Soho Road

My other half was working in Oldbury so I arranged to meet her after work which meant that I had a good excuse to walk West of the city centre.

Getting off my bus a couple of stops before the terminus enabled me to fill in a gap along the A47 as it passes Birmingham Metropolitan University.

From here I made my way, past the old fire station and St. Chads Cathedral, one of 3 cathedrals in the city. St. Chads, at the foot of Old Snow Hill is the Roman Catholic version whilst St. Phillips (C of E) and St. Andrews (Orthodox) make up the triad.

I continued up Old Snow Hill which becomes Constitution Hill before changing again to Great Hampton Street.

Glancing skyward (which is a great idea as so much architecture can be missed) I spotted a pelican perched on a roof. Apparently, the building under the pelican used to belong to T. Wilkinson & Sons, electroplaters whose company logo was, you guessed, a pelican. The company moved away a long time ago but the bird remains.

Great Hampton Street becomes Hockley Hill becomes Soho Hill becomes Soho Road. As the road changes names, there is the magnificent Guru Nanak Nishkam Sevak Jatha, Sikh Temple which covers 25,000 square metres, including over 100 rooms for followers to stay for the night.

Further along I passed The Rhodes Alms Houses, erected in 1871 to accommodate 16 ladies in reduced circumstances. The buildings are still used in the same way, now being sheltered housing.

After passing churches, sikh temples and mosques, I came across the Chùa Từ Đàm, Buddhist Temple. All those religions in only a couple of miles!

After another change of name (Holyhead Road), I turned left along Middlemore Road reaching the boundary with neighbouring Smethwich.