Digbeth Fun Fair

With restrictions being eased, a fun fair has opened in Digbeth. Located at Charles Henry Street and Moseley Street. Digbeth Fun Fair is also near Birchall Street (in walking distance of the Custard Factory and the Bullring). Opened on the 12th April 2021. Open daily from 1pm to 10pm. Only groups of six in social bubbles can attend. From the people behind Ice Skate Birmingham.

Digbeth Fun Fair opened on Monday 12th April 2021. In time for more restrictions being eased in the middle of Spring 2021. Just as people can go back to bars and restaurants (at the moment eating and drinking outside). The Fun Fair in Digbeth is located on wasteland at the corner of Moseley Street and Charles Henry Street (close to Highgate and towards Southside). You can approach it from the Custard Factory by walking up Birchall Street. It is also near Alcester Street, which connects you to Sherlock Street (if coming from Southside).

Due to the lockdowns and Tiered restrictions, Ice Skate Birmingham was cancelled in 2020 (it would have taken place around November 2020 to January 2021 at Centenary Square, but it didn't happen). Ice Skate Birmingham was based at Centenary Square until 2016, then at Eastside Green for 2017 and 2018, before moving back to Centenary Square in 2019.

So Digbeth Fun Fair is about 6 months later than the last Ice Skate Birmingham could have opened (but without the ice rink). Many of the rides here have featured at the previous events.

The approach from Birchall Street past The Market Tavern on Saturday 17th April 2021.

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Digbeth Fun Fair seen at the corner of Charles Henry Street and Moseley Street.

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The views below all taken from Charles Henry Street.

Wild Mouse was last seen at Ice Skate Birmingham on Eastside Green in 2017-18.

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Welcome - I recall seeing this at a previous fun fair that was near Curzon Street Station in a car park about 10 years ago (now where the HS2 station will be built).

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The Big Wheel and Sky Flyer. They were last seen in Centenary Square around 2019-20.

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A ride called Extreme. View towards the Beetham Tower and Centre City Tower. 

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Wild Mouse and The Big Wheel back together again.

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Wild Mouse and the Sky Flyer.

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The Big Wheel with the Wild Mouse and Sky Flyer.

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Photos taken by Elliott Brown. Can be found on Twitter: ellrbrown

Halloween Decorations around Kings Heath on the 31st October 2020

We are closer to a Covid Christmas now than Halloween. But on the afternoon of the 31st October 2020, I had one last walk around Kings Heath before the 2nd lockdown announcment. Mainly to see those flower planters on closed roads. But also saw Halloween decorations in front of houses, in windows etc. Pumpkins, skeletons, cobwebs!

HALLOWEEN KINGS HEATH, 31ST OCTOBER 2020

A month late, but Happy Halloween! The Nightmare Before Christmas! It was heavily raining on the morning of the 31st October 2020, and with a dry spell in the afternoon, I got the 11C bus to Kings Heath. Mainly to see the Low Traffic Neighbourhood around Kings Heath. But couldn't help notice some houses had Halloween decorations out at the time. It was rumoured that another lockdown was coming, but it wasn't confirmed until later that day.

Halloween bunting spotted on a hedge on Colmore Road in Kings Heath.

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Passing Vicarage Road and Kings Heath Park and onto Avenue Road. Saw this window with these decorations inside. The Day of the Dead!

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Then onto Highbury Road. Social Distance Trick or Treaters Welcome Here! Skeleton on the wall.

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Later after seeing the last of the LTN flower planters went down Springfield Road to get the 11A bus home.

Various Halloween decorations around this tree plus a hand!

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Cobwebs around this telegraph pole and on the bushes.

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More Halloween decorations in this window with the blue plaque for Miss Minnie May (who was a Teacher of Dressmaking that lived here in 1939).

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Near the end of the road was this pair of carved pumpkins. Looks like a bat.

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A more traditional scary Halloween pumpkin carving!

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Photos taken by Elliott Brown. Can be found on Twitter: ellrbrown

Bill & Ted Face the Music at Cineworld

I've seen Bill & Ted Face the Music twice. First time at Cineworld Broad Street Birmingham on 16/09/2020. Second time at Cineworld Solihull (Touchwood) on 02/10/2020. As it was £4. At the time didn't know that Cineworld was closing down again. The movie is amazing. Even got the book on the Trilogy and the soundtrack! Excellent!

I'm back, kind of. Been having a minor rest from this site for a bit. The break may continue. Until then all I've been thinking of is Bill & Ted, as Bill & Ted 3 just came out in cinemas (that are open). I have ran out of ideas for Birmingham related posts, and wont be doing those architecture ones.

Going to the cinema now is so different under pandemic conditions. As usual with Cineworld I book my ticket online or on the app. And use the e-Ticket that gets scanned at the cinema. You have to wear a face mask in the foyer and in the screen. Go to the numbered seat you chose online. The screens I've been in have been almost empty. First time wasn't too bad. Second time in Solihull was hardly anyone there. No wonder cinemas are struggling right now.

The doors at Cineworld Broad Street in July 2020. The cinema reopened at the end of July.

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The view in August 2020 of Cineworld with the Westside Metro extension to Hagley Road.

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A few weeks later I went back to the cinema to see The New Mutants. Bill & Ted Face the Music wouldn't open until the middle of September 2020.

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Spoilers below if you haven't seen the movie.

The movie is 90 minutes long plus the adverts and trailers. There is a new CGI Creature Discomforts advert from Aardman Animations. Was a trailer for James Bong 25: No Time to Die (sadly postponed again until April 2021).

Bill & Ted Face the Music is well worth seeing if you are a Bill & Ted fan. I've been waiting the best part of the last decade for it. Bill & Ted are now in their 50s with families but haven't written the song that will save reality and time as we know it. They now have daughters in their 20s called Billie & Thea.

I missed Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991) in the cinema. I think I first saw them on VHS rental, probably in 1992. Loved them straight away.

The excellent duo decide to travel into their future to steal the song from themselves. But it gets worse further into the future they go. Including Prison Bill & Ted.

At the same time Billie & Thea use Kelly's time pod to get historical musicians to form a band.

There is also a robot called Dennis Caleb McCoy. He later zaps everyone and sends them to hell.

The group later finds Death (the Grim Reaper) and convince him to take them back to the real world.

They arrive at MP46 to perform the song at 7:17pm in San Dimas, California. They realise that Preston / Logan is their daughters, who DJ the band to play instruments, while Bill & Ted time travel across realities to get everyone to play an instrument.

There is a funny post credits scene at the end.

Cineworld is closing again due to a lack of blockbusters coming out due to the pandemic. Many movies have been pushed to 2021 or 2022. So is nothing much else coming out in the next few months.

I've not been back to Odeon since the lockdown began. Sounds like Odeon is going to a weekend only model.

Follow Bill & Ted 3 on Twitter. Follow Bill & Ted Face the Music UK on Twitter.

BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER

AND ...

PARTY ON DUDES!

RIP to Eddie Van Halen. There is a memorable scene in the first Bill & Ted movie where the excellent duo discuss making a music video and wanting Eddie Van Halen on guitar. Watch it here on YouTube Bill & Ted Wyld Stallyns. EXCELLENT!!!!!!

Bill & Ted Face the Music is © Orion Pictures 2020. Distributed in the UK by Warner Brothers Pictures. The franchise is now owned by MGM under their Orion Pictures label.

Photos of Cineworld Broad Street taken by Elliott Brown.

The Public, West Bromwich - the lost public arts venue in Sandwell

The Public was a free public arts venue in West Bromwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell. It was this big modern pink building with unique art installations inside. I once caught the Midland Metro to West Bromwich in April 2011 to visit it. But it closed down years later and is now Central Sixth, West Bromwich. The Public opened in 2009 and closed in 2013.

The Public, West Bromwich

The Public was a multi-purpose venue and art gallery in West Bromwich, it opened in 2009 and closed by November 2013. The architect was Will Alsop. Construction started in 2003 and was completed in 2009. Although it partially opened in 2008. It was fully completed on all levels in 2010. It was a free art gallery. Various artists had their work displayed here.

My visit to The Public was at the beginning of April 2011, and had no issues taking photos inside of the building. It was the only time I ever went inside. As by the time came back to West Bromwich years later, it was now Central Sixth, West Bromwich (a Sixth Form College from Sandwell College). But there was also the Sandwell Arts Cafe (but the automatic doors were closed when I went past in 2017). Apparently the Sixth Form College merged with my old Sixth Form College (Cadbury College) in 2018 and the campus in West Bromwich is now known as Saint Michaels Sixth Form.

Panoramic of The Public during April 2011, taken from New Street / Cronehills Linkway. This would become part of New Square by 2013.

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Posters in the corner window including The Pink Floyd Show.

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LOVE ART

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Welcome to THE PUBLIC ENTRANCE FREE

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Gift shop - the lighting was pink all over.

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Content Pools by Lia & Miguel Carvalhais.

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This was also part of the Content Pools artwork. The light bubbles went all over these things.

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Flypad

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Wasn't sure at the time what you were supposed to do with Flypad. I would guess step on the square and touch Play on the touch screen.

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Local art exhibit. Looks like artists had created giant insects.

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Back down to the ground floor after getting a lift back down. Neon pink lights on the ceiling, curvy waves on the floor.

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Some kind of pink object I saw on the ground floor. The sculpture looked like it was made of tangled ropes.

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Out to the square at the back of The Public with these interesting looking shiny metal parts of the building.

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I would guess that there had been nothing like this in West Bromwich before or since.

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Entrance to The Public on the left. I would never go back in there ever again.

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The New Square shopping development would be built in 2012 and 2013 and would be in the area where those cars were in the distance.

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I went back to West Bromwich in July 2017 on The Big Sleuth bear hunt. After the bus from Bearwood / Warley I went to Dudley. And the next bus to West Bromwich for the last of the bears I wanted to see. By this point New Square had opened, and The Public was now Central Sixth West Bromwich.

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This Big Sleuth bear was called Picnic Time For Teddy Bears by the artist Cathy Simpson and the sponsor was The West Brom.

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This was now the Main Entrance to the Sandwell Arts Cafe, as well as to the Sixth Form College.

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It's a shame that The Public had to close to be replaced by Central Sixth. At the time it still looked "arty" with "imagine" and "create". In the Fab Lab.

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I last got the West Midlands Metro to West Bromwich Central in August 2019 to see the new Three Degrees statue in New Square (called The Celebration). So didn't get new photos of the former Public building. I did briefly pop into the square behind but was a dead end, then headed to Dartmouth Park for another look around, before catching a tram back into Birmingham. The shops and eateries here are near Queen's Square.

Photos taken by Elliott Brown.

Follow me on Twitter here ellrbrown. Now at more than 1,130 followers. Thank you.

Birmingham We Are People with Passion award winner 2020