Summary (by AI): I found my visit to the Bullring worthwhile, largely due to its fascinating history and architectural evolution despite the modern shopping centre itself being fairly standard.
Blog: The Bull Ring is one of those places that I have a very strong mental image of in my head. I was born in 1969, so I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and you just used to see photos and pictures of it on the telly—this great big concrete monstrosity. When I was looking for a shop or an emporium to visit, I thought to myself, "Well, the Bull Ring is a famous shopping centre, so that’s a pretty perfect place to go and have a look."
Before I went, I started to do some research. I’d always wondered how the Bull Ring got its name. Obviously, we all know about Spanish bullrings, but it turns out this was for a completely different reason.
In medieval Birmingham history, this area was essentially the meeting point and the marketplace. What they used to do was hammer a massive iron ring into the ground, tether bulls to it, and bait them with dogs. Back in the day, they believed that baiting the bull and making it highly stressed would make the meat more tender. Obviously, it didn’t, and it was a really barbaric act, but that’s what they did. And that is how the Bull Ring got its name.
After the medieval period and through the Victorian era, there was a big push to develop the area. It still remained very much a market, full of butcher shops and the like, but the Victorian planners ended up creating a covered market with a great big, ornate roof. Unfortunately, the Luftwaffe got hold of it during the war and bombed the shit out of it.
After the war, they decided to regenerate the area, but they weren't particularly sophisticated in terms of their urban planning theories. There was a big theory at the time that the car and the city needed to be brought closer together. So, they built this great big inner ring road around the Birmingham city centre—a horrible concrete monstrosity of a road—and inside it, they built the Bull Ring. It was actually Europe’s first indoor shopping centre, apparently.
But they got it all wrong. They didn’t really think about the aesthetics or how people would actually walk through it. It meant people were constantly funneled into horrible, dark, concrete underpasses and tunnels. Because of that design, the whole thing just fell apart over the course of the 80s and 90s.
Cut to the chase: they have obviously redeveloped it again now. There is a great big, architecturally interesting building covered in little round discs, which is Selfridges. It’s become the centerpiece of the modern renaissance of the area, which apparently isn't even called "The Bull Ring" anymore—it's just "Bullring."
As I walked through, having come out of the station, I saw one of the greatest things about the whole place: a huge statue of a bull called "Ozzy the Bull." It's made of what looks like bronze and sits inside New Street Station. It is massive and definitely worth a look.
I had a walk through the main shopping centre, which is obviously just like any other modern shopping centre, and ended up in the area where the old market used to be.
All in all, was it worth a visit? It was definitely worth coming here, if only for the history I researched beforehand. That part of it was amazing.
The Map: