Days Out: Gas Street Basin, Birmingham.

[Josher]

 

Article from the Birmingham Mail here. I say article, but it reads more like an advert for the cube development. Interesting that a TV documentary to be narrated by Chris Tarrant next week will celebrate the miracle of the Midlands’ canal network though.

 

I did come across an old photograph on the internet earlier today,

 

 

taken in the early 80's where the Convention Centre is now, so not too far from Gas Street. How things change!

[RLWP]

<snip>

 

 

taken in the early 80's where the Convention Centre is now, so not too far from Gas Street. How things change!

 

I do miss the BCN looking like that. Your picture is after the church on Broad Street was taken down

 

Richard

[Josher]

I used to get involved with things like this when I worked for a large organisation - we tended to spend just one day though (redecorating someone's house or diggging their garden).

 

Clean-up campaign on Snow Hill canals

 

May 19 2010 by Kat Keogh, Birmingham Mail

 

BANK workers are swapping liquid assets for waterways as part of a clean-up operation along Birmingham’s canals.

 

Some 170 volunteers from HFC Bank will be boarding a British Waterways boat along the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal after adopting a stretch of the water in the city centre.

 

The team will be working over the next 12 months to transform the stretch, which runs between Snow Hill Bridge and Saturday Bridge in Snow Hill, in a bid to make it look more attractive.

 

Work will include clearing away litter, painting lock gates and cleaning graffiti, as well as starting a community arts project and canal warden scheme.

[cotswoldsman]

Interesting that a TV documentary to be narrated by Chris Tarrant next week will celebrate the miracle of the Midlands’ canal network though.

 

I did come across an old photograph on the internet earlier today,

 

The Chris Tarrant program was very interesting concentrated mainly on the history of The Birmingham canal System if anyone did not see it worth looking on Iplayer

[Nine of Hearts]

I do miss the BCN looking like that. Your picture is after the church on Broad Street was taken down

 

Richard

 

Dear lord, but why? I can understand maybe "seeing it as it was", but when those buildings were operational, they were full of people and activity. As Brindley place/Gas street is now, it is alive and full of people. So in many ways it is more like it used to be "in the old days" now, than it is in that photograph.

 

I grew up in urban decay like that, and it's not a reminder of greatness past. It's bloody depressing and makes you feel like you're living at the arse-end of the universe and have missed the party.

[Smelly]

Dear lord, but why?

 

Sorry about the missed context but...

 

Since the Cube development went bust and the City Council had to find a replacement in double quick time, then there's a certain logic in their getting some easy press as it nears completion.

 

There are only tenuous rumours as to how much the council ended up subsidising the project but, especially as the budget cuts and single status compo payments start hitting they'll want their money back double quick.

[RLWP]

Dear lord, but why? I can understand maybe "seeing it as it was", but when those buildings were operational, they were full of people and activity. As Brindley place/Gas street is now, it is alive and full of people. So in many ways it is more like it used to be "in the old days" now, than it is in that photograph.

 

I grew up in urban decay like that, and it's not a reminder of greatness past. It's bloody depressing and makes you feel like you're living at the arse-end of the universe and have missed the party.

 

Melancholia perhaps.

 

There was a reality to Old Turn like that when you could see and feel what the canals were for and how they really are. I find the current scene there to be a complete charade, a Walt Disney canal almost.

 

Richard

[zenataomm]

Well said Richard, you hit the nail on the head there!

[Laurie Booth]

Melancholia perhaps.

 

There was a reality to Old Turn like that when you could see and feel what the canals were for and how they really are. I find the current scene there to be a complete charade, a Walt Disney canal almost.

 

Richard

Now't wrong with Disney

[RLWP]

Now't wrong with Disney

 

Where would I start. Finding Nemo - a fish goes in search of his father???

 

Lion King. A successful lioness has a single cub who miraculously replaces his father as head of the pride???

 

Don't get me started

[Laurie Booth]

Where would I start. Finding Nemo - a fish goes in search of his father???

 

Lion King. A successful lioness has a single cub who miraculously replaces his father as head of the pride???

 

Don't get me started

A robot dog called K9 that saves the world

[Nine of Hearts]

Melancholia perhaps.

 

There was a reality to Old Turn like that when you could see and feel what the canals were for and how they really are. I find the current scene there to be a complete charade, a Walt Disney canal almost.

 

Richard

 

Sorry, I don't like to take issue, but I do fear the jaundiced eye of "don't like change" here. In the picture, the canal was derelict and not being used. Now it is being used and there are boats all over the place. Isn't that what a canal is for, essentially, boats?

 

I understand the wonder sometimes at passing through the ruins of what once was, and it can be fascinating. But it's amazing how quickly that fascination dies when you have to live in it and see it every day. When I was last out, some kids asked me about how old the canals were and when the old brick bridge they were standing on was built. Would they have been larking there if the place was still a slum? I objected to the comparison with Walt Disney at first as I could see no parallel. But there is. Old Walt brings joy to many, and Brindley Place etc has brought the canal back to life and got people enjoying it again. So it's no longer just a nostalgia trip for a select few with a special interest. Good, otherwise it would be gone.

[Laurie Booth]

Sorry, I don't like to take issue, but I do fear the jaundiced eye of "don't like change" here. In the picture, the canal was derelict and not being used. Now it is being used and there are boats all over the place. Isn't that what a canal is for, essentially, boats?

 

I understand the wonder sometimes at passing through the ruins of what once was, and it can be fascinating. But it's amazing how quickly that fascination dies when you have to live in it and see it every day. When I was last out, some kids asked me about how old the canals were and when the old brick bridge they were standing on was built. Would they have been larking there if the place was still a slum? I objected to the comparison with Walt Disney at first as I could see no parallel. But there is. Old Walt brings joy to many, and Brindley Place etc has brought the canal back to life and got people enjoying it again. So it's no longer just a nostalgia trip for a select few with a special interest. Good, otherwise it would be gone.

I agree 100% plus I moor my boat there.

[RLWP]

I do miss the BCN looking like that. Your picture is after the church on Broad Street was taken down

 

Richard

 

 

Sorry, I don't like to take issue, but I do fear the jaundiced eye of "don't like change" here. In the picture, the canal was derelict and not being used. Now it is being used and there are boats all over the place. Isn't that what a canal is for, essentially, boats?

 

I understand the wonder sometimes at passing through the ruins of what once was, and it can be fascinating. But it's amazing how quickly that fascination dies when you have to live in it and see it every day. When I was last out, some kids asked me about how old the canals were and when the old brick bridge they were standing on was built. Would they have been larking there if the place was still a slum? I objected to the comparison with Walt Disney at first as I could see no parallel. But there is. Old Walt brings joy to many, and Brindley Place etc has brought the canal back to life and got people enjoying it again. So it's no longer just a nostalgia trip for a select few with a special interest. Good, otherwise it would be gone.

 

You do know that I understand your point of view and realise that the canal is an asset to more people now than it was as I first remember it. However, no matter how misguided or foolish:

 

I do miss the BCN looking like that.

 

Because for me:

 

There was a reality to Old Turn like that when you could see and feel what the canals were for and how they really are.

 

Richard

 

I'll engage much more strongly with you if you want to defend Walt Disney. Purveyor of saccharine coated pap

[the grinch]

 

taken in the early 80's where the Convention Centre is now, so not too far from Gas Street. How things change!

 

 

not quite right! the view is from the towpath or bridge looking towards Gas Street, the Convention centre is behind the camera! on the left is where the Malt House Pub is now and the main building on the left gave way for the shopping centre.

 

its My good lady's favourite canal destination and she loves to sit in the outside cafe's in Brindley Place watching the world go by.

Edited May 20, 2010 by hamsterfan

[Nine of Hearts]

I'll engage much more strongly with you if you want to defend Walt Disney. Purveyor of saccharine coated pap

 

I wouldn't dream of defending the nazi-sympathizing curmudgeon. But the thousands of delightful people who work for the empire he created, and their genuine* desire to spread a little happiness, them I will happily stand in front of.

 

*and it is genuine, that's the strangest thing.

 

(edited because for some reason I thought I was writing html...)

Edited May 21, 2010 by Nine of Hearts

[RLWP]

I wouldn't dream of defending the nazi-sympathizing curmudgeon. But the thousands of delightful people who work for the empire he created, and their genuine* desire to spread a little happiness, them I will happily stand in front of.

 

*and it is genuine, that's the strangest thing.

 

(edited because for some reason I thought I was writing html...)

 

Excuse me, I suddenly have an overwhelming desire to throw up

 

Richard

[Nine of Hearts]

I took my wee bairns to DisneyWorld in 1997, when my youngest was but 5. At the airport, when told of their real destination (I had fibbed), they were excited but quite sanguine. Little E_, who was quite enamoured of Disney princess and pink plastic crap in general, even remarked, "They're not really princesses, It's only people dressed up". However, on Day #1 after her 1st encounter with someone dressed up she came away saying, "I was wrong, that really was Belle...". Her face was worth a million quid. And that continued for two weeks.

 

But no, you're right, I should have taken them 'round the Icknield loop and shown them an industrial wasteland instead.

 

(incidentally, they have been round that loop, and while it was an interesting trip at the time, they have expressed no desire to go back)

[Josher]

not quite right! the view is from the towpath or bridge looking towards Gas Street, the Convention centre is behind the camera! on the left is where the Malt House Pub is now and the main building on the left gave way for the shopping centre.

 

its My good lady's favourite canal destination and she loves to sit in the outside cafe's in Brindley Place watching the world go by.

 

Proof (not that I doubted you for a second) BCN.

[Laurie Booth]

I took my wee bairns to DisneyWorld in 1997, when my youngest was but 5. At the airport, when told of their real destination (I had fibbed), they were excited but quite sanguine. Little E_, who was quite enamoured of Disney princess and pink plastic crap in general, even remarked, "They're not really princesses, It's only people dressed up". However, on Day #1 after her 1st encounter with someone dressed up she came away saying, "I was wrong, that really was Belle...". Her face was worth a million quid. And that continued for two weeks.

 

But no, you're right, I should have taken them 'round the Icknield loop and shown them an industrial wasteland instead.

 

(incidentally, they have been round that loop, and while it was an interesting trip at the time, they have expressed no desire to go back)

You survived the Icknield Loop, my hat off to you, well done, medal in post etc.

[RLWP]

I took my wee bairns to DisneyWorld in 1997, when my youngest was but 5. At the airport, when told of their real destination (I had fibbed), they were excited but quite sanguine. Little E_, who was quite enamoured of Disney princess and pink plastic crap in general, even remarked, "They're not really princesses, It's only people dressed up". However, on Day #1 after her 1st encounter with someone dressed up she came away saying, "I was wrong, that really was Belle...". Her face was worth a million quid. And that continued for two weeks.

 

But no, you're right, I should have taken them 'round the Icknield loop and shown them an industrial wasteland instead.

 

(incidentally, they have been round that loop, and while it was an interesting trip at the time, they have expressed no desire to go back)

 

Resisting the temptation to just say "meh".

 

We have two forms of entertainment, Walt Disney and the BCN as it was. What I enjoyed about the BCN was that it was hard to understand. There were factories, some still working, with bricked up windows and open doors. If you stood and looked, really looked and let your imagination work you could start to understand what the doors were for, why the rope marks were in particular places, why bridge parapets had steel reinforcement and so on. The BCN had a story to tell but it was incomplete and needed a lot of imagination to hear.

 

Disney is sort of the opposite for good reasons. Disney deliver a complete story with all the ends accounted for, you open your mind and take the story in. As in the example of your children this becomes material to spark new imagination like creative play.

 

 

So we have two forms of entertainment, one feeding the imagination, the other using the imagination. Both are clearly valid. As it happens I prefer the second kind, and that's where I run into the development of Old Turn. The story has gone, which I can accept, except sometimes it is rewritten in a more narrative way. Here's and old crane, shove it up there - it will look great. Here are some tramway tracks, better work them into the block paving, it's heritage you know.

 

It is my problem with a lot of "heritage" too, where things are set out in a way to tell you something to the exclusion of you using your own imagination to interpret things. The old Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry compared to the modern ThinkTank would be good examples of this. The old museum educated, confused, bemused, bewildered, occasionally scared me as a child. I loved it. The new Thinktank sets out to explicitly tell you stories and I hate it.

 

I'm also guessing that what you really like about Disney is that it makes your children happy.

 

Richard

 

Care to work up a comparison between Kipling's "The Cat that Walked By Himself" and Disney's Jungle Book?

[Laurie Booth]

Care to work up a comparison between Kipling's "The Cat that Walked By Himself" and Disney's Jungle Book?

Has "The Cat that Walked By Himself" got good tunes in it.

[RLWP]

Has "The Cat that Walked By Himself" got good tunes in it.

 

In my head it has

 

Richard

[Laurie Booth]