Do you see the cobbles on the streets? Everywhere you look, stone & rock. Can you imagine what it feels like to reach down with your bones & feel the living stones? The city is built on itself, all the cities that came before. Can you imagine how it feels to lie down on an ancient flagstone & feel the power of the rock buoying you up against the tug of the world? And that's where witchcraft begins. The stones have life, & I'm part of it. - adapted from Terry Pratchett
Pages
▼
Saturday, February 8, 2020
Spirit of Place: Birmingham in 1965
These are stills from the 1965 film in the Look at Life series called Down Town. It sings the praises of rebuilt towns and cities and particularly can't get enough of Coventry (lol). Such short-sightedness, and a mere four decades later much of what you see here was demolished. Personally I preferred the Bull Ring shown here and had an experience in Manzoni Gardens with a bus driver. I see that I have previously written about the Bull sculptures (one of which you can see in the bottom picture) here.
And finally a classic depiction of Birmingham by Spitting Image, which I know will entertain Inexplicable.
Doesn't it all look clean and modern! Well, apart from the people and traffic...
ReplyDeleteNow, what's this about a glass museum in Dudley?
Well that was the Brave New World of the time.
DeleteBut you know perfectly well that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones!