Birmingham's buzzing!
More hotel rooms, an iconic city skyline,
new restaurants, shops and visitor attractions….
Birmingham is buzzing in 2008.
Birmingham’s continued renaissance - confirmed by a series of new developments, which are
set to burst onto the scene next year and 2009 - will reinforce the city’s position as one of
Europe's premier leisure destinations.
In 2006, 30 million people visited Birmingham, so plans for more hotel rooms to welcome
more visitors are well under way. Travelodge, the UK's leading budget hotel chain, will open a
new 100 room hotel in the historic Jewellery Quarter. In the city centre, a new boutique hotel is planned for the city’s financial district in Colmore Row, and the up-and-coming Irish Quarter is looking forward to the creation of a 180-bedroom hotel in a development of offices, bars, restaurants and shops. Out of town in leafy Edgbaston, a £100-million retail and leisure
development is also being created opposite the world famous Warwickshire Cricket Ground.
As well as featuring a 190 bedroom hotel, it will also include the biggest public square in the city, with a boulevard that will link Edgbaston Cricket Ground to Cannon Hill Park. Two new hotels will allso open next to Birmingham International Airport – IBIS and E-tap in the Autumn of 2008. Elsewhere, the accommodation base for the city will be completely revamped following the completion of multi-million pound plans to refurbish the Marriott Hotel, Crowne Plaza Hotel, and the out-of-town Belfry Hotel. The latter is an ambitious five-year project, but visitors to the city will benefit from the changes to the Marriott and the Crowne Plaza during 2008.
Planning permission for a spectacular new tourist attraction has been submitted which will
become a dazzling feature of the rapidly changing Birmingham skyline. VerTiPlex is a
200 metre leisure and observation tower, and the first of its kind in Europe - will be developed
next to Millennium Point to provide a futuristic tourist attraction and another iconic landmark
building for the city. Once open, the £60million development will offer a truly spectacular
experience, including a freefall parachute drop on the outside of the tower, a flight trainer over
the edge of the tower terrace 300 feet up, a bungee drop ride, and a high level seesaw ride.
Two storeys at the top of the building will feature a restaurant and integral bar, and an
observation area with café-bar boasting views of the city and far beyond. 20,000 sq m of leisure space at the base of the tower will include a 250 bedroom hotel.
Yet another landmark building to appear on the Birmingham skyline is The Cube – a £100m
development of cutting edge canal-side apartments, with a premier class restaurant on its top
floor. The internationally renowned architects MAKE, led by Ken Shuttleworth, are creating a
17-storey cube aimed at providing a spectacular contrast to the increasing number of towers
appearing on the Birmingham cityscape. Inside, The Cube will feature a stunning open atrium
that twists and climbs the height of the 450,000 square foot building. Lined with coloured glass and with an exterior clad in shimmering metallic fretwork, the concept has visible links to Birmingham's heritage in engineering and jewellery manufacture. A rooftop restaurant and
boutique hotel will give public access to the building. Exclusive retail outlets at ground floor
level will add to the shopping opportunities already available across the city.
Also putting its stamp on Birmingham’s skyline is the V Building from world-class architect Eric Kuhne. Striking and breathtaking, it will become one of Britain’s tallest residential buildings and most imposing structures, scraping the sky in a graceful ascent of luminescent, latticed glass.
The V Building’s lighthouse-like quality proclaims it a shining symbol of new Birmingham; the
City’s undisputed sentinel, comprising over 600 private residential apartments, 60 serviced
suites, sky bar, spa, library and reception rooms.
As the hub of the West Midlands and Central England, getting to the city is even easier.
Birmingham’s airline links to Birmingham International Airport grew last year with routes
to Toronoto, Waterford, Lyon, Bratislava and Geneva. This year new routes from BMIbaby to
Krakow in February and Milan (Bergamo) in April with Montego Bay and the Dominican Republic from Thomsonfly are waiting to be launched.
Once here, making your Euros disappear will be a difficult choice from the 1,000 shops,
including department stores, designer boutiques, independent shops, Victorian Arcades and all the major high street names, Birmingham is a shopper’s dream. Women in Birmingham spend more on fashion than in any other UK city and Birmingham has been ranked as the best shopping destination in the UK outside London. Harvey Nichols has extended to include new lines and five new stores opened in the Bullring at the end of last year.
Birmingham’s hidden gem is the Jewellery Quarter In addition to the many independent
shops - including those housed within the eclectic Custard Factory - Birmingham also possesses the unique Jewellery Quarter, where beautiful hand-crafted jewellery can be purchased or special designs commissioned. The historic village-like Quarter is home to well over 500 jewellery businesses operating in surroundings which date back over 250 years, and which now offer everything from cufflinks to candelabras. (While the candlesticks for Elton John's weddings were made here, any visitor can create their own piece of bespoke jewellery!). One of the most unusual 'attractions' of the Jewellery Quarter is St. Paul's Gallery, where visitors will now find the world's largest collection of album cover fine art.
If retail therapy doesn’t float your boat a more leisurely activity is the newest attraction - the
transformation of Newman Brothers Coffin Works into a museum. The £3.4-million scheme
is aimed at 'breathing new life' into the three-storey Grade II listed building which once
provided for the funerals of Churchill, Chamberlain and Princess Diana. The decaying works in the Jewellery Quarter was one of England's only remaining funeral furniture manufacturers. As well as presenting all of the artifacts which were left intact when the company closed in 1999, the project also hopes to add five commercial units to the rear of the works to help local jewellery companies prosper within an historic and creative environment.
Birmingham's eating-out experience is, today, worth a trip itself. And the opening of Michelin- starred chef Glynn Purnell’s new restaurant, Purnell’s brought another mouth-watering prospect to the city. 32-years-old 'Brummie', Glynn Purnell, will now offer the adventurous and innovative cuisine that won him one of the city’s first two Michelin stars in 2005 as Head Chef at Jessica’s Restaurant in Edgbaston. Across the city, Mechu Bar and Grill has been re-launched, and now pushes the "New York vibe" in Birmingham to the next level! The upper floor at Mechu, is now a private VIP club lounge with 'Dom Perignon by Night' status - offering luxury booths, cocktails and of course, champagne. With a stylish nod to the sixties, the interior is a visual treat. Think Mary Quant deluxe with a dash of Paco Rabanne.
Finally, on the arts and culture scene, Birmingham has some of the hottest tickets around.
The world renowned City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra will welcome a new Music
Director for the 2008/09 season – 29 year old Latvian, Andris Nelsons. Hot house of
contemporary dance, DanceXchange, and the UK’s busiest theatre outside of London the
Birmingham Hippodrome are hosts to the city’s first International Dance Festival between
28th April and 24th May. The International Dance Festival will capture the imagination with a
world-class programme that encompasses all styles of dance and expresses the youthful,
diverse and energetic spirit of Birmingham. It will bring outstanding dance from across the
globe, showcasing the work of world-renowned dance companies including Kirov Ballet and
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, alongside specially choreographed commissions and
large-scale participatory and site-specific performances. Akram Khan,MBE, presents his new
collaboration with National Ballet of China, bahok, as one of the many Festival highlights.
For press information, images or itineraries for media visits, contact:
Tracey Saunders, Head of PR & Corporate Affairs at Marketing Birmingham on
0121 202 5002 / 07984 410462 / tracey.saunders@marketingbirmingham.com.
Marketing Birmingham is the destination marketing agency for the Birmingham City
region. It is a public–private partnership supported financially by Birmingham City
Council and some 400 member companies. It raises additional commercial revenue
through the provision of a hotel accommodation and conference booking service.
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