Tales Of The City (and other stories)

Our glorious summer of travelling and festival-going is over, my final travelogue has been published and it's back to normal life (whatever that is). 

Last week I caught the train and met up with my beautiful friend Nikki in Birmingham. After a pot of tea (rose for me, peppermint for her) in the uber trendy Medicine Bakery, housed beneath the glazed roof of the former Victorian premises of The Royal Society of Birmingham Artists, we headed off to the city's former police station in Steelhouse Lane. 

Six years after the last prisoner was released from the cells, the Victorian building is now open to the public as part of the West Midlands Police Museum. The Steelhouse Lane Station originally opened a year after the first recorded Peaky Blinders' attack on Birmingham's Adderley Street on 23rd March, 1890 which left victim George Eastwood in the city's hospital for three weeks.

The museum have extensive (and utterly fascinating) files on Birmingham's most notorious criminals, including the Peaky Blinders who, if you didn't already know, were a real gang and not just a hit TV series.

The Victorian mugshots were particularly fascinating. Aren't those women beautifully dressed? 

 It's not just Birmingham, the museum also celebrates the history of the police forces of Coventry and the Black Country. There's even mention of the Walsall Anarchists who I wrote about HERE. 

We were intrigued by Richard Heath's chicken tattoo....

Although probably for schoolkids, we couldn't resist the dressing-up box.

We had so much fun chatting to both the retired and serving police officers on duty and attempting to solve a real life crime that two hours passed like a flash. 

Ravenous, we headed to The Indian Brewery, situated beneath the arches next to Snowhill Station.

Whilst the edgy, post-Industrial Victorian setting screams Peaky Blinders, the interior is pure Bollywood and combines the two things which the West Midlands does so well, Indian food and real ale.

Nikki and I went for Chaart Attack! Vegetable samosas topped with spicy relish, fresh coriander and chana accompanied by a couple of pints of Birmingham-brewed IPA....followed by a couple more.

Keen to avoid the commuter crush we made our way back to New Street Station where, after perusing Monsoon's sale rails, we caught our respective trains home. I couldn't resist posing by this mural commemorating the legendary Mr Egg "Eat Like a King for 99p", a late-night cafe on Hurst Street to which me and many of the city's clubbers used to congregate before catching the last bus home. 

A few days later the gang ( Liz, Al, Liz, Adrian, Jon & I) caught the bus over to The Bartons Arms in  Birmingham. Built between 1900 and 1901, The Guardian list it as one of the top 50 pubs in the UK and it also comes highly recommended by Peaky Blinders director, Steven Knight.

A Grade II listed building, the pub is known for its wall-to-wall Minton tiles (manufactured up the road in Stoke-on-Trent) and Snob Screens, which enabled the middle class drinkers to keep an eye on the working class drinkers in the adjacent bar but not to be seen by them.

Due to The Bartons Arms' proximity to the Aston Hippodrome many of the famous entertainers of the day visited including Marie Lloyd, the Great Caruso, Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. It was also Ozzy Osbourne's local before he decamped to the USA.

In additional to their award winning ales, The Bartons Arms also serves authentic Thai food. The last time we'd visited it was to celebrate Liz (S) and Al's 40th birthdays and Jon & I's 20th anniversary - ten years ago!

Jon and I shared a platter of vegetarian appetisers.

I had tofu and pak choi in a spicy vegetarian sauce (there's also an option for oyster sauce but obviously that's not suitable for me).

Jon went for sweet and sour chicken although he was a bit phased by the hot cucumber!

I'm not sure why it took us so long to go back. Judging by past performance we'll be celebrating Liz & Al's 60th and our 40th anniversary next time!

In other news since we got home almost a fortnight ago (where does the time go?) Jon & I have had our Covid boosters and, just like our previous jabs, suffered no ill effects. We've got back into our twice-weekly swimming (and Spoons' breakfasts), seen The Lost King at the cinema (one of those delightfully quirky films we Brits do so well), binge watched BBC's The Capture and been absolutely blown-away by the devastatingly cool Kleo on Netflix, a darkly humorous German cold war thriller with shades of Deutschland 84 and Killing Eve. 

We've bagged a Lidl Waste Not box and have been feasting on our home-grown crops - beetroot, tomatoes, potatoes, courgettes, patty pan, raspberries and loganberries. This afternoon we've made 3lbs of chutney from the last of the green tomatoes and some windfall apples.

We squeezed in a bit of charity shopping - Tamaris boots, Earth Spirit boots, vintage macrame shopper, 1980s Adini midi skirt, Doc Martens "Ted" moccasins, East needlecord mini skirt, 1970s St Michael dagger collar blouse, hand knit cardi, 1980s cardi, Diesel denim jacket, 1950s all-wool Wellington robe, Rawhide suede coat, Baukjen cotton sweater, 1980s novelty print silk waistcoat, 1980s Jackarew of England printed velvet jacket, Toast Yorkshire wool blazer and a 1960s Japanese hand crochet hat. With festivals over we'll be selling on eBay until Spring.

Needless to say that I've been wearing clothes (much as I'd prefer to live in a bikini it's been a bit too chilly!) and here's a few outfits I've worn. Above - which I wore to the dentist - is my Dahlia block printed dress (from Seventies Soul) worn with my trusty charity-shopped Diesel jacket. The block printed jute handle tote was from a trading neighbour at Beautiful Days, the rope soled flatforms from a charity shop and the sunglasses came from Rodos.

This white cotton hand-embroidered dress (made in Greece) was from one of the two tourist shops in Stegna from their end of season sale rail. The Ancient Greek "Classic" tan leather clogs were a lucky  eBay find, they were unworn and came in their original box. Currently retailing at £305, I won them for £5.50!!!! (I wore my denim jacket over the top when I wore this charity shopping, I was determined to let it have an outing before I packed it away for next year).

Here's the dress I bought from that dreamy boutique in Rhodes Town. It's by Greek label, Ble and designed and made in Santorini, 100% cotton with shoestring straps and - like all the best dresses - with French seams as opposed to overlocked ones. I felt this one also needed a day in the sun before being packed away so wore it with my vintage Phool quilted jacket and my charity-shopped olive velvet boots.

Another shopping outfit, I snaffled this vintage Afghan dress from a lovely trader at Cornbury for an absolute steal. The antique-effect leather riding boots - originally from Jones the Bootmaker - were £3 from the clearance chazza on what was probably the hottest day of the year. The Reiss wool fedora was new with tags from Ebay a few years ago.

Sorry about the demented face, we both had colds last week and I was sucking on a Teddy Gray's when Jon took my photo. If you're not from my part of the world you probably won't have a clue about this Black Country institution. Check out genius British photographer, Martin Parr's, short film below:

After trying it on in Monsoon when I was with Nikki I decided I needed this teal fedora in my life. I wore it with my tomato dress (hand-embroidered, vintage, eBay 4 years ago) and 1950s Tyrolean souvenir belt for swimming, 'Spoons and the cinema on Friday.

Did you spot this English-made Rawhide unstructured suede coat in my charity shop collage? I squealed with excitement when I discovered it sandwiched between a rail of tatty Primarni dresses on Thursday morning and then nearly fainted clean away when I saw £2 printed on the price tag! Although I loathe grey (less a colour, more a state of mind) I think this is more of a bruised lilac.

I wore it on Sunday (chazza shopping plus Wilko & Superdrug) with a Naked Generation block-printed midi dress (eBay), Leibeskind, Berlin leather boots (another £3 clearance chazza find) and what's rapidly becoming my new favourite hat.

Phew! Well done if you stayed with me till the end, that was a bit of an epic post. 

I'll leave you with the glorious sunrise I was treated to on Tuesday morning. Whilst Autumn isn't my favourite season (damp, cold, dark and too spider-y by far), morning skies like these make me glad to be alive.

See you soon!