1. Plaça de Bous market
January 1939 Itinerant traders display their wares in the open air market. The heart of Birmingham’s commercial center since medieval times, the bullring referred to a green in the middle of the market where bulls were tethered to be blinded before slaughter. Archaeological digs in 2000 as part of its redevelopment revealed a large ditch where Selfridges and the Park Street car park now stand. The rubbish thrown into the ditch included fragments of pottery, indicating that there were kilns here in the 13th century.
Bull Ring Humphrey Spender/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
2. Edgbaston Cricket Ground
July 1963 West Indies supporters outside the Edgbaston cricket ground before the third test match against England. The sports ground was built in the early 19th century, after Calthorpe Estate gave the land to Warwickshire County Cricket Club. The first Test match was played in 1886 with the first Ashes Test match played in 1902. It became the first English ground outside Lord’s to host one of the biggest tournaments in world cricket in 2013 – the final of the ICC Champions Trophy.
Edgbaston Cricket GroundCentral Press/Getty Images
3. Muhammad Ali, Bull Street
June 1979 Muhammad Ali, arguably the world’s greatest boxer, had close ties to the city and visited it several times. The 1979 visit was to be his last ring appearance in the UK, when he put on a boxing exhibition with fellow American Jimmy Ellis. According to the Birmingham Mail, a fan at the match received Ali’s shorts with the message: “To Leslie Ward from three-time world champion Muhammad Ali. Enjoy life, it’s later than you think.”
Bull Street in BirminghamMirrorpix/Getty Images
4. Victoria Law Courts, Birmingham
November 1974 Crowds outside Victoria Courts during the trial of the Birmingham Six, where six Irish immigrants were tried over the Birmingham pub attacks. The explosions on 21 November 1974 killed 21 people, becoming the deadliest attack on English soil during the Troubles. The men were convicted in August 1975 and sentenced to life in prison. However, after a long campaign, an appeals court overturned all six convictions in 1991.
Victoria Law Courts, BirminghamR Viner/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
5. Primark in Bullring, Birmingham
August 1969 Around 3,000 men, women and children took part in the civil rights march in Northern Ireland, including 13-year-old Robert Daly, his sister Rita, 10, and 11-year-old Bernadette Barnett . The three youths were all cousins of 15-year-old Gerald McAuley, who had been killed in Belfast a week earlier. Protesters sat in Colmore Row to observe a two-minute silence in memory of the teenager.
Primark in the Bullring, BirminghamMirrorpix/Getty Images
6. Baskerville House, Centenary Square
1953 The Dagenham Girl Pipers perform on the green in front of the town’s landmark. Baskerville House, now somewhat overshadowed by the new Library of Birmingham, was once occupied by businessman John Baskerville, who is buried nearby. Today it remains an office building.
Baskerville House and the Hall of Remembrance in Centenary Square, BirminghamHanley/Popperfoto/Getty Images
7. Rookery Road, Handsworth
June 1977 Cyclists lead the African Liberation Day demonstration. The photograph was taken by Vanley Burke, now 71, who has spent most of his life documenting black life in the city. Burke, who moved to the West Midlands from a farm in the foothills of Jamaica’s Blue Mountains in 1965, received his first camera, a Brownie box, when he was 10 years old. Speaking about photographing the black experience, Burke once told the Guardian that the events were not covered in the press. “The only way black people got into the news,” he said, “was if they committed a crime.”
African Liberation Day demonstration in Handsworth in 1977 Vanley Burke
8. Alexander Stadium
2002 and 2021 Two female athletes competing at the Perry Barr International Athletics Stadium: triple jumper Ashia Hansen in 2001 and heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson in 2021. The arena is one of the main venues for the Games in the 2022 Commonwealth.
Long jump, Alexander StadiumLaurence Griffiths/Getty Images and Ian Stephen/ProSports/Shutterstock
9. Carrer Nou
May 1931 New Street is in the heart of one of the city’s main shopping and leisure areas and links Victoria Square with the Bullring shopping centre. It is believed to have existed since medieval times and one of its earliest mentions, as Novus Vicus, is in the borough’s rent records of 1296.
New Street in Birmingham, May 1931 Hulton Archive/Getty Images
10. City Council
October 1940 Crowds gather to listen to a military band playing outside the town hall in Chamberlain Square as part of Arms Week during the second world war. The war bond campaign had already raised £8 million. Today the hall is covered in Commonwealth Games banners.
Arms of War Week in Birmingham, October 1940 Haywood Magee/Popperfoto/Getty Images
11. Bomb damage, Sparkbrook
1940 Birmingham was the second most bombed city in the country during the second world war. This photograph shows the Stratford Road area. In the background is the Piccadilly Banqueting Suite, now a wedding venue, in the Balti Triangle.
Bomb damage in Sparkbrook, BirminghamMirrorpix/Getty Images
12. Memory Hall, Centenary Square
1957 Smaller, but proudly next to Baskerville House, stands the Grade I Hall of Remembrance. It commemorates the men and women of Birmingham who gave their lives in conflicts including the two world wars. Directly above is the renovated library, and inside the hall, a First World War honor roll bears the words: “There was no one who spoke a bad word to them, for they feared God very much … So they passed, and all the trumpets sounded for them on the other side”.
The Hall of Remembrance in Centenary Square, BirminghamSimon Webster/Alamy
13. Chamberlain Clock, Jewelery Quarter
1946 A Birmingham Corporation tram crosses Warstone Lane, with the Chamberlain clock in the background. Introduced in 1903, the clock commemorates Joseph Chamberlain’s visit to South Africa after the Boer War. Chamberlain was responsible for the modernization of the city while he was mayor, between 1873 and 1876. A new project studies his role in the colonial legacy of the British Empire.
The Chamberlain Clock in Birmingham’s Jewelery Quarter Dave Bagnall Collection/Alamy
14. Gas Street Canal, Birmingham
July 1953 Colorful boats ply the Gas Street Basin at the heart of Birmingham’s canal network. The waterways were an integral part of Victorian Birmingham and during the Industrial Revolution they played a crucial role in the development of the city and the Black Country, transporting coal, iron and other heavy goods.
Gas Street Canal, BirminghamPhyllis Nicklin/University of Birmingham
Contemporary photography: Andy Hall. Image editing and research: Jim Powell. Words: Nazia Parveen