January 16th – Scooting between Snow Hill and New Street to change trains on the way home, this snatched photo. On the left, the ‘new’ New Street, ugly as sin, dysfunctional, with a cheap, tinfoil gimcrack cladding that shows every careless dent and poor alignment in fitting. 

In the centre, Birmingham’s postwar Brutalist architecture, and on the right, something altogether older.

In the middle, people, lights and a city hiding and surviving beneath the rule.

I love this place with all my heart. Even the ugly bits.