Birmingham Dispatch

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Did Birmingham have to go bankrupt?

1 week ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

A few weeks ago I was standing in front of my window with a cup of coffee, watching the world go by. A tiny woman walked past, hauling around five massive black bin bags behind her. As she reached the gate of the adjoining property, she quickly glanced around, making sure there were no witnesses and, one-by-one, threw each bin bag over the fence. My fence. As she turned around, I caught her eye and she sprinted off.
The Cadbury's superfans being left behind

1 week ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Anya Ryan

Until three years ago, Emma Tighe’s kitchen was painted in a rich, dark, and unmistakably Cadbury shade of purple. The shelves housed mugs in the shape of cocoa beans, old metal chocolate boxes, and egg cups with the Creme Egg logo on. Her collection spilled out in the form of 1920s enamel signs pinned to the walls and Victorian hot chocolate containers stacked above the cupboards. All of it was official Cadbury’s merchandise, of course. “My kitchen was completely dedicated to Cadbury’s,” she says.
Lost Tamworth cottages and why Birmingham should twin with L.A

2 weeks ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

A quick reminder that right now, we're running a special 50% Spring discount. If you're yet to sign up to a full Dispatch membership — that's access to all our editions, events and exclusives in your inbox and online — now you can, for just £1 a week. Back local journalism now, for less than the price of a morning coffee. Where I’m from: As some of you might have gauged, horrifyingly — I’m not from Birmingham. However, my life is full of distant Birmingham and West Midlands connections.
Fireworks, fraud accusations and fallouts at the Westside BID

2 weeks ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

In the heady summer of 2022, while Birmingham was hosting the Commonwealth Games, two leaders of the Westside Business Improvement District (BID) were compering a comedic parallel, the ‘Commonman Games,’ in the Walkabout Bar.
Samuel McIlhagga

2 weeks ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

Gerald Manton and Mike Olley were firm friends until they weren’t. What happened?
An abandoned warehouse in Digbeth caught fire last night - who owns it?

1 month ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Michele Paduano |Birmingham Dispatch

Dear readers — welcome to your Monday briefing. A landmark warehouse in Digbeth went up in flames yesterday after a pile of rubbish caught alight. Samuel was there in minutes and then went digging in the land registry to see what he could uncover. His findings lead to a lot more questions — see below. We also have an exclusive, involving over a thousand patients who may have been harmed as a result of treatment delays overseen by a troubled Birmingham NHS trust.
The future of Birmingham’s symphony orchestra is uncertain. Can grime help?

1 month ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Kate Knowles

In 2015, UK grime made an explosive return to the mainstream. Artists achieved global recognition and started climbing the charts. And as the year edged to a close, Birmingham MC, Lady Leshurr (government name: Melesha Katrina O'Garro), released the fourth part in a musical series cheekily titled ‘Queen’s Speech’.
With Rembrandt, a bid for relevance?

1 month ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

A selection of magnifying glasses are fanned out across a tiny table placed at the entrance. A gallery attendant kindly explains, in excruciating detail, that the prints I’m about to see are very small. I notice few visitors employing these props. Instead, almost everybody uses their eyes, crouching next to the prints we’re all here to see.
Is this millionaire councillor lying about his address?

1 month ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Kate Knowles

I’m sitting in an Air BnB bedroom, trying to decide if I should finally start watching Severance, when I hear a key turn in the front door downstairs. I freeze, hunched over my laptop as feet ascend, the unknown visitor getting closer with each step. True, the flat I’m staying in has two bedrooms to rent, but the friendly man who let me in earlier assured me that no one else was booked in tonight. Who could it be?
Sparkbrook’s pigeon plague

1 month ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Alex Taylor

“You’ve got it all wrong,” warns a small man in his eighties, pushing a loaded shopping trolley. It squeaks across the pavement. “The pigeons didn’t just arrive one day: they’ve always been here. We all know what they want too.” He raises a weathered hand from the sleeve of his jumper, and gestures toward the carpet of birds obscuring the tarmac of the Aldi car park in Sparkbrook. Hundreds — and I mean hundreds — of pigeons surround us, pecking calmly around my trainers.