Birmingham

Birmingham is twinned with:. The heart may also be illustrated as an icon (♥), symbolizing love. Among the city's notable scientists and inventors are:. It can vary from one to four chambers (2 atria and 2 ventricle). Local inventions and notable firsts include: gas lighting, roller skate wheels, the Baskerville Font, questionnaires, Custard powder, foam rubber, the magnetron (the core component in the development of radar and microwave ovens), the UK electroplating industry, the first ever use of radiography in an operation, and the UK's first ever hole-in-the-heart operation, at Birmingham Children's Hospital. Different species have different heart chambers. Birmingham is also the hub for various national ethnic media, including The Voice, The Sikh Times, Desi Xpress, The Asian Today and Raja TV (based in the Mailbox). It resembles venison in structure and taste.

Local radio stations include BRMB, Galaxy, BBC WM and Heart FM, and Kerrang, Birmingham's first dedicated rock station. They are counted among offal, but being a muscle, the taste of heart is much more like regular meat than that of other offal. The Central TV and BBC studios are famous for many shows, including Tiswas, Crossroads, Dalziel & Pascoe, Midlands Today, the BBC Asian Network,. The hearts of cattle, sheep, pigs and certain fowl are consumed as food in many countries. The BBC has its regional headquarters, BBC Birmingham, in the Mailbox, in the Convention Quarter (where they relocated from Pebble Mill), and many television and radio programes are produced in the city, including the world's longest running radio soap opera, The Archers. The earthworm has a series of multiple primitive hearts. StarCity is said to be Europe's largest leisure and cinema complex and is not far from the Britain's only permanent drive-in cinema maintained by T-Mobile; both are in Nechells. The Gray Whale's heart beats 9 times per minute, Harbour Seal 10 when diving, 140 when on land, elephant 25, human 70, sparrow 500, shrew 600, and hummingbird 1,200 when hovering.

The Birmingham Film Festival takes place annually, and the Birmingham School of Acting won a Royal Television Society award for their short film 'Soul Boy'. See "Early development" above for information about the early human heart rates. The Electric Cinema on Station Street is the oldest working cinema in the UK, and Oscar Deutsch opened his first Odeon cinema in Perry Barr during the 1920s. This is evident within a species as well, as the young beat their hearts faster than the adults. Birmingham is unusual in supporting two local newspapers - the Birmingham Post and the Evening Mail - as well as the Sunday Mercury, all owned by the Trinity Mirror, who also produce The Birmingham News, a weekly freesheet distributed to homes in the leafy surburbs along with Forward, the Birmingham City Council's free newspaper distributed to homes and via community centres and public buildings. Smaller animals have faster heartbeats. Patrick's Day parade (Europe's second largest, after the one in Dublin). Birds and mammals show complete separation of the heart into two pumps, for a total of four heart chambers; it is thought that the four-chambered heart of birds evolved independently of that of mammals.

The city's largest single-day event is its St. The blood from the single ventricle is then pumped to both the lungs and the body tissues, an type of double circulation. The city also hosts an annual arts festival (Artsfest) during September, where people can enjoy many of the regions' arts, free. Blood from both the body and the lungs is pumped into the single ventricle, where unoxygenated and oxygenated blood may mix. Birmingham Pride takes place in the 'gay village' and attracts up to 100,000 visitors each year. Amphibians and reptiles have a three-chambered heart: two atria and one ventricle. The currently biennial Caribbean- style Birmingham International Carnival was originally the Handsworth Carnival, held in Handsworth Park from 1984, but now takes place in the August of odd- numbered years, parading through the streets of Handsworth to Perry Barr Park. The blood pumps through the gills and on to the the body tissues without returning to the heart.

The Birmingham Tattoo is a military show that has taken place in the city for several years. In fish, the system has only one circuit. George's Day party. The heart of fish have only two chambers: one atrium and one ventricle. Birmingham is home to many national, religious and spiritual festivals including a St. If an automated external defibrillator is available, this device may automatically administer defibrillation if this is indicated. Graffiti (or "spraycan art") culture appeared in the early 1980s, and graffiti art competitions are still regularly held. If a person is encountered in cardiac arrest (no heartbeat), cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) should be started, and help called.

Other famous Birmingham artists include David Cox, David Bomberg, and various Afro-Caribbean artists including Pogus Caesar, Keith Piper and Donald Rodney. See cardiac arrest for emergencies involving the heart. For a fuller list of art galleries in Birmingham, see Arts in Birmingham. See also: Cardiology diagnostic tests and procedures. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts was declared 'Gallery of the Year' by the 2004 Good Britain Guide. The transplant team was headed by Christiaan Barnard. Edward Burne-Jones was born in Birmingham, spent his first twenty years in the city, and later became the president of the Birmingham Society of Artists. At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, 53-year-old Louis Washkansky on December 3, 1967 became the first human to receive a heart transplant (however he died 18 days later from double pneumonia).

Birmingham has one of the largest collections of Pre-Raphaelite art in the world at The Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Nitroglycerin and other compounds that give off nitric oxide are used to treat heart disease as they cause the dilation of coronary vessels. Auden and Benjamin Zephaniah. Beta blockers are drugs that lower the heart rate and blood pressure and reduce the heart's oxygen requirements. H. If a coronary artery is blocked or narrowed, the problem spot can be bypassed with coronary artery bypass surgery or it can be widened with angioplasty. Tolkien, Arthur Conan Doyle, Louis MacNeice, Washington Irving, David Lodge, W. Important diseases of the heart include:.

R. The study of diseases of the heart is known as cardiology. R. The heart also secretes ANF (atrial natriuretic factor), a powerful peptide hormone, that affects the blood vessels, the adrenal glands, the kidneys and the regulatory regions of the brain to regulate blood pressure and volume. Literary figures associated with Birmingham include Samuel Johnson , J. In the event of severe pathology, the Purkinje fibers can also act as a pacemaker; this is usually not the case because their rate of spontaneous firing is considerably lower than that of the other pacemakers and hence is overridden. The Fierce Festival teams with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre annually to present an series of quirky performances from local and national companies. The time taken for the wave to reach this node from the sinoatrial nerve creates a delay between contraction of the two chambers and ensures that each contraction is coordinated simultaneously throughout all of the heart.

The Mac and Drum arts centres also host many professional plays. Once the wave reaches the atrioventricular node, situated in the lower right atrium, it is conducted through the bundles of His and causes contraction of the ventricles. The four largest professional theatres are the Alexandra Theatre ("the Alex"), Birmingham Repertory Theatre ("The Rep"), the Birmingham Hippodrome and the Old Rep. The sinoatrial node, often known as the cardiac pacemaker, is located in the upper wall of the right atrium and is responsible for the wave of electrical stimulation (See action potential) that initiates atria contraction. There are many theatres in Birmingham. The rhythmic sequence of contractions is coordinated by the sinoatrial and atrioventricular nodes. Birmingham's other city-centre music venues include The National Indoor Arena (NIA), the CBSO Centre, Adrian Boult Hall at Birmingham Conservatoire and Birmingham Town Hall (currently closed for refurbishment). The heart's rhythmic contractions occur spontaneously, although the frequency or heart rate can be changed by nervous or hormonal influences such as exercise or the perception of danger.

Albert William Ketèlbey was born in Alma Street, Aston in 1875. This is in contrast with skeletal muscle, which requires either conscious or reflex nervous stimuli. Music was written for the festival by Mendelssohn, Gounod, Sullivan, Dvorak, Bantock and most notably Elgar, who wrote four of his most famous choral pieces for Birmingham. Cardiac muscle is self-exciting. The Birmingham Triennial Music Festival took place from 1784 - 1912 and was considered the grandest of its kind throughout Britain. Finally complete cardiac diastole involves relaxation of the atria and ventricles in preparation for refilling with circulating blood. The equally world-renowned Birmingham Royal Ballet also resides in the city as does the world's oldest vocational dance school, Elmhurst School for Dance. The ventricular systole consists of the contraction of the ventricles and flow of blood into the circulatory system. Again, once all the blood empties from the ventricles, the pulmonary and aortic semilunar valves close.

The internationally-renowned City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's home venue is Symphony Hall, where it gives frequent performances. It is the closing of the valves that produces the familiar beating sounds of the heart, commonly referred to as the "lub-dub" sound due to the closing of the semilunar and atrioventricular valves. Digbeth, near the city centre, features some of the country`s top dance clubs, and the nearby National Exhibition Centre has played host to the biggest indoor dance events in the country. This prevents any backflow into the atria. Birmingham has also been synonymous in the development of the British electronic music scene. Once the blood has fully left the atria, the atrioventricular valves, which are situated between the atria and ventricular chambers, close. Party in the Park, a popular chart music event, is Birmingham's largest music festival. Every single beat of the heart involves a sequence of events known as the cardiac cycle, which consists of three major stages: atrial systole, ventricular systole and complete cardiac diastole. The atrial systole consists of the contraction of the atria and the corresponding influx of blood into the ventricles.

Jazz is popular in the city, and the annual Birmingham International Jazz Festival is the largest of its kind in the UK. The function of the heart is to pump blood around the body. The Streets), R&B singer Jamelia and Editors. See main page cardiac cycle. Recent chart success has come from Mike Skinner (a.k.a. The blood supply to the heart itself is supplied by the left and right coronary arteries, which branch off from the aorta. The 1980s brought Duran Duran, possibly the most successful new romantic group, and Dexy's Midnight Runners, and the 1990s the Charlatans, Dodgy and Ocean Colour Scene. The endocardium is a further layer of flattened epithelial cells and connective tissue which lines the chambers of the heart.

Singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading had many hits during this decade. Beneath this is a much thicker myocardium made up of cardiac muscle. The 1970s also saw the rise of reggae and ska in the city, with Steel Pulse and later on UB40, The Beat and Musical Youth. The first is the outer epicardium which is composed of a layer of flattened epithelial cells and connective tissue. In the 1970s members of The Move and The Idle Race formed the Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard. The heart wall is made of three distinct layers. Robert Plant and John Bonham came from nearby towns, and played in local Brum Beat bands before forming two thirds of Led Zeppelin. The contractile nature of the heart is due to the presence of cardiac muscle in its wall which can work continuously without fatigue.

The city is often described as the birthplace of heavy metal music, with Judas Priest and Black Sabbath coming from Birmingham. Even though the ventricles lie below the atria, the two vessels through which the blood exits the heart (the pulmonary artery and the aorta) leave the heart at its top side. In the 1960s, the "Brum Beat" era featured blues and early progressive rock bands such as The Fortunes, Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, The Move and The Moody Blues. As the right ventricle needs to pump blood only to the lungs, it requires less muscle. Although its music scene is not as renowned as those of Liverpool or Manchester, Birmingham has had a vibrant and varied musical history over the last half-century. The left ventricle is much more muscular (1.3 - 1.5 cm thick) than the right (0.3 - 0.5 cm thick) as it has to pump blood around the entire body, which involves exerting a considerable force to overcome the vascular pressure. The BBC Good Food Show takes place at The National Exhibition Centre, and is Britain's biggest food event. Even the lungs take some of the blood supply from the aorta via bronchial arteries.

The city boasts two Michelin starred restaurants: Simpson's and Jessica's, both in Edgbaston. The left ventricle then pumps the blood through the aorta to the entire body. The Balti was invented in the city and has since received much gastronomic acclaim for the 'Balti Belt' of restaurants in the Sparkbrook, Balsall Heath and Ladywood areas. From the left atrium this newly oxygenated blood passes through the mitral valve to enter the left ventricle. This later became The Darjeeling, the first Indian restaurant in Birmingham. The oxygenated blood then flows through pulmonary veins to the left atrium. In 1945, Abdul Aziz opened a cafe shop selling curry and rice in Steelhouse Lane. In the lungs gaseous exchange takes places and the blood releases carbon dioxide into the lung cavity and picks up oxygen.

The Wing Yip food empire first began in the city and now has its headquarters in the Chinese Quarter. The right ventricle pumps the deoxygenated blood to the lungs, through the pulmonary artery. Ladypool Road, Sparkhill contains the largest concentration of restaurants in Birmingham and possibly the UK. The blood then passes through the tricuspid valve to the right ventricle. Alum Rock Road, Alum Rock, contains the largest concentration of take-away businesses in Birmingham. Oxygen-depleted or deoxygenated blood from the body enters the right atrium through two great veins, the superior vena cava which drains the upper part of the body and the inferior vena cava that drains the lower part. Famous food brands from Birmingham include Typhoo tea, Birds custard, Blue Bird Toffee, Bournville cocoa, Cadbury chocolate, and HP Sauce. On both sides, the lower ventricles are thicker than the upper atria.

The Anchor Inn (1797), is also nearby in Digbeth. The left side (see left heart) collects oxygenated blood from the lungs and pumps it out to the body. The oldest inn in Birmingham is the Old Crown in Deritend (circa 1450). this happens through a process called diffusion. Many fine Victorian pubs and bars can still be found across the city. The function of the right side of the heart (see right heart) is to collect deoxygenated blood from the body and pump it into the lungs so that carbon dioxide can be dropped off and oxygen picked up. Aston Manor Brewery is currently the only brewery of any significant size. Finally complete cardiac diastole involves relaxation of the atria and ventricles in preparation for refilling with circulating blood.

Birmingham based Breweries included Ansells, Davenports and Mitchells & Butlers. Again, once all the blood empties from the ventricles, the pulmonary and aortic semilunar valves close. Birmingham has been awarded the title National City of Sport by the Sports Council. Valves between the atria and ventricles (atrioventricular valves) maintain coordinated unidirectional flow of blood from the atria to the ventricles.The ventricular systole consists of the contraction of the ventricles and flow of blood into the circulatory system. Birmingham also has a professional Rugby Union side, Moseley RFC, and there is professional basketball, boxing, hockey, skateboarding, and greyhound racing in the city. A septum divides the right atrium and ventricle from the left atrium and ventricle, preventing blood from passing between them. The world's first professional football league was founded at a meeting in Aston on March 22, 1885 under the auspices of William McGregor, a director of Aston Villa. It consists of four chambers, the two upper atria (singular: atrium) and the two lower ventricles.

The city is home to two of the UK's oldest professional football teams: Aston Villa (1874) and Birmingham City (1875), both of whom currently play in the Premier League. In normal adults, its mass is 250-350 g, but extremely diseased hearts can be up to 1000 g in mass. The first ever game of lawn tennis was played in Edgbaston in 1859; international tennis is still played at Edgbaston's Priory Club. A stethoscope can be placed directly over the apex and count the beats. The NIA also hosts events in many other sports, such as the World Indoor Badminton Championships. The apex is the blunt point at the base of the heart. The National Indoor Arena (NIA) meanwhile is a major indoor athletics stadium and in 2003 hosted the 9th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics. It is enclosed by a sac known as the pericardium and is surrounded by the lungs.

International athletics meetings take place at the open-air Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr, the home of Birchfield Harriers athletic club, which numbers many Olympic medallists among its past and present members. In the human body, the heart is normally situated slightly to the left of the middle of the thorax, underneath the sternum (breastbone). A cricket club was in existence in Birmingham as early as 1745, and today the city is home to Warwickshire County Cricket Club whose ground at Edgbaston is also a venue for international test matches. [2]. King Edward's School is perhaps the most prestigious independent school in the city. There is no difference in male and female heart rates before birth. A minority of the city's children receive private education. After the 15th week the deceleration slows reaching an average rate of about 145 (+/-25 bpm) bpm at term.

It also runs the library service, with 4 million visitors annually [6], and provides around 4000 adult education courses throughout the year [7]. After peaking at about 9.2 weeks after the LMP, it decelerates to about 150 bpm (+/-25 bpm) during the 15 week after the LMP. The city council is England's largest local education authority, directly or indirectly responsible for 25 nursery schools, 328 primary schools, 77 secondary schools [4] and 29 special schools [5]. [1]. The Birmingham Conservatoire and Birmingham School of Acting, both now part of UCE, offer higher education in the arts. This acceleration is approximately 3.3 bpm per day, or about 10 bpm every three days, an increase of 100 bpm in the first month. It also has two other higher education colleges (Newman College and the Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies). It then accelerates linearly for the first month of beating, peaking at 165-185 bpm during the early 7th week, (early 9th week after the LMP).

Birmingham has three universities: the University of Birmingham, Aston University and the University of Central England (UCE). The human heart begins beating at a rate near the mother’s, about 75-80 beats per minute (bpm). Birmingham's canals are comparatively shallow artificial channels, while those in Venice are primarily reinforced natural channels between islands of the lagoon on which the city stands. The human embryonic heart (EHR) begins beating at approximately 21 days after conception, or five weeks after the last normal menstrual period (LMP), which is the date normally used to date pregnancy. Although this is in some sense correct (Venice has 26 miles), Birmingham is far larger [3], and the types of waterway are very different. . The abundance of canals has led to the frequently made claim that "Birmingham has more canals than Venice". The term cardiac means "related to the heart", from the Greek kardia (καρδια) for "heart".

There are 35 miles (60 km) of canals in the city, most remaining navigable. The heart (Latin cor) is a hollow, muscular organ that pumps blood through the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions. Birmingham is also notable for its canal system; formerly the lifeblood of the city's industries, their use is now mainly for pleasure. Congenital heart defects. The city's main station, Birmingham New Street, is at the centre of the national rail network, whilst Birmingham International railway station serves Birmingham International Airport which has flights to cities across Europe and several Asian and North American destinations. It is sometimes treated by implanting an artificial pacemaker. The number 11A and 11C outer circle bus routes are the longest urban bus routes in Europe. Cardiac arrhythmia is an irregularity in the heartbeat.

Local public transport is by bus, local train and tram (the Midland Metro light railway system between the city centre and Wolverhampton). Endocarditis and myocarditis are inflammations of the heart. Junction 6 of the M6 is also one of Birmingham's most famous landmarks, and probably the most famous motorway junction in the UK: Spaghetti Junction, officially called the Gravelly Hill Interchange. Congestive heart failure is the gradual loss of pumping power of the heart. It is served by a number of major roads, including the M5, M6, M6 Toll, M40, and M42 motorways. A heart attack occurs when heart muscle cells die because blood circulation to a part of the heart is interrupted. Due in part to its central location in England, Birmingham is a major transport hub on the motorway, rail, and canal networks. Coronary heart disease is the lack of oxygen supply to the heart muscle; it can cause severe pain and discomfort known as Angina.

For a larger list see List of famous residents of Birmingham. Tolkien, and Ozzy Osbourne are a few of the many famous names associated with Birmingham. R. R.

Neville Chamberlain, J. See also Places of interest in Birmingham. Birmingham is also the seat of the Government Office for the West Midlands region. Birmingham's eleven constituencies are represented in the House of Commons by one Conservative, one Liberal Democrat, and 9 Labour MPs.

There is a Conservative/Lib-Dem coalition, with Conservative group leader Mike Whitby as Leader of the council and Lib-Dem group leader Paul Tilsley as Deputy Leader. After the election of 10 June 2004, there is no overall control, with the 120 seats being divided between the Labour, (53 councillors), Conservative (39) and Liberal Democrat ("Lib-Dem", 28) parties. Birmingham City Council is the largest local authority in the UK with, following a reorganisation of boundaries in June 2004, 120 councillors representing just under one million people, in 40 wards. There has been a lot of new building in the city centre in recent years, including the award-winning Future Systems' Selfridges building, an irregularly-shaped structure covered in thousands of reflective discs (see picture), the Brindleyplace development and the Millennium Point science and technology centre.

In more recent years, Birmingham has learnt from what many see as the mistakes of the 1960s and instituted the largest tower block demolition and renovation programmes anywhere in Europe. The planning decisions of the post-war years were to have a profound effect on the image of Birmingham in subsequent decades, with the mix of ring roads, shopping malls and tower blocks often referred to as a 'concrete jungle'. In inner-city areas too, much Victorian housing was redeveloped and existing communities were relocated to tower block estates like Castle Vale. However, the destruction that took place in post-war Birmingham was also extensive: dozens of fine Victorian buildings like the intricate glass-roofed Birmingham New Street Station, and the old Central Library, were razed in the 1950s and 1960s and replaced with modernist concrete buildings.

Continued population growth in the interwar period, saw vast estates of semi-detached houses being built on greenfield land in outlying parts of the city such as Kingstanding and Weoley Castle, but the coming of World War II and the Blitz claimed many lives and many beautiful buildings too. Across the city, the need to house the industrial workers gave rise to miles of redbrick streets and terraces, many of back-to-back houses, some of which were later to become inner-city slums. The characteristic materials of Victorian Birmingham are red brick and terracotta, and many fine Victorian buildings have been retained on New Street and Corporation Street in the city centre. Saint Chad's Cathedral, built in 1839 by Augustus Pugin, was the first Roman Catholic Cathederal to be built in the UK since the Reformation.

Major public buildings such as the Town Hall, the Law Courts, the Council House (see picture) and the Museum & Art Gallery were constructed, many under the auspices of Joseph Chamberlain's reforming mayoralty. The Victorian era saw extensive building across the city. Tolkien). R.

R. Among them are St Philip's Cathedral, originally built as a parish church, St Paul's Church in the largely Georgian St Paul's Square, Soho House in Handsworth, the home of Matthew Boulton, and Perrott's Folly in Ladywood (which is said to have later inspired J. The city grew rapidly from Georgian times and a number of buildings survive from this period. A few other buildings from the medieval and Tudor periods survive, among them The Old Crown public house in Digbeth, the 15th century Saracen's Head public house and Old Grammar School in Kings Norton and Blakesley Hall in Yardley.

The current church (begun around 1290) was extensively re-built in the 1870s, retaining some original walls and foundations. Traces of medieval Birmingham can be seen in the oldest churches, notably the original parish church, St Martin's in the Bullring, where a church has stood since at least the 12th century. Consequently, relatively few buildings survive from its earlier history. Although Birmingham has existed as a settlement for over a thousand years, today's city is overwhelmingly a product of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, as the real growth of the city began with the Industrial Revolution.

Attractions for visitors include Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Millennium Point, Bull Ring, Selfridges Building, Cadbury World, Tolkien Trail [2], Birmingham Royal Ballet, and the National Sea Life Centre. Millions of people visit Birmingham every year, and in 2004 the city was named the second best place to shop in England after the West End of London [1]. In recent years Birmingham's economy has diversified into service industries, retailing, tourism and conference hosting, which are now the main employers in the city. Lloyds Bank (now Lloyds TSB) began in 1765 and the Midland Bank (now part of HSBC) opened in Union Street in August 1836.

Two of Britain's "big four" banks were founded there. The city attracts over 40% of the UK's total conference trade. Birmingham has over 500 law firms, and is Europe's second largest insurance market. Other famous brands from the city include Bakelite, Bird's Custard, Brylcreem, BSA, Cadbury's chocolate, Chad Valley toys, Halfords, HP Sauce, Typhoo Tea and Valor.

Scientific research (including research into nanotechnology at the University of Birmingham) is expanding in the city. The city's present day products include motor vehicles, vehicle components and accessories, weapons, electrical equipment, plastics, machine tools, chemicals, food, jewellery and glass. However, the future for the former looks bleak, as MG Rover went into administration in 2005, resulting in the plant being mothballed and the loss of 6,000 jobs at the site, plus more in the supply chain. Birmingham was home to two major car factories: MG Rover in Longbridge and Jaguar in Castle Bromwich.

The city's workers designed and constructed railway carriages, steam engines, bicycles, automobiles and even – unusually for somewhere so far from the sea – ships, which were made as pre-fabricated sections, then assembled at the coast. James Watt improved the Steam Engine while working in the city, and historically the largest manufacturers in the city have been associated with the steam, electric and petrol transport and power industries. Until 2003, coins for circulation were manufactured in the Jewellery Quarter at the Birmingham Mint, the oldest independent mint in the world, which continues to produce commemorative coins and medals. The Jewellery Quarter is still the largest concentration of dedicated jewellers in Europe, and one third of the jewellery manufactured in the UK is made within one mile of Birmingham city centre.

Pen manufacture in Birmingham helped revolutionise writing across the world with many companies based in and around the Jewellery Quarter. During the Industrial Revolution many factories, foundries and businesses prospered in the city, including the areas known as the Gun Quarter and Jewellery Quarter. Birmingham's industrial heritage predates the Industrial Revolution, and up until the 20th Century the city maintained a tradition of individual craftsmen, sometimes working independently in their own back yards or on piecework rates in rented workshops, alongside larger factories. Over a quarter of the UK's exports originate in the greater Birmingham area.

Birmingham is an important manufacturing and engineering centre, employing over 100,000 people in industry and contributing billions of pounds to the national economy. To the south west of the city lie the Clent Hills and Walton Hill, which reach 315 m and have good views over the city. The watershed of the River Severn and River Trent can clearly be seen along the Perry Barr area of Birmingham and areas near Erdington where the level and gradient of the land changes significantly. This high ground makes Birmingham prone to tornadoes which were witnessed in mid-2005.

The main north-south watershed of Britain actually passes through Birmingham. The city of Birmingham is situated on an area of high ground, around 150-200 metres above sea level. Birmingham's transition from an industrial centre to a tourism and services economy is best illustrated by the hosting of the first official summit of the G8 at the International Convention Centre (May 15 to May 17, 1998). In the decades following World War II, the face of Birmingham changed dramatically, with large scale immigration from the Commonwealth of Nations and beyond.

In recent years however, Birmingham has been transformed, the city centre has been extensively renovated and restored with the construction of new squares, the restoration of old streets, buildings and canals, the removal of the pedestrian subways, and the demolition and subsequent redevelopment of the Bull Ring shopping centre, which now includes the architecturally unique Selfridges building. As a result, Birmingham gained a reputation for ugliness and was frequently described as a "concrete jungle". Birmingham suffered heavy bomb damage during World War II, and partly as a result of this the city centre was extensively re-developed during the 1950s and 1960s, with many concrete office buildings, ring-roads, and now much-derided pedestrian subways. The city absorbed Sutton Coldfield in 1974, and at the same time became part of the new West Midlands county.

Birmingham was originally part of Warwickshire, however the city expanded in the late 19th and early 20th century, absorbing parts of Worcestershire to the south and Staffordshire to the west. The city built it's own university in 1900, The University of Birmingham, which became the first of Britain's Redbrick universities. Birmingham's importance led to it being granted city status in 1889 by Queen Victoria. It became known as the "City of a thousand trades" due to the wide array of industries located there.

During the Victorian era, the population of Birmingham grew rapidly to well over half a million and Birmingham became the second largest population centre in Britain. And this was soon followed by the Great Western Railway's Snow Hill station. New Street Station was opened as a joint station in 1854. Railways arrived in Birmingham in 1837, with the opening of the Grand Junction Railway and later the London and Birmingham Railway the railways soon linked Birmingham to every corner of Britain.

By the 1820s an extensive canal system had been constructed; Birmingham is often described as having more miles of canals than Venice. From the 1760s onwards, a large network of canals were built across Birmingham and the Black Country, to transport raw materials and finished goods. Unlike many other English industrial cities such as Manchester, industry in Birmingham was based upon small workshops rather than large factories or mills. During the Industrial Revolution (from the mid 18th century onwards), Birmingham grew rapidly into a major industrial centre.

Arms manufacture in Birmingham became a staple trade and was concentrated in the area known as the Gun Quarter. Birmingham manufacturers supplied Oliver Cromwell's forces with much of their weaponry during the English Civil War. In the 17th century, Birmingham became an important manufacturing town with a reputation for producing small arms. By the 16th century, Birmingham's access to supplies of iron ore and coal meant that metalworking industries became established.

As a convenient location for trade, Birmingham soon developed into a small but thriving market town. In the 12th century, Birmingham was granted a charter to hold a market, which in time became known as the Bull Ring. It was first recorded in written documents by the Domesday Book of 1086 as a small village, worth only 20 shillings. Birmingham started life as a small Anglo-Saxon hamlet in the Early Middle Ages.

The Birmingham area was occupied in Roman times, with several military roads and a large fort. (paloma). In this time, it has grown from a tiny Anglo-Saxon farming village into a major industrial and commercial city. Birmingham has a recorded history going back 1000 years.

. Around 30% of Birmingham's population is of non-white ethnicity; at the time of the 2001 census, 70.4% of the population was White (including 3.2% Irish), 19.5% Asian or Asian British, 6.1% Black or Black British, 0.5% Chinese, and 3.5% of mixed or other ethnic heritage. Birmingham is an ethnically and culturally diverse city. There is a distinctive Brummie dialect and accent.

This comes in turn from the city's dialect name, Brummagem. The people of Birmingham are known as 'Brummies', a term derived from the city's nickname of Brum. It forms part of the larger West Midlands conurbation, which has a population of 2,284,093 (2001 census) and includes several neighbouring towns and cities, such as Solihull, Wolverhampton and the towns of the Black Country. The City of Birmingham has a population of 992,400 (2004 estimate).

To this day over a quarter of the UK's exports originate in the greater Birmingham area. The city's reputation was forged as the powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, a fact which led to Birmingham being known as "the workshop of the world". It is England's "second city" and is the largest of England's core cities. Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the English West Midlands.

See also the Black Country. Towns: Bedworth, Cannock, Kenilworth, Kidderminster, Nuneaton, Redditch, Royal Leamington Spa, Rugby, Solihull, Stafford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Tamworth, Warwick,. Cities: Coventry, Leicester, Wolverhampton, Worcester. John Wright, inventor of a type of electroplating.

James Watt, engineer and inventor; associated with the steam engine. Joseph Priestley, chemist and radical. Alexander Parkes, inventor of celluloid, the first synthetic plastic. Sir Francis Galton, originator of eugenics and important techniques in statistics.

Matthew Boulton, proprietor of the Soho engineering works. Victoria Square. Town Hall. Sutton Park.

St Philip's Cathedral. Sarehole Mill. National Sealife Centre. National Indoor Arena.

The Mailbox. mac. Jewellery Quarter - The largest concentration of dedicated jewellers in Europe. Gun Quarter - Once the foremost gun manufacturing community in the UK.

Convention Quarter. Chamberlain Square featuring a BBC Big Screen. Central Mosque. Centenary Square.

Cannon Hill Park. Cadbury World. The Bullring. Brindleyplace - Canalside development.

Blakesley Hall. Birmingham Thinktank - Science Museum. Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

Barber Institute of Fine Arts. The Back to Back houses. Aston Hall.