Spirit of Place: Digbeth

This Italianate tower is a somewhat unlikely symbol of Birmingham: it belongs to the former St Basil's church, now home to a homeless charity.

It is one of the older parts of Birmingham and is home to a pub which os one of, if not the, oldest building in the city:

It shows its more recent industrial heritage in all sorts of ways: I love this wall:

The more recent collapse of industry made it a cheaper part of the city (before recent regeneration) so that it atttracted an arty set:

As well as a caring set:

Of course before the ideology of moving out of city centres (which has now gone the other way) people lived in Digbeth. I love this terrace of houses opposite the Polish centre:

And the walk back into the city means passing one of my favourite ruined buildings, which was operative as a pub in the past five years: