Birmingham: Pevsner City Guide

This is a detailed, authoritative, and easy-to-use guide to the architectural wealth of Englandand#8217;s second city, the and#147;workshop of the world.and#8221; Birminghamand#8217;s major buildings include its splendid English Baroque cathedral, pioneering Neo-Roman town hall, and still controversial Central Library of the 1970s. Streets of rich and varied Victorian and Edwardian architecture bear witness to an earlier era when Birminghamand#8217;s civic initiatives were the admiration of the country. More recently, the city has been rejuvenated with architecture on a giant scale, including the iconoclastic Selfridges and the canalside precinct of Brindleyplace, where Modernism and Classical Revival are excitingly juxtaposed.The guide also explores a variety of outer districts and suburbs, among them the famous Jewellery Quarter, the stucco villas of Edgbaston, and Cadburyand#8217;s celebrated Garden Suburb at Bournville. A connecting theme is provided by the local Arts and Crafts school, which flourished well into the twentieth century.

Andy Foster is an architectural historian based in Birmingham.