Exploring Birmingham

Welcome to Birmingham! The UK’s youngest city is bursting with nightlife, public transport, canals and the well-known Bull Ring. As a student here in Birmingham, I want to take you on a written tour of all my favourite places

We’ll start at the heart of Birmingham: Grand central & New Street station. You’ll never be stranded or hungry here at Grand Central. The Pallasades shopping centre, first opened in 1971, underwent a £150 million renovation in 2015 and became Grand Central Shopping centre.

Alongside this, Birmingham New Street received a £600 million revamp. An estimated 50 million shoppers are expected to visit the shopping centre alongside 170,000 commuters travelling by train to New Street every day. So, your trains might be packed but you’ll always have a way home.

Up the escalators and a short walk through the link, you’ll be greeted by the famous Bull Ring; the UK’s first indoor mall with an estimated footfall of 36 million. The Bull Ring is filled with over 150 shops, 40 restaurants and cafes for eating, shopping and participating in activities. You might want to visit the Jelly Cat pop up store hidden in Selfridges or even build you own graduation bear at Build-a-Bear Workshop. And if that’s not enough to shop ‘til you drop, the third floor leads out into the city centre where you’ll find Lush, the world’s biggest Primark and the Christmas market.

Who could forget the well-known Brindley Place, a short walk from the city centre. Known as one of Birmingham’s most picturesque and electric destinations, with tree-lined squares, international cuisine and an enviable canal side location. There are various things to do here like going for an event at the Utilita Arena, a nice meal at a restaurant or even a trip to the sea life centre. Many of these places (Zizzi’s, Greene King & Sea Life Centre) offer student discounts so you can enjoy Birmingham on a budget.

Across the other side of New Street station is Digbeth, the most distinctive part of the city, where you can find Fang Golf, The Red Brick Market and The Custard Factory. The Custard Factory – no not an actual custard factory, at least not anymore, is 15 acres of Victorian factories that have been restored to create a creative hub home to many shops, cafes, bars and restaurants at the heart of Birmingham’s buzzing creative quarter.

Fang Golf is an 18-hole course surrounded by amazing designs, a DJ, street food and cocktails. It’s a perfect day out for anyone ages 18+. Digbeth is also home to many independent markets, which if you’re a student on a budget, may be beneficial.

The Red Brick Market is an independent market offering shoppers a unique experience. This hidden treasure allows permitted sellers to not be present for the sales of their goods and instead has one payment desk at the front of the store. The store is packed with independent creatives from sustainable fashion, homewares, antiques and random items you never knew you needed!

But my main focus here is the university options. As it stands Birmingham is home to 5 universities: Aston University, Newman University, Birmingham City University, University of Birmingham and University College Birmingham. My personal choice of university was University College Birmingham because their digital marketing course contained more interesting modules than other universities in the area. However, my university is ranked last of all the Birmingham universities according to IDP. University of Birmingham is the highest ranked university in Birmingham and ranked second in the West Midlands missing out on the top spot to Warwick University.

Over here at UCB, we spend our lectures working really hard (looking at armchairs for hamsters) and we even spend our breaks being productive too (cheeky trip to the Sea Life Centre and a pint at Spoons). And sometimes we like to sing Christmas songs while walking back to the train station.

Even though we rank lowest out of all five universities in Birmingham, UCB is a 10-minute walk from the train station, so you’ll always make the next possible train home. The route surpasses an effective tramline that was renovated in 2022 after being scrapped in 2015.

And this recent year the university’s library has been moved into a public building next door to Birmingham city library and the tramline could be an effective method of transport to get there if you have accessibility issues. It also means our campus is within walking distance of Birmingham City’s library if you were looking for an excellent study space that is home to two roof top gardens and a classic spiral stair case leading to a large range of books for borrowing and studying.

And that wraps up my written tour of Birmingham City centre! It’s a cracking place for student night life and general activities. And there’s so many universities for you to choose from if you’re in the area or choosing to study here! I recommend studying in Birmingham because of the reliable public transport and the vast amounts of activities suitable for everyone!