Divine Beauty - A Pre-Raphaelite Trip

 

Hello! Ready for a bit of culture? This time it's a return to the UK's Second City, Birmingham, just nine miles up the road from Walsall.

On Saturday afternoon we caught the train to Birmingham's New Street Station to meet up with our friends, Lynn & Brendan.

Our first stop was Bacchus, a gloriously opulent subterranean bar with Byronesque vibes, tucked away beneath the Burlington Hotel on New Street.

After some liquid refreshment we walked up to Damascena on Temple Row, the Middle-Eastern eatery I'd visited with Nikki on a previous trip to Brum.

I ordered a Damascena Fuul whilst Jon went for a Chicken Shawarma Arabya sharing generous bowls of tabula and fattuush with Brendan and Lynn (menu HERE).

Remembering how busy it was on my last visit we booked a table and were able to bypass the queue of hungry shoppers.

Directly opposite Damascena is St Philip's Cathedral inside where, as a birthday treat, Brendan and Lynn had booked us tickets for Divine Light, an immersive sound and light show bringing to life the church's astonishing stained glass windows, designed by the Birmingham-born Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones and created by his friend, William Morris in his workshop, between 1885 and 1897.

Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris C.1860 (SOURCE)

One of the oldest buildings in Birmingham city centre, St Philip's Cathedral was consecrated in 1715. During WW2 it was bombed and gutted on the night of 7th November, 1940. Fortunately, the Birmingham Civic Society had removed the windows earlier in the war and they were reinstated in 1948 after the cathedral was restored.

Unfortunately, after 130 years, the condition of these four remarkable windows is deteriorating. The effect of years of pollution on the outside and changing humidity on the inside, means that careful restoration is now required with a National Lottery Heritage funded conservation project set to commence in Spring 2023. You can keep up to date with the work HERE. (Thanks for the link, Lynn!)

Held over just two nights, Divine Beauty was a sell-out show but Lord Jon managed to capture some of the show on camera....if you've ever wanted to be trapped inside a Pre-Raphaelite kaleidoscope, click on the arrows and enjoy the trip.

More of the show below....

It was so beautiful we stayed and watched it twice.

Emotionally overwrought by all that Pre-Raphaelite beauty a drink was in order so we crossed the road and entered the Great Western Arcade, a marvellously opulent Victorian shopping arcade, built by the Great Western Railway Company between 1876 - 1877 to span a tunnel for the railway line between Birmingham's Moor Street and Snow Hill stations.  I must have walked through it a thousand times in my years of working in the city centre but it was the first time I'd ever had an alcoholic drink inside it.

The Good Intent, run by Craddock's Breweries is the UK's first Not For Profit pub. The prices are brilliant and the setting is gorgeous.

Oh dear, a bit blurry! Lynn had only had one blackberry gin, I blame my camera! 

Not only a not for profit bar but customers are welcome to bring their own food in - it almost makes me wish I was still working in Birmingham!

Leaving Lynn and Brendan to catch the Metro home , we headed back to New Street Station and boarded a very empty train back to Walsall. The wobble is down to that pesky camera again, not me after a pint of San Miguel...honest! 

Thanks for a fabulous afternoon, Lynn & Brendan, we loved it.

Watch this space, there's another cultural outing coming up very soon!