FALLING THROUGH

THE CRACKS

A look at the homeless people of the city and how we see them

but we dont think about who they are as individuals.

According to a 2011 report, 1.074 million people live in Birmingham. Most of

these people have warm homes with running water and fresh food, however not everyone is that lucky, some people wake up every day, not in a nice comfortable bed, but on the streets, sleeping on cardboard in alley ways and shop fronts. There are many different reasons for why people end up without a home and with no one to care for them. They become the cities children, sleeping on its streets, drinking from its pools, eating from its bins.

Why do we walk past and act like they don’t exist? If we all simple cared a bit more

and opened our hearts just a tiny bit in order to extend the hand of friendship, then fewer people would suffer in the cold, fewer people would be without a home.

I have often been told to just walk on by and ignore their suffering, that the money I give to them would just be spent on booze or drugs. We need to say no to stereotyping, let’s not label them all as wastes of space, let’s instead think of them as less fortunate and individuals who have a name but life has sadly dealt them a harsh hand. Let us re deal the cards so that they get a chance to live, to saw, to climb out of the cracks in which society has made them fall.

I recently met a man named Andrew Curve, he filled me in on the sad truth that Birmingham only has one homeless shelter. How is anyone supposed to find help to get off the streets if there is nowhere for them to go? According to a site called Thames Reach, there are 11,155 hostel and longer-term bed-spaces in London, so why does Birmingham only have 1? Andrew said that London and Manchester both have good facilities for the homeless, but Birmingham is his home. Who are we to force a man out of his home? Also many shelters don’t allow dogs, dogs make people feel safe, they protect them and in return their owners love them and try to care for them. A lot of shelters force the homeless to choose between their companions or a bed for the night and this isn’t right.

How long will we as a city, as a country, allow this suffering to go on?

EVERYONE HAS A

STORY TO TELL

Looking Up

Under The SurfaceBirmingham has a lot of hidden history below the surface of the bricks. Beyond our eyes glancing past the buildings on our busy trips to work,

education or leisure, the city never really has the time to stare and notice the details, depth of meaning, why they are really there or who designed

them.

I had came across a man who looked very approachable. I interviewed a Birmingham art gallery and museum assistant named Simon, his family were involved in the industrial revolution. Especially the men in his family, his grandfather was a master builder and his father was a master metal worker. They are very strong trades in his family that all contributed to the city as well as the historical buildings in Birmingham. He said “I look upon the stones everyday, being very proud that my family’s efforts are in the stones.” These are the main reasons why he loves the city, why he thinks it’s fantastic,“It’s home” he summarised it. He believes many people actually do not look at the details in the buildings, they just look at them from eye level, it’s like they forget to look up Simon explained. That is the most important part of the buildings in the city, they hold the builder’s signature which is little markings in the columns. That is where you can find out information about the builder, designer as well as the ideas, concepts and meaning in the details of the buildings.

I had came across a man who looked very approachable. I interviewed a Birmingham art gallery and museum assistant named Simon, his family were involved in the industrial revolution. Especially the men in his family, his grandfather was a master builder and his father was a master metal worker. They are very strong trades in his family that all contributed to the city as well as the historical buildings in Birmingham. He said “I look upon the stones everyday, being very proud that my family’s efforts are in the stones.” These are the main reasons why he loves the city, why he thinks it’s fantastic,“It’s home” he summarised it. He believes many people actually do not look at the details in the buildings, they just look at them from eye level, it’s like they forget to look up Simon explained. That is the most important part of the buildings in the city, they hold the builder’s signature which is little markings in the columns. That is where you can find out information about the builder, designer as well as the ideas, concepts and meaning in the details of the buildings.

Left: St. Phillips Catherdral

Right: The Jospeh Chamberlain Memorial

The Jospeh Chamberlain memorial that is located directly in front of the gallery entrance, that was made in October 20th, 1880. It was made for Joseph Chamberlain a business man, councillor, mayor and member of the parliament. The spines and the capitals were design by Mr S.Barfield of Lecister, he moved to the city in 1851 to train his skills of art to art carvings. The windows in the memorial were designed by Mr John Henry Chamberlain, they often worked alongside each other.

St. Phillips Cathedral’s four glass windows were designed by Edward Burne - Jones, born on Bennett Hill, Birmingham on August 28th 1833. He depicted the Ascension, the Nativity, Crucifixion and Last Judgment between 1885 - 1891. They were created by the firm of William Morris, Edward wanted the windows to express his vision of the humaniy of Christ.

Middle: The Cube

As Simon said “ directly or indirectly we have all shaped the city.”

The history proves it. As shown two iconic buidlings were made by men from the

West Midlands or at least lived here. We have all contributed to how the city looks. It is a

shame that we never look up at the small details to appreciate the art that has been home

created.

Today the most recurring point that people recongise are the changes of the buildings in

Birmingham. The designers don’t put as much carving details into architecture as well as the

materials that they once used. Most of the budilings focus upon the compostion and

incoporate at lot of glass like The cube.Compared to the historical buildings, although

they do fit perfectly into the evolution, lifestyle but also culture of the city.

The origins of the Custard Factory

This article is about the people that make The Custard Factory what it is, from the ihidden story behind how it all started, to the excellent creative

minds that work within.

The

Cust

ard

Fact

ory

The o

rigins

of

An Entrepreneur named Bennie Gray, in 1989, acquired what

was previously the Birds Factory where custard was produced. It has

since been converted into a home for small independent businesses

in the creative industry. When Bennie first found the abandoned

custard factory, it was by accident when he was visiting a property

in the nearby Jewelry Quarter. He described the area as an

“industrial wasteland” he then went on to say “like shanty towns

near the Yellow River, China and near Mexico City. There should

not, in sensible cities, be such areas near a commercially vibrant

city Centre, such as Birmingham”. Bennie and his team had previous

experience of redeveloping such a group of buildings, as they

had revived a derelict chocolate factory in North Kensington called

Canelot, which is now used for as media, TV and film studios. There

is said to have been no analysis involved in his decision to buy the

Custard Factory, as he fell in love with “a group of magical, beautiful

buildings with tremendous spirit”. They “just bought a beautiful

group of buildings without knowing what to do with them”.

An Entrepreneur named Bennie Gray, in 1989, acquired what was

previously the Birds Factory where custard was produced. It

has since been converted into a home for small independent

businesses in the creative industry. When Bennie first

found the abandoned custard factory, it was by accident when

he was visiting a property in the nearby Jewelry Quarter.

He described the area as an “industrial wasteland” he then

went on to say “like shanty towns near the Yellow River, China

and near Mexico City. There should not, in sensible cities, be

such areas near a commercially vibrant city Centre, such as

Birmingham”. Bennie and his team had previous experience

of redeveloping such a group of buildings, as they had revived

a derelict chocolate factory in North Kensington called

Canelot, which is now used for as media, TV and film studios.

There is said to have been no analysis involved in his decision

to buy the Custard Factory, as he fell in love with “a group of

magical, beautiful buildings with tremendous spirit”.

They “just bought a beautiful group of buildings without

knowing what to do with them”.

The way the Custard Factory first became known in the creative

community was through word of mouth. “A group of actors asked

if they could use the buildings to rehearse in. Through word

of mouth, other creative people found out about the space

available and that is how the Custard Factory evolved”.

Bennie Gray spear headed all discussions and decision

making, however he did employ a post-graduate architect, Glen

Howells, who went on to establish his own successful company.

Throughout the planning of the development work they did not

engage with the local authority, but instead developed a good

relationship with the chief planner, Les Sparks and Clive

Dutton. They also consciously avoided specialist and

professionals with experience of historic buildings, as they

did not feel it was necessary.

The project was mainly funded by commercial development finance and grants from English Heritage, ERDF and Advantage West Midlands. There was no real market plan, as it was intended to be organic and marketed initially through word of mouth. The response after completion from potential tenants and purchasers was overwhelming and more positive than expected. “People are attracted because it is a creative environment and would like to be part of a community that has a sense of identity”. It is now home to over 400 creative and digital businesses, independent retail and leisure venues.

The city where the rest of the world meets. The beauty of culture exchange and how it molds out society.

As the dark months approach England and our festive season awakes, it is interest-ing to see that it is not just our most domi-nant religion that holds its holidays around this same time of year. What is seen around this time of year is numerous festivals from all over the world rejoicing in the celebration of life. Even though many of these celebra-tions are celebrated in different cultures and religions in different ways fundamentally the things they are rejoicing in tend to have very similar themes and principles. What this suggests to me is that even though these cultures and religions have been divided the main base moral stays the same revealing a well rooted deep connection between human-ity.

Birmingham is a wonderful example of how people from all sorts of backgrounds, cul-tures and religions can live with each oth-er harmoniously. One such example of this harmony is how people celebrate their own faiths simultaneous with others, for instance you can find Christians handing out Bibles

over the road from Muslims handing out the Koran. Whilst Christians and Muslims have clear similarities in their teachings and his-torically have strong connections it’s not just these two religions which thrive together on the busy streets of Birmingham. There are over 187 nationalities and around 10 estab-lished religions living peacefully together in this city; which means that only two out of the 12 months there is not some celebration going on. These festivals tend to have similar themes and its not unusual to find a house celebrating more than one festival at a time, for example most Asain and Arabic house-holds will now celebrate Christmas. When interviewed Peter Beale ,a Christian Priest, said it was ‘Birmingham’s cultural divercity’ which made this city good and its ability to ‘let different faiths coincide peacefully side by side’.

With the excitement of Halloween filling the air, Dawali the Hindus festival of light is fast also approaching. Dawali, an ancient festi-val celebrating the triumph of good over evil comes together at the start of November when the moon is the furthest away from the

over the road from Muslims handing out the Koran. Whilst Christians and Muslims have clear similarities in their teachings and his-torically have strong connections it’s not just these two religions which thrive together on the busy streets of Birmingham. There are over 187 nationalities and around 10 estab-lished religions living peacefully together in this city; which means that only two out of the 12 months there is not some celebration going on. These festivals tend to have similar themes and its not unusual to find a house celebrating more than one festival at a time, for example most Asain and Arabic house-holds will now celebrate Christmas. When interviewed Peter Beale ,a Christian Priest, said it was ‘Birmingham’s cultural divercity’ which made this city good and its ability to ‘let different faiths coincide peacefully side by side’.

With the excitement of Halloween filling the air, Dawali the Hindus festival of light is fast also approaching. Dawali, an ancient festi-val celebrating the triumph of good over evil comes together at the start of November when the moon is the furthest away from the

sun and the nights are at their longest and darkest. To combat this darkness the Hindus fill every shadowy place with candles and bright lights aswell as setting off millions of fireworks to light the way for Sita and Laksh-man, who are gods and goddesses of wealth and prosperity in the Hindu faith. Halloween, an old celebration at the end of the harvest season draws comparisons to this festival as it too is a time to celebrate the good over evil. The origins of Halloween are unclear but it holds roots in Pagan faiths to extermi-nate evil by making a mockery of it, aswell as a history in Christain faiths of celebrating the dead in order to remember saints and martyrs. It isn’t just these two celebrations which draw parallels with each other. One very good example is the Holi festival occur-ring at the same time as Easter.

So when we begin to celebrate our festivals this year, lets not forget that people all over

our city and our world will be rejoicing with us, even if it

is their own way!

Britain i s a home of many nat ional i -t ies and for se veral reasons; Largely due to Br i t ish colonies set up in-between 16-18th centur y for t rading posts , Br i ta in took responsibi l i ty of vast amounts of the world’s populat ion. In 1922 the Br i t-ish Empire held power over one -f i f th of the world’s populat ion at the t ime. This meant there where Br i t ish c i t izens scat-tered al l over the world including Afr ica and Asia. Some of these c i t izens decided to move to England in prospect of good jobs and a better qual i ty of l i fe . Another contr ibut ion to Br i tain’s densely diverse populat ion is war, when Br i tain has acted as a safe haven to those f leeing f rom genocide such as Nazi Germany or Id i Amin’s Uganda.

The result of this is that England is now a ver y diverse countr y with a v ibrant col-lect ion of hundreds of cultures making i t an excit ing place to l ive. Birmingham is a good place to feel the ful l impact of Br i ta in’s bio divers i ty as England’s second biggest c i ty i t is home to nearly 200 nat ional i t ies . Subsequently, the amount of d i f ferent languages spo -ken is enormous; when walking down the street you are met by chants, shoats and gossiping’s in a vast var iety of tongues.

There are over 250 languages communing dai ly a l l over Birmingham but what is in-terest ing to hear is the medle y and mash up of these languages as the y are met here on the streets of Birmingham.

As people converse with others f rom oth-er ethnic backgrounds most people be -gin to integrate Engl ish as their common language in with their own, a phenome -non cal led ‘pigeon language’ is formed as people use certain words to begin to understand one another. What is inter-est ing to see is that most people st ick to using certain phrases in Engl ish e ven when convers ing with someone with the same f i rst languages. The result of this is a duo language conversat ion when both part ic ipants s l ide ef fort lessly between two or e ven sometimes three languages. Is this possibly the birth of a ne w creole language born in the centre of England? Creole language is a natural language that emerges when habitants e volve their own language to be inf luenced and understood by other habitants . What with so many languages integrat ing themselves with others in the heart of B i rmingham ;I s i t possable a new language

wi l l be found?

The interactive part of our magazine; translate the text and found out what our hidden word is too win a prize! Competitors must pay a fee to enter.