Birmingham was booming. It was a city on the up, or so everyone said, anyway; and certainly that was easy enough to believe, if you came once a year or so for some conference or other. Each year seemingly brought fresh signs of regeneration, from the revival of its historic jewellery quarter as a creative hub to the fancy apartments shooting up, with further plans unveiled this spring for new parks and public squares.
Hosting the Commonwealth Games last year meanwhile showcased a British success story to the world: a young, energetic and culturally diverse city, with a proud industrial history of invention and the ability not to take itself too seriously. Visit England even promoted Birmingham as a swanky minibreak destination, where you could dine in Michelin-starred restaurants and tour locations used to film the BBC drama Peaky Blinders.
