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If you head west from the centre of the city and pass the convention centre you reach Gas Street Basin. This is where you find the best of the canal infrastructure. Brindley Place, by the canal, is a glass rich structure full of chic cafès and the contemporary art Gallery IKON. Continuing on from here, where the National Indoor Arena dome lurks, the canal system divides; one branch heads off to the northeast while the other, known as the Birmingham Main Line, goes west after looping under Sheepcote Street. Just to increase the oddity of the situation you will find the National Sea Life Centre, inventive given the city's distance from the sea but interesting as an educational centre to the locals who don't get many opportunities to touch and see marine life. After the first fork in the canal, you arrive at the par that has been beautifully restored with all of its building freed grime and the locks of Farmer's Bridge deloused. Enjoy this moment as the canal walk takes on a more seriously grimier appearance when the canal disappears before emerging at Newhall Street where it is a short hop to St Paul's Square and the stoic Georgian buildings in one of the nicest parts of the centre. In the same area in Dakota House is the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists helping to boost the city's cultural reputation with interesting art exhibitions. Continuing along the canal you can reach the baroque treasure of St Philip's Cathedral on Colmore Row. The church was consecrated in 1715 to take the excess from the nearby church and was named cathedral mainly because it was in a nicer area. Its pride and joy are the stained glass windows added in 1880 by the Pre-Raphaelite Edward Burne-Jones. Colmore Row is where the mass of shopping precincts, one of them is the aptly named Bull Ring, the newest of the beasts that attempts to bring back what was wonderful and incorporate traditional streets around from St. Martin's church. This church is an impressive mix of Gothic and Neo-Gothic styles with wonderful Burne-Jones windows. It did get its name because it was where bulls were once baited before they died in the myth that an angry animal gave better meat. From here you can head back towards the Jewellery Quarter to get to the museum and factory outlets shops. |