October 2020
Forward Goes Digbeth!
Digbeth has been a constant playground, workplace and friend for most of my life.
Coming from an Irish family who arrived over a period of years in the 50s and 60s, thrust into the old back to backs in Balsall Heath, Digbeth and the Irish community who had settled there provided the support network and friendly faces that all immigrants need when they move to new countries.
As the family eventually scattered around Birmingham it was Digbeth that would be the constant thread that brought us together. Alongside the various Irish and Working Men’s clubs we’d go to such as The Three C’s, BSA Social Club and Mitchells or the churches that would host the weddings, funerals and first communions; Our Lady Help of Christians, St Dunstan’s, Corpus Christi and others lost to the mists of time, it would be the Irish Centre and St Anne’s Church that would bring the family back to a central point.
Jez (Left)
I ended up playing for St Anne’s Boy’s Football Team whose players were clearly not practising Catholic’s and it was where I’d meet Birmingham City FC legends Noel Blake, Kevin Dillion, Mick Harford, Tony Coton and others as they’d present the end of year awards. I’d watch them get drunk and we’d do the same on one of half of lager and black! I’d then go and watch Blues just up the road from Upper Trinity Street and can still vividly remember getting off the 50 bus in town, meeting mates and walking up to the ground dodging gangs of marauding Zulus and whoever the opposition fans were that day.
Back then Digbeth really was cut off from the town centre. You’d have to navigate a whole bunch of subways and underpasses that were dark, dingy and stank just to get onto Digbeth High Street. Our path would take us under the Rotunda, what is now the Bull Ring, out through the open markets, by St Martins church, under the ring road and out by a huge concrete office block. You’d then pick your way through the maze of streets of Digbeth, past the bomb site (which provided handy missiles for the ongoing battles raging all around us!) before you got to the relative, safety of the ground.
Jez (Back)
These experiences of really getting to know my way around Digbeth’s back streets came in handy a few years later when Digbeth became the centre of my post-punk and psychobilly music universe. The Barrel Organ, Digbeth Civic Hall/Institute, The Irish Centre (again!), The Wharf and later on The Medicine Bar, Rainbow and The Spotted Dog. Digbeth had a whiff of danger, an edginess and a sense that it was ‘ours’. My memories of Digbeth back then was that it really wasn’t a place you’d go if you didn’t belong there. There were no art galleries or street food (well there was a really dodgy chippie) or ghetto golf going on. If you were in Digbeth you were either going to seedy dive clubs or you were up to no good and sometimes both!
Jez (Middle)
The opening of the Custard Factory with the creative and cultural sector moving in and the redevelopment of the Bull Ring and Markets really kickstarted the Digbeth we know today. In particular, the redevelopment of the Bull Ring meant all the awful subways were swept away making the connection between the city centre and Digbeth that little bit better which in turn encouraged more arts, music and creative businesses to set up in Digbeth. For me, these were some of the best times I had in Digbeth. I worked in a recording studio, went drinking and dancing in the Med Bar, met loads of new friends and being in Digbeth felt like being in one of the really cool European cities I loved so much. It really felt that Birmingham was shedding its industrial past and beginning to make use of its Victorian buildings and warehouses and you could feel the optimism in Digbeth.
Digbeth has continued to evolve. For me, kids came along and nights out became rarer. But Digbeth was still a place I’d go to at any given opportunity. More bars, food places and gallery type spaces opened up and it was great to see new generations of Brummies discovering the area and making it their own.
And this sums up Digbeth for me. It’s always been a place of change dating back to the very first settlements that give Birmingham its name. Communities and businesses have come and gone, so have a lot of the buildings, but the spirit and unique Digbethness still remains.
The people who will live at Upper Trinity Street will be the new custodians of this unique Digbethness. It will be for them to create, shape and mould the area as they see fit. Forward is the city’s motto, Forward goes Digbeth. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Jez (Right)
