The old and the new in Brum

I was on a course in Birmingham today. It finished earlier than I was expecting and I had an hour to kill before my train, so I went for a stroll around the city centre. The city has undergone a transformation in the last 15 years or so, particularly with the redeveloped Bullring Shopping Centre.

This is taken from New Street, looking down towards St. Martin's Church. There's quite a stark contrast between the Victorian church and the ultra-modern shopping centre. The slope of the site down towards the church accentuates this contrast. The famous Selfridges building, with its bulbous shape covered in thousands of shiny discs, is just around the corner on the left at the far end of this mall.