Birmingham

[Andt The Fiddler]

We are currently planning our 2013 cruising which could include passing through Birmingham. We have heard many stories about how dangerous it is.

 

Please can anyone offer help and guidance - or discuss, we shall be watching?

 

Andy

[RLWP]

Those stories are all rubbish

 

All of them

 

You'll really enjoy Birmingham, particularly mooring around Old Turn

 

Richard

[gazza]

Gas street basin is a great place to stop, plenty of bars, restaurants and clubs to hand. I went walkabout in walkabout, bad head next morning though.

[churchward]

We are currently planning our 2013 cruising which could include passing through Birmingham. We have heard many stories about how dangerous it is.

 

Please can anyone offer help and guidance - or discuss, we shall be watching?

 

Andy

We have been through Brum many times via different routes and have not had any issues. In fact it's a great place to cruise through and stop off.

 

All it takes is to moor sensibly and keep in mind you are in the middle of a city and any place can be an issue if the wrong people are about. In fact that can be true in a quiet spot out in the countryside.

 

Old Turn is a great place to moor or nearby and use as a place to visit parts of the city. Another really good destination is the moorings at the Black Country museum in Dudley. Nice place to moor, good take always near by and the museum is superb. You can also get a boat trip into the Dudley tunnel network from there.

 

Don't be put off by negative stories go there and enjoy it.

Edited May 16, 2013 by churchward

[IanM]

Those stories are all rubbish

 

All of them

 

You'll really enjoy Birmingham, particularly mooring around Old Turn

 

Richard

 

This ^^^

[PaulG]

We are currently planning our 2013 cruising which could include passing through Birmingham. We have heard many stories about how dangerous it is.

 

Please can anyone offer help and guidance - or discuss, we shall be watching?

 

Andy

I've heard many stories about hobgoblins and "things that go bump in the night", too. All are just as believable as those stories about Birmingham.

It's a right old mixture of post-industrial dereliction, urban renewal, suburbia, and some surprisingly rural areas. There is something there for everybody.

If you have any interest at all in canal history, it's there in spades. Fantastic bridges, aqueducts, tunnels, flights of locks like Farmers Bridge.

We have a cruise through "Brum" every year, and look forward to it - wouldn't miss it for the world!

[Naughty Cal]

We are currently planning our 2013 cruising which could include passing through Birmingham. We have heard many stories about how dangerous it is.

 

Please can anyone offer help and guidance - or discuss, we shall be watching?

 

Andy

I cant tell you about the area in question. But can offer this advice.

 

The next time someone tells you a "horror story" about a particular area. Ask them if they have been. Chances are the answer will be no.

[cotswoldsman]

I cant tell you about the area in question. But can offer this advice.

 

The next time someone tells you a "horror story" about a particular area. Ask them if they have been. Chances are the answer will be no.

well said that person

[john6767]

Those stories are all rubbish

 

All of them

 

You'll really enjoy Birmingham, particularly mooring around Old Turn

 

Richard

 

What he said.

 

Personally I would aim to moor near Old Turn rather than Gas Street, it is noisier near Gas Street, unless there is an event on at the ICC perhaps when its evens. Will be there Thursday next week.

 

What is your planned route, are you looking to just stop over in the centre of Birmingham or elsewhere? As has been said, the Black Country Museum makes a good stop off too.

[Flyboy]

Birminghams a 'must visit' place for any boater. I always try & moor opposite the NIA by Symphony Court, very quiet at night probably because there lots of security, cameras etc. Don't be put of by the rumours, you will enjoy Brum.

[cheshire~rose]

I adore taking our boat into Birmingham and wish we could do it more often (a mixture of us only being leisure boaters and there being 21 locks between us and the Birmingham level means we really need a bank holiday to make it worth doing.)

 

One of the things I love most is popping up the steps when we pass under a road bridge to see what the city looks like to all those car driver stuck in jams while I enjoy the peace and tranquility of the green corridor that the canal is through the city.

 

As others have said, when someone tells you a horror story ask if they have ever been there themselves, how long ago this awful thing happened and how well they know the story teller!

 

Nasty things can happen anywhere and you are far more likely to become a victim out in the middle of nowhere when no one is around to hear calls of help than for you to experience problems in a big city where so many people are around to act as witnesses.

 

Enjoy yourself and take your time as you pass through

[Dave_P]

Hooray for Birmingham! I am a bit biased I suppose...

[alan_fincher]

You are getting your boating advice from the wrong people.

 

Honestly!

 

The only advice I have is don't take a boat with a large tug deck the size of a small dance floor, and moor it near the clubs in Birmingham on a Saturday night.

 

Nothing "bad" will happen even so, but you'll not get a lot of sleep.

 

Last bit of this blog post refers.....

[RLWP]

You are getting your boating advice from the wrong people.

 

Honestly!

 

The only advice I have is don't take a boat with a large tug deck the size of a small dance floor, and moor it moor a patio near the clubs in Birmingham on a Saturday night.

 

Nothing "bad" will happen even so, but you'll not get a lot of sleep.

 

Last bit of this blog post refers.....

Edited May 16, 2013 by RLWP

[Dave_P]

You are getting your boating advice from the wrong people.

 

Honestly!

 

The only advice I have is don't take a boat with a large tug deck the size of a small dance floor, and moor it near the clubs in Birmingham on a Saturday night.

 

Nothing "bad" will happen even so, but you'll not get a lot of sleep.

 

Last bit of this blog post refers.....

Sounds like a great way to make some new friends to me!

[Dave_P]

On a more serious note:

 

Probably the safest and quietest moorings in the centre are the eastern end of the Oozells Street Loop - cctv protecting you and no bar/club noise to speak of.

 

Cambrian Wharf is good since they have some visitor pontoons and a nearby, tap, bin, elsan, toilet, and shower. It's opposite the Flapper which can be a lively pub though.

 

Outside the NIA on the mainline by Old Turn always seems to be a popular place to moor and if you moor slightly west of the NIA near the west end of the Oozells Street you can stay for 14 days.

 

Outside holiday wharf, opposite the Cube (a big ugly building) near the end of the Worcester & Birmingham is also good and it also has a sani station with Elsan, water, toilets, showers. From memory, it may be 14 days here too.

 

Just south of Gas Street basin you can moor along the canalside but you'll find a lot of people wandering up and down and staring in your boat.

 

Just north of the Broad Street tunnel, outside Brindley Place, I'd avoid for a few reasons, it has the busiest foot-fall and suffers from quite a lot of noise from the Broad Street bars. It's also where the trip boats and the waterbus pick up from so you may incur their wrath by mooring there.

 

Gas Street Basin is of course the best mooring. It's not as noisy as people would have you believe unless you're really unlucky and it's an unusually lively night. There's space for around 3 visitor boats in the northern half of the basin (more if you're fairly adventurous with your mooring). The canal interest here is huge - lovely bridges, old canalside warehouses and the famous worcester bar juxtaposed with the modern skyscrapers of Birmingham looming up behind.

Come and say hi if you're passing through!

 

Don't moor at the Mailbox - they don't like it.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Dave_P

[Jo_]

You don't say what your route in and out is. We went a couple of weeks ago. Moored on the embankement above Merry Hill - which was a great mooring even if you didn't want to go shopping! Then moored at the end of Oozells Street Loop as Dave_P suggests.

 

Heading out on the B&F, we moored at Cuckoo Wharf. That's fine and has water, rubbish and elsan but there's no much in the way of moorings. It was so quiet we used the third water point and a CRT mooring which was obviously not let. We had met a couple of boats coming into B'ham that day and they had done the same the night before. While we were moored, one boat passed us. And we were off and away by 8.30.

[David Mack]

What they said.

 

But don't just think of the BCN as the main line from Wolverhampton to Birmingham. Netherton Tunnel and the Dudley and Stourbridge Canals are a quicker route if you are going to/from Stourport direction, and if you are travelling east to west, the Wyrley and Essington, Daw End Branch, Rushall and Tame Vallley Canals give you a surprisingly green and rural route across the (so called) Black Country.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

All the comments and advice are spot on.

Brum is a good place to be.

Much safer than other people make out.

Lots of places have security with gate entrances and cameras.

 

Just

Keep off the k&a. !!

 

Glenn

[Scholar Gypsy]

I agree with all the above - and in addition would commend the Winson Green loop. There's a pleasant park just east of the prison, slightly shallow moorings but a bit of trial & error is well worth it.

[Keeping Up]

We have had problems at a couple of places in Birmingham - only one of which put anybody in hospital - but they were not at the places you'd expect to have problems. We have moored in the most unsavoury-looking places with no problems at all (at one of them a group of junkies competed for the honour of looking after the boat while we went to the pub!), and we go back to Birmingham every year to enjoy its varied charms and delights. I love it !!!

[Gillie]

Sound advice as always Glenn..in fact there was some swing bridge rage only yesterday in Newbury!

 

We moored at Gas Street last year and loved it..

Then cruised to Dudley and then down the Delph flight & onwards to Stourton Junction

 

Only vague bit of 'bother' we had was a couple of dodgy looking guys trying to buy our Lurcher off us!

[Ray T]

Once you get to Birmingham, what's the best thing to come out of Birmingham?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The A45 to Coventry.

[mattlad]

The only (slight) problems we've had in Birmingham were some kid trying to gob on the boat while we were going under one of the bridges on the New Main Line, and a prop full of rubbish on a BCN 24 hour cruise. Otherwise we've had some great times in Brum! Don't let the naysayers put you off!

[MHS]

 

Outside holiday wharf, opposite the Cube (a big ugly building) near the end of the Worcester & Birmingham is also good t.

 

I really like the cube. Modern and very distinctive. Beats many bland buildings every time. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

Go and have a look Andy (O.P) and let us know if you like it.