Birmingham (the h is silent, and, in the local dialect, the g is hard, as in Birming-gum) was at the heart of the UK's industrial revolution, and its wealth was built upon the multitude of trades that were spawned. This led to a massive canal network, with more miles of canals than Venice (though they're very different types of canal).
Much of the city centre was destroyed during the Second World War, and the replacement buildings added little to the city. However, since the 1990s, Birmingham has been undergoing a radical change and many of the post war buildings have been replaced.
Shopping
During the last few years Birmingham has developed enormously as a regional shopping centre, with the old Bull Ring complex (once a notorious 1960's eyesore) being demolished to make way for a large shopping centre that includes Selfridges. There are also a number of lesser known shopping centres located near to the Bull Ring complex [102] such as the Pavillions, The Mailbox [103] and the Pallasades (The Mall), which is located directly above New Street Station. The principal shopping streets are New Street, High Street and Corporation Street. All include the usual assortment of high street chain-stores and discount outlets.
Birmingham (, lokal []) ist nach London die zweitgrößte Stadt des Vereinigten Königreichs. Sie ist das Zentrum der West Midlands und zählt knapp über 1 Million Einwohner, in ihrem Ballungsraum leben rund 2, 6 Millionen Menschen.
Description above from the Wikipedia, licensed under CC-BY-SA full list of contributors
here.
