Ancient and Modern

Well fairly old and newish.  The narrow boats are in Gas Street Basin and the walk way is the Worcester Bar behind is the Alpha Tower.

The Worcester Bar was a complete block between the Birmingham Canal Navigation and the Birmingham and Worcester canal.   The BNC insisted on this so that the Birmingham and Worcester Canal didn't "steal" their water.  The result was that cargo had to be man handled over the 7 foot wide strip of land and to allow plenty of space for this the bar is 84 yards long.  Now sanity has prevailed and there is a single width cut through the bar.

The Alpha Tower was was built as the ATV centre.  Since ATV closed in 1982 it was used by Birmingham City Council until 2010.  Now there doesn't seem to be much going on in there.  It is however a grade 2 listed building.

The shot was taken from the foot bridge over the gap in the bar as I took the long way round back to the hotel to pick up my luggage before heading home.  I took the long way round as the conference had finished early with all motions debated.