Daytripping: Birmingham. . .

I can't say that Birmingham is the most picturesque of English cities; there's a lot of gray concrete on view. But I had a full day to explore the streets and there was one new exciting building that I definitely wanted to visit.  

This is the new ten floor Central Library which opened just a few weeks ago, designed by Francine Houben. I love the boldness and the muted colours - distinctive but not too jarring with the tones of the surrounding buildings.

Here's a peek inside looking up at the escalators.

The stacks of books radiate spoke-like allowing for desks and computers to be placed all around the windows maximizing the natural light and the views.

Up on the seventh floor is "The Secret Garden".  It was a rainy day when I visited but I'm sure it would be a lovely place in the summer to sit and read a book or just enjoy the foliage.

Lots of construction work going on below but some lovely mosaic patterns on the square.

There's also a viewing spot on the ninth floor along with the Shakespeare Memorial Room which architecturally is rather splendid to peek into, but rather useless from a user's perspective.  If I were designing a Shakespeare room, I'd have plenty of editions of his works and books about him to browse through, maybe a listening area to hear great recordings of his plays or a screen with headphones to watch filmed performances. I gather this room is mostly used to host various receptions but there isn't even a table and chairs so it's not very functional for the average patron.

Speaking of Shakespeare, down on the lower level there was a lovely paper sculpture paying tribute to A Midsummer Night's Dream (sorry, I forgot to jot down the artist's name and can't find it on the library website).

Amidst all the concrete are a few notable older buildings.  I spent some time in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery which has a nice collection of Pre-Raphaelite art (Edward Burne-Jones was born in Birmingham and has a room dedicated to him) and pieces of the recently discovered Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard on display.

This is the cathedral which is located in a lovely tree-lined square.

And there is some good shopping in the city which is getting ready for its Christmas markets.  This is one of the older streets leading down to New Street, the main pedestrian shopping area. 

Which in turn leads to the Bullring shopping plaza and the juxtaposition of this rather lovely old church . . .

. . . which faces on to the iconic Selfridges building. 

I enjoyed wandering around Birmingham but a day was definitely enough to get a feel for the city even though I'm sure there are lots of interesting neighbourhoods that a local could direct me to. But from a daytripping perspective, I prefer cities with a bit more historical appeal such as Bath, York, Leeds or Manchester.

Light Night in Liverpool. . .

Toronto has its Nuit Blanche; Liverpool has Light Night, which took place yesterday.  Many of the museums, art galleries and public buildings were open late and music, food and art events were taking place all over the city, coinciding with the launch of Look /13, an international photography festival that will be taking place over the next few weeks. It was a lot of fun going from venue to venue.  We grabbed some food in the market behind the town hall . . .

 . . . before entering the hall itself which has a spectacular dome.

There was yarn bombing outside the Bluecoat.

And lots of photography within.  I particularly liked Identity Documents by Adam Lee, who photographed people's bookshelves.

There was five minute storytelling in the Anglican Cathedral in that white bubble in the middle of the pews that that zipped closed like a tent.

 Followed by a walk through the candlelit labyrinth.

But the grande finale of the evening was the opening of the new Central Library and it is truly spectacular. Located next to the Walker Gallery, here is the outside with the new cafe and patio.

You approach the entrance along a sidewalk with book titles engraved into the pavement.

And then straight into the newest part of the library.

Over to one side is the older section and where you'll find the fiction in the renovated Picton Room where you have to go up spiral staircases to access the books.  Isn't this lovely?

There are other display rooms with some of the library's rare collections including medieval manuscripts and a copy of William Morris's Kelmscott edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.  And up on the top floor is a roof top terrace with lovely views of the city.

The library was PACKED with lots of families and kids which was lovely to see. Nevertheless, I did manage to take out three great knitting books and I'll definitely be back to explore the stacks in more detail. I can see myself spending a lot of time here. A world class city always needs an amazing central library and I feel really proud and excited for Liverpool.

Double Dutch Delight. . .

The Dutch obviously love their libraries.  A few years ago I was visiting Amsterdam and was absolutely blown away by their huge central public library.  It was so sleek and modern and had a terrific cafeteria on the top floor with great views over the city (along with tasty pastries and lattes).  Now just outside Rotterdam, is a new library called Book Mountain with what may be the biggest single bookcase in the world.

Check out this video on the BBC website.  It's just incredible and so heartening to see public money being spent on making libraries beautiful spaces for all.