I never thought I’d hear myself say it… But I like [the] “new” Bullring. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s big, it’s new and it’s shiny… oh, and it’s in Birmingham. Bet you’re dying to visit it now.
First things first – why the name “Bullring”? Is there a bullfight, fiesta and local holiday in Birmingham that the rest of the country’s been missing out on? No. The site has always been the market centre of the town/city and somewhere under the new development and a long, long time ago, was a pen, shaped like a ring, in which cattle, perhaps sometimes even bulls, were kept. To call the modern centre “Bullring” seems ironic at first, but visit it on a Saturday afternoon when lots of people are all crammed into a small space and all around them things are being sold… and well, it seems the joke’s on us!
One thing which does annoy a few of us is that the definite article has been dropped from the name and the two words “Bull” and “ring” which work perfectly well separately, should now be elided. I don’t know which bright spark in marketing thought this was a good idea, but not only is it not a word, but any sentence containing it, is no longer grammatically correct. It seems old habits die hard: no-one leaves out “the” in a sentence like: “I’m going to [the] Bullring”. This unnecessary alteration of the language to make a “new” marketing or branding statement is annoying and unnecessary… Grrrrrrrrr.
Ahem, I’ll just hop down off my soapbox now.
The developers would have us believe that this is no ordinary shopping centre: it has its own website to show how forward-thinking and über-modern it is. The site itself is pretty well designed. It’s easy to use and find what you’re looking for within a few clicks and sensible search categories - one caveat, though. The map's fun, but no real use because you can't click on a unit to get the company inhabiting it’s name.
The site also contains a mass of information about the site and its history, which sets the scene nicely:
Britain’s second city has a long history as a leading centre of trade and market innovation. Its earliest transformation, in the 1200’s, from an agriculturally insignificant village into one of the greatest industrial cities in the world, earned it a reputation as ‘The city of a thousand trades’. Birmingham’s importance has been forged and fashioned by its own people. It is not a site of strategic defensive importance, and has no castle, port, or river. The city emerged solely as a result of its ability to craft, manufacture, and trade goods.
What they’re telling us is “this whole city is all about making and selling stuff and it always has been”. This comes as no surprise to the industrious locals, but may come as a shock to those who view Birmingham as a place where there are two footie teams, a few jewellers and a load of people with bad accents.
It's open 9.30am - 8pm every day except Sunday, when it’s open 11am – 5pm.
I'll include the full alphabetical list of the girly shops because it's quite impressive: All Saints, Bank, Barratts, Benetton, Billabong, D2, Debenhams, Eisenegger, Elle, Etam, FCUK. Fiorelli, Gap, H & M, Jane Norman, JD Sports, Karen Millen, Kookai, Lacoste, Life, Logo, Mango, Massimo Dutti, Miss Sixty, Monsoon, Morgan, New Look, Next, Nike, Oasis, Pilot, Principles, Quiz, Reiss, Republic, River Island, Scotts, Selfridges, Timberland, Topshop, USC, Wallis, Warehouse, West One, and Zara. Phew!
Men's fashion is equally well catered for: All Saints, Bank, Barratts, Benetton, Billabong, D2, Debenhams, Eisenegger, FCUK, Gap, H & M, JD Sports, Lacoste, Life, Massimo Dutti, Mexx, Monserrat, Next, Nike, Reefer Menswear, Reiss, Republic, River Island, Scotts, Selfridges, Suits Direct, The Link, Timberland, Topman, USC and Zara.
There's a Borders bookshop - finally some competition to jolt Waterstones into some kind of shape! Debenhams are crowing about the fact that they've seen fit to come back to Brum after a 30 year absence (and created 1000 jobs in the process). This is good, but I rather suspect it's just them trying to glean some coverage in the face of the new Selfridges...
There are no less than 3 lingerie shops?! Athena makes a comeback and there's another HMV, while the independent Music Zone have a opened a second, smaller shop there. The Virgin Megastore is moving from its current position which has become a bit of a backwater and into Pavilions Central (which is another shopping mall, right next to the new Bullring). This is a pretty canny move as they will grab lots of attention with a large shop front facing on to New Street but without the extortionate Bullring rent!
For "proper eating" there's Café Rouge, Nando’s and an Italian place called del Villagio. There were a lot more licensed premises applications on the railings about two years ago, and I thought they might have made more of the night-time aspects - St. Martin's Square is accessible 24/7 and has some giant glass cube water features, but maybe more will gravitate there in time.
There are also the usual cafés and snack places: the obligatory bagel place (Bagel Nation), another Baguette du Monde, both Ben's and Millie's Cookies, another Burger King, another Druckers, EAT (posh sandwiches), another Greggs bakery, Benjy's (which is a sandwich shop but with the confusing strapline "Benjy's - Less Bread"?!), Muffin Break, Mr Pretzels (which is either an unfortunate surname or a poor attempt at a cutesy name...), Pizza Hut, Smoothers and Shakers (it’s in the name), two branches of Starbucks and the all-new Tiffin Bites (Indian food on the go).
I think there's been a certain amount of bandwagon jumping going on in view of the number of shops who've doubled (sometimes even tripled or more) their presence in the city with another store/outlet in the Bullring. There were a few un-let or unfinished units that stood empty for a while, but it’s pretty close to full now.
Which is a shame because there just aren’t enough escalators. The Bullring is shaped like a kidney bean with St. Martin’s church in the concave bit and the Rotunda by the convex bit. The whole site has a 19 metre slope from the Rotunda side to the St. Martin’s side and the design takes this into account. There are three levels and all three are accessible by paths without steps to make the whole place as accessible to as many people with different needs as possible (though some of these paths take very “scenic” routes).
The two sides have a department store each: Debenhams and Selfridges and on each side and each level there are only two escalators up and down. I have never seen people queuing to use an escalator before, but that’s what’s happening here. This is a pretty nig design fault until you realise that many of the stores span two levels and they have their own escalators with no queues! There are steps and lifts, but only at the very end of each half of the kidney bean because the middle has been severed on the top level to allow the “historic” view of the newly refurbished St. Martin’s church to be returned to the city.
Overall impression was that it's very similar to every other "mall experience" in the UK. The architecture is an odd mixture of ultra-modern (all the glass), with shanty town/earthquake area (the green corrugated roofing!), with chinatown (some odd green structures...). And as seems to be the way with all Brum's new ventures, they have created some "outside spaces" (Rotunda and St. Martin's Squares) in which they will put "events" to draw/annoy the crowds.
I have to say, when I first saw it, I wasn’t sure about the long-lasting appeal of the Selfridges building, but a) next to the newly cleaned St Martin's it looks quite cool, b) compared to the rest of the rather dull architecture of the Bullring, it looks quite cool and c) in any kind of lighting (rain, sun, sunset, overcast etc) it looks really rather excellent because each atmospheric happening brings out a different reflection. There are even flashing lights on the Moor Street side which I might not have put there in case of accusations of space travel, but overall and from an entirely aesthetic viewpoint (I am a graphic designer by trade, so I’m qualified to make this kind of judgement!) it gets the thumbs up!
I think many other city centre stores must have timed events to coincide with the Bullring opening (for instance, Rackhams renamed itself House of Fraser and gained a gourmet Food Hall), but the knock-on effect of the Bullring’s opening is still rippling through them (and the rent!) and bringing some much-needed rejuvenation to them all. They need to look good to compete, so the local shop-fitters have been very busy!
All in all, I think that the Bullring has already had a positive impact on Birmingham and the wider West Midlands region, but more than that, I think it has taken a tiny, baby step to improving people outside of the region's perceptions of it and the city. What more could you ask of a humble shopping mall?
This article now appears (in a shorter form!) on the fabulous Travel Insights - a site to visit and be inspired... to write and to travel!