Broad Street and Hagley Road

[Derek Hardballs]

Broad Street has always been a shiny shirt and pointy shoe shithole.

[tHEgLASSdOORS]

Broad Street has always been a shiny shirt and pointy shoe shithole.

Absolutely. It was more about the shocking state of the facades and buildings. However wank it is, it’s one of the leading streets in the city for leisure, metres from the centre and it looks like Beirut

[Derek Hardballs]

Broad Street has always been a shiny shirt and pointy shoe shithole.

Absolutely. It was more about the shocking state of the facades and buildings. However wank it is, it’s one of the leading streets in the city for leisure, metres from the centre and it looks like Beirut

Outside of St Paul’s, and the very centre of town the most of Brum feels run down, unfinished and a pain to get around.

[Spandaubaggie]

The issue is similar in most cities.
It’s a complex problem consisting of urban deprivation due to austerity measures, mixed in with the cost of housing, the change in work since covid, different approaches to socialising since covid etc, etc.
As for Broad St, of all my memories as a young lad who went into Brum regularly from the early 80s, throughout the 90s, barely ever enjoyed a night out on Broad St.
Mixture of loud idiots, off their boxes, too cool for school types, and places full of shit dance music.

[tHEgLASSdOORS]

I always wondered how places became a Ghost Town before I decided to leave Birmingham a few months ago. It’s mad - just a few years ago it was experiencing migration from London as people moved into an up and coming city with relatively good affordability. Now people are leaving in their droves as the reality of deep urban decay sets in.

*deep seated urban decay

[baggy1]

The issue is similar in most cities.
It’s a complex problem consisting of urban deprivation due to austerity measures, mixed in with the cost of housing, the change in work since covid, different approaches to socialising since covid etc, etc.
As for Broad St, of all my memories as a young lad who went into Brum regularly from the early 80s, throughout the 90s, barely ever enjoyed a night out on Broad St.
Mixture of loud idiots, off their boxes, too cool for school types, and places full of shit dance music.

Got to say I'm a bit surprised with the 'barely ever enjoyed a night out' bit Spandau. Early to mid 80s was spread around town a lot more with Faces and Peppermint Place Five Ways, Liberty's, The Glasshouse and the Duck up the Hagley Road, The Powerhouse, Pagoda Park and Millionaires in the Chinese quarter, Boogies and Edwards 7 and 8 down Hurst Street and The Yard, the Midland Hotel, Le Pub, The Windsor and Snobs in the centre (That's just scratching the surface). Broad Street in the 80s wasn't really a thing, mid eighties the nightclubs were mainly around Hurst Street and only in the late 80s did it start to kick off. Late 80s and early 90s with The Brasshouse, Bobbby Browns, Ronnie Scotts and latterly Brannigans, O'Neills, and Stood Bakers was thumping on Broad Street. The addition of Brindley Place made it a cracking night out. For the youngsters on here, every one of those bars was packed and 5 or 6 deep at the bars. I think Broad Street started to die when that mega club was opened at the top of Broad Street, that basically sucked all of the punters into one place. Notable mentions for the Dome and Bonds as well as they didn't fit into the groupings above.

It's a shame how it has gone but there are still some good bars in town, mainly around the centre now, Colmore Row up to the bottom of Broad Street. Times change and there are many more restaurants and different options available and it is more spread out. Some decent pubs up in JQ as well. But to say someone rarely enjoyed Broad Street back in the day does surprise me.

[Ted Maul]

Birmingham has more good bits than bad, every city has the bit where people 'think' it's good to go out but it really isn't. Broad St is that place for Birmingham,

Moseley, Kings Heath, Stirchley, JQ, Digbeth all far better places to go out drinking. Even the city centre up towards Pigeon Park isn't that bad.

[Spandaubaggie]

The issue is similar in most cities.
It’s a complex problem consisting of urban deprivation due to austerity measures, mixed in with the cost of housing, the change in work since covid, different approaches to socialising since covid etc, etc.
As for Broad St, of all my memories as a young lad who went into Brum regularly from the early 80s, throughout the 90s, barely ever enjoyed a night out on Broad St.
Mixture of loud idiots, off their boxes, too cool for school types, and places full of shit dance music.

Got to say I'm a bit surprised with the 'barely ever enjoyed a night out' bit Spandau. Early to mid 80s was spread around town a lot more with Faces and Peppermint Place Five Ways, Liberty's, The Glasshouse and the Duck up the Hagley Road, The Powerhouse, Pagoda Park and Millionaires in the Chinese quarter, Boogies and Edwards 7 and 8 down Hurst Street and The Yard, the Midland Hotel, Le Pub, The Windsor and Snobs in the centre (That's just scratching the surface). Broad Street in the 80s wasn't really a thing, mid eighties the nightclubs were mainly around Hurst Street and only in the late 80s did it start to kick off. Late 80s and early 90s with The Brasshouse, Bobbby Browns, Ronnie Scotts and latterly Brannigans, O'Neills, and Stood Bakers was thumping on Broad Street. The addition of Brindley Place made it a cracking night out. For the youngsters on here, every one of those bars was packed and 5 or 6 deep at the bars. I think Broad Street started to die when that mega club was opened at the top of Broad Street, that basically sucked all of the punters into one place. Notable mentions for the Dome and Bonds as well as they didn't fit into the groupings above.

It's a shame how it has gone but there are still some good bars in town, mainly around the centre now, Colmore Row up to the bottom of Broad Street. Times change and there are many more restaurants and different options available and it is more spread out. Some decent pubs up in JQ as well. But to say someone rarely enjoyed Broad Street back in the day does surprise me.

Early drinking days was the likes of The Duck on the Hagley Rd. Trips to Brum consisted of The Parisian, Sam Wellers, Kaleidoscope etc. 
it seemed more manageable then. 
I liked the James Brindley.
The likes of Bakers, Brannigans etc just didn’t appeal and I went more for drinking local around Bearwood or going to Digbeth.
I guess it’s about your era. My best days of youth was in the days before then. I was mid 20s as Broad St began to get lively. By the mid 90s it was a mad house.

[GunsOfNavarone]

I had some absolutely cracking nights out on Broad Street during the 90s. Can't just be me surely? Unless it was me who was ruining other people's evenings of course     .

[tHEgLASSdOORS]

Aussie bar was often decent for sporting events and one or two other venues. Plenty that were better avoided though. Stoodis was great mid 90s music wise if a bit pretentious