Up until the nineteenth century much of the land around this area was still woodland or farmland, and it is strange to think that in the time of Blessed John Henry Newman (the Hagley Road's most famous resident) one could walk from the city centre to the Oratory and see a *completely* different landscape from nowadays.
Unfortunately this area is probably best known for its wrecked buildings and the dodginess of its inhabitants! The first picture is a mock up by the Victorian Society of what some of the wrecked houses could look like if done up. The second picture shows what they actually did look like at the time they were trying to get them listed. The application was turned down, despite them being the last works of a particular architect. What always strikes me is how young the derelict buildings are here, and how quickly dereliction has set in. Both were being used as bedsits or 'hotels' up into the 1990s: obviously with a total neglect of any maintenance, but it's still taken inside of 20 years to get to a state where they are totally uninhabitable.
Next one of the things which I think gives this place its spirit: the old railway line which ran from Harborne to Winson Green. It is now long gone, of course, although it's been made into a path, but it retains a feel of a place where one can move between different places, both geographically and ethereally. Since Sandwell council wrecked my favourite crossroads by installing new lighting I tend to use the tunnel under the Hagley Road for a lot of magic, disposing of magical remains in the womb of the mother, burning sigils, etc. Strangely when doing this I have never yet felt threatened by any of the drug addicts loitering around or the old lags out from their bail hostels. The walk along the line is reputed to be haunted: people reportedly hear the sound of trains. Unfortunately I never did until I heard of this so would be inclined to put it down to imagination.
Next some more derelict hotels: night in the Town House Hotel, anybody? The Knowle Lodge Hotel was actually in use until last year, when someone set the empty house next door on fire. Until recently it had a kind of scaffolding roof over it, but perhaps the owner has now accepted that demolition is the way ahead! The half demolished building glimpsed through a remaining window (they actually started demolishing it and just left it) was a pub called The Talbot. No, I never drank in there; my time to die is not quite yet, although one of my neighbours achieved the extraordinary feat of being banned from there!
The final landmark (perhaps I should say that I have wilfully missed out lots of thriving businesses and inhabited houses: they're boring, it's the wreckage that makes this place fascinating) is the former Bunnies. This was a brothel, originally called Cuddles, which was continually in the midst of controversy, even beside the nature of their business! It got raided a few years ago & the police found that foreign women were illegally being kept there, with their passports taken off them. The owner went to prison for a spell over that. Then he decided to extend into the next shop without bothering to wait for planning permission. Obviously that didn't endear him to the council, so he didn't get planning permission and ultimately it closed completely. Don't worry though, the sex industry is far from dead locally!
Just a whistlestop tour of another magical place locally.
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