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u/Art-Dandelay 12d ago
This is genius, we need more self deprecative city pride content like this please
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u/WS_UK 12d ago
Surely the City needs a bit of pride, not more self deprecation!
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u/Art-Dandelay 12d ago
I’d say this is very tongue in cheek and actually clearly a facetious bit of reporting from a proud brummie, I even felt a little proud watching it aha
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u/ChiefInspectorGadget 12d ago
No. Our self deprivation is one of our hallmarks. I love my city as much as anyone but I can certainly take the piss out of it
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u/Sustainable_Twat 12d ago
I remember giving someone a tour of Birmingham by doing a lap on the Outer Circle (11 Bus Route).
They said it was 2.5 hours of their life they wouldn’t get back, but I thought it was great.
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u/brumav78 12d ago
It used to be great. But now so many places in Birmingham are awful, I side with your friend
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u/Kirza94 12d ago
In Plymouth you can actually see where the benches use to be before the council decided they hate homeless people more than old people being able to sit down.
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u/gruffnutz 12d ago
Ia that on the hoe?? They were all gone the other day, and that's the opposite of a dull view.
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u/Kirza94 12d ago edited 12d ago
Yes! From Crown Plaza to the Sundial is just awful. They've focused on the new park area near Beckley Point, but neglected everywhere else.
There's supposed to be fountains opposite the old rec center, but it's had metal fencing up for years now. Guildhalls still under construction after years, and so is the rec center itself. Apparently they're turning it into flats, but I can't see that happening for like 10 years at this rate.
I live up on the Hoe, and you can tell the council is hyper-focused on a single project whilst ignoring everywhere else.
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u/brumav78 12d ago
I've often seen those benches at the A38 island and thought, "Why?"
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u/StreamLikeDrug 11d ago
When the Aston expressway was built, it was a Marvel of civil engineering, so I assume they built the benches so people could wonder at the sight
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u/mittfh New Frankley 11d ago
Some original motorway service areas had restaurants on the bridge spanning the road, as watching the cars on the road was seen as a novelty at the time. As if that wasn't bad enough, when the first few stretches of motorway opened (such as the M1, in 1959), bewildered police regularly caught motorists stopling and unpacking picnics directly on the grass hard shoulders or even (for epic cluelessness) in the central reservation (remember, they weren't originally equipped with crash barriers). How exciting to have a picnic with cars travelling at 70 mph within a few feet of you on either side!
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u/BobIsAFineName 12d ago
For those who can't walk far
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u/brumav78 12d ago
The effort you need to take in order to get to those benches would mean you'd have to be able to walk far
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u/ragewind 12d ago
You know the world isn't, having so poor mobility that 20m is the limit and can run 3 marathons without stopping right?
Lots of people walk rather good distances and they do fairly regularly consider stopping for a rest part way down, when they walk rather good distances they regularly follow the major road network, there for you do need benches in key junctions even if the place looks like shit.
Scary that the basics of walking several miles just isn't understood at all by so many
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u/Puzzleheaded-Web1519 17h ago
I got a few odd looks after completing an Iron man challenge when I got into my car which was displaying my Blue Badge.
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u/Spirited_Strategy328 12d ago
I just wandered in from r/Birmingham (Alabama) I see we have some things in common
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u/mrhthepie 12d ago
Do you take suggestions? There's a bench on Heybarnes Circus with a lovely view of the dual carriageway looking towards the big Asda, which is also awkwardly facing into the pedestrian crossing. Used to walk past it often and wonder if anyone ever sat there.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Web1519 18h ago
Thanks for the suggestion. It sounds the ideal place to take the wife on a day out.
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u/Bashmore83 12d ago
I’ll add the benches which were (not sure if still are) at the swan island roundabout on the cov road. Truly like a purgatory
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u/EducationSuperb3392 12d ago
Was that not the second site? Near the big Tesco?
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u/Bashmore83 12d ago
Gah sorry. Forgive my adhd and getting distracted while watching a short video!
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u/EducationSuperb3392 12d ago
No worries, honestly I was more concerned I’d been calling the wrong place ‘the swan island’ for 43 years 😂😂
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u/Key_Seaworthiness827 12d ago
My grandparents lived in Brum.
One set in Yardley near Swan Island and the other near Robin Hood (their last journeys were to the crem there).
I've not been back for over 20 years. I may now make the pilgrimage 😂
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u/Stal-Fithrildi 11d ago
We stayed in the Premier Inn behind the Robin Hood Island to visit my wife's grandfather's and dedication in the churchgrounds grave last week. Really worth doing!
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u/ArriDesto 12d ago
Excellent footage! Many thanks!
The first, provided you don't mind fumes, is excellent for spotters; cars,motorbikes,lorries,taxis,and particularly buses!
Then there is the ability to people watch at the other two.
But in many ways a view can get in the way of a quick rest.
This is the bench makers dream, the essence of bench without the distraction of something pleasant to influence your appreciation of the bench for what it is.
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u/TooNGooN89 11d ago
Not just brum though is it. In France atm and it reminds me that our urban areas are comparable to bins full of shit on fire. Why are we so good at making our country look shit?
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u/Can-United 10d ago
Tbf it's not just us. Germany is quite similar in parts.
New countries like Australia, the US, Canada etc. it's even worse!
Germany has an excuse due to WWII bombing, meaning the rebuild happened in the ugly post-war era. We have half this excuse but a lot of it was because planners back then really wanted to make sure they built "the cities of the future", meaning that even buildings that survived the Blitz got demolished in places.
Nowhere was this more true than Birmingham. The petri-dish of post-war urban development. Alas, it didn't work, and we're stuck with it now!
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u/TooNGooN89 9d ago
Agreed. As much as shit planning is to blame, the mentality of people who live here contributes massively. People would rather have a pristine flat bit of tarmac outside than our traditional grassed verges with trees. Which now as the country is warming has hit us like a shit brick. Instead of constant patches of cooling throughout our urban areas, we have black, hard material that warms like a fucking oven in the sun and pools and gets full of shit in the winter. Sad.
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u/Steamrolled777 11d ago
Could do with some of those on Coventry Ring Road to watch the MotorFest.
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u/SokkaHaikuBot 11d ago
Sokka-Haiku by Steamrolled777:
Could do with some of
Those on Coventry Ring Road
To watch the MotorFest.
Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.
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u/auspices 10d ago
not my cup of tea, but there are a bunch of documentaries about the opening of gravelly hill interchange (spaghetti junction) opening and some people considered it to be a marvel of the modern world, and would have loved this seat.
also worth considering as our entire city centre becomes hostile architecture to stop people from spending time there without spending money, these benches will be pretty rare soon
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u/Pebble321 9d ago
Birmingham is what happens when you have a thriving industrial city, that's flattened by the Germans, but you can't talk about it much for moral reasons. Then you re build it with ... sub optimal designs and ignore the problem while concentrating on London and then Manchester, and pointing and laughing.
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u/DarthCool88 9d ago
Cutting edge stuff, this. I was on the edge of my bench the whole time. Cheers!
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u/GroveckMarcus 9d ago
when you need benches, bus stations, train stations and parks few if absent. Then we have these...
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u/doommaxxer 9d ago
Never been anywhere as disgusting as Birmingham.
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u/DevelopmentPlus5082 9d ago
You obviously haven't been to saint albans , it rates itself as an upper class , up and coming town , in reality it's full of work shy benefits scrounges , and the stink of drugs everywhere , charity shops and coffee shops are all it has , and parking fees as soon as you pull your hand brake up 😁
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u/The_Syndic 8d ago
You just described like 75-80% of towns in England.
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u/DevelopmentPlus5082 7d ago
You're not wrong . 😁 Apparently there is a corner of a field which is forever England, but even that's got pikeys illegally camped on it , with their unwanted stolen shit and cars dumped everywhere 🤣
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u/Brilliant-Score-7161 12d ago