Birmingham: 14/4/23

 My windburn is no better, which leads me to think that the moisturizer I am using may be making it worse. I will try and find an alternative tomorrow. And the laptop has died again, so postings may be short unless it recovers.

Went into Birmingham today by train, getting out at the massive new New Street Station in the middle of town. There is a big museum and art gallery here, but it's closed for maintenance, so I had decided instead to go and see The Backs, a historical re-creation of six back-to-back houses in what was one of the poorer sections of town. Most of these have been demolished, but they saved these ones just in time.  I wasn't able to get in for the morning session, so I booked for 2.30 and went off to find the Science Museum, further out of town. This took me through some very desolate industrial wastelands, and eventually to a blocked road, but I was able to get through by following a path along -- you guessed it -- a canal. I can't escape the damned things.

The Science Museum wasn't huge, but the quality of the exhibits was excellent, particularly on the ground floor, where they have some of the largest and oldest steam engines ever built. Further up there was a Hurricane and a Spitfire on display, and a smaller ecological gallery, with fossils and stuffed animals, presumably because the main museum is closed. The museum is attached to the University, and I had a coffee in a rather bleak little cafe on the top floor before heading out with a couple of hours to kill before The Backs. I spent some of them in a very odd museum which used to be a coffin fittings factory. They made handles, and nameplates, and stitched shrouds, right up into the 1960s, and all the equipment and fittings are still there, presided over by a crew of elderly and slightly obsessive volunteers. 

So are The Backs, incidentally, although their staff seem to be slightly more with it. There were a dozen of us on the tour, led by a smallish, completely bald man called John: and he trooped us up and down stairs and in and out of rooms as he filled in the grim history of it all. There were sometimes up to 70 people living in six three-room houses, including lodgers, and one of the last occupants was a prominent tailor from the Caribbean who made -- amongst other things -- dress uniforms for the Horse Guards and clothes for Gaddafi's bodyguards.

Came out into drizzle and caught the Coventry train almost immediately on reaching the station. The fare was actually quite reasonable -- GBP10 return for a 50k trip. Headed back to the hotel through a park which also brought back a few memories. Finished my supplies, and turned in.


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