Old Square, Birmingham

The Upper Priory Cotton Mill, opened in Birmingham, England in the summer of 1741, was the world's first mechanised cotton-spinning factory or cotton mill. Established by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt in a former warehouse in the Upper Priory, near Paul's house in Old Square, it was the first of the Paul-Wyatt cotton mills that used the roller spinning machinery that they had developed and that had been patented by Paul in 1738, that for the first time enabled the spinning of cotton "without the aid of human fingers". Wyatt had realised that this machinery would enable several machines to be powered from a single source of power: foreseeing the development of the factory system, he envisaged "a kind of mill, with wheels turned either by horses, water or wind."

The Priory or Hospital of St Thomas of Canterbury was a house of Augustinian canons in medieval Birmingham. The institution is referred to in sources as either a priory or a hospital, but the two roles were often overlapping or interchangeable during the medieval period, as all monastic institutions were supposed to care for the poor, sick and itinerant. The priory was situated north of Bull Street - then called Chapel Street after the priory's chapel of St Mary - in an extensive tract of its own land that extended as far as the Prior's rabbit warren or conygre, now marked by Congreve Street near Chamberlain Square. The date of the priory's foundation is unknown, but numerous later records suggest that it was established by a member of the de Birmingham family. The first record of the priory occurs in 1286, when gifts of property from three local land-owners were licensed to be held in mortmain; and a pardon issued in 1310 for the failure to similarly license thirty-three other donations of land suggests that the priory was thriving at this time. In 1344, however, its management was severely criticised by a visitation, and it was extensively reformed by the Bishop of Lichfield. This seems to have been effective and resulted in a further series of endowments, including the establishment of a chantry in its chapel.The priory was dissolved in 1536 with the banning of smaller institutions at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The chapel survived ten years beyond the priory's dissolution to support its chantry, until it too was dissolved in 1546-1547. The priory's estate was sold and redeveloped as Old Square. Large numbers of human bones were found during the development of the priory's land for housing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including some found to the south of Bull Street which may suggest either that a second graveyard existed south of Bull Street, or that the original line of Bull Street may itself have lain further to the south. This has been taken by some historians to indicate that the chapel may have been the original church of Birmingham and preceded the establishment of St Martin in the Bull Ring, though other historians doubt this.

The Pitman Vegetarian Hotel was a hotel that opened in 1898 in the County Buildings (now Grade II* listed), Corporation Street, Birmingham, England, as an expansion of a vegetarian restaurant on the same site. The manager was James Henry Cook. According to his daughter, Kathleen Keleny, it was named after Sir Isaac Pitman, then vice-president of the Vegetarian Society. It was still operating in the 1930s. The same proprietor ran the Pitman Health Food Co. (also called Pitman Reform Food Stores) at Aston Brook Street, Birmingham, advertising in 1909 as "The Largest Health Food Dealers in the World". Selling direct and by mail order, it manufactured meat-free products including Pitman Sea-Side Paste, Pitman Savoury Nut Meat, Nuto Cream, Brazose Meat, Vigar Extract, Vegsal Soups and Fruitarian Cakes and wafers. It also sold cooking utensils such as the Pitman Steam Cooker, a multilevel boiler and steamer.Mahatma Gandhi is known to have received jars of Nuto Cream and Nuto Cream Soup from the company.After the War, Pitman Building's warren of rooms housed Chest Xray, and various voluntary organisations under the aegis of Birmingham Voluntary Service Council, and its General Secretary Michael C Matcham, including Citizens Advice Bureau, Visiting Service for Old People, Personal Service Committee (administering SSAFA funds), Byv, Adventure Camps, Spode Holidays, Rubella playschemes, Lee Bank Saturday playscheme.

The Midlands Plateau is a plateau covering approximately 3,200 km2 in the Midlands of England, bounded by the Rivers Severn, Avon and Trent. The plateau is made up of three subdivisions: the Birmingham Plateau forms the central core, separated by the valley of the River Blythe from the East Warwickshire Plateau to the east, and by the valley of the River Stour from the Mid-Severn Plateau to the west.

Forum Birmingham is a music venue located in Dale End, Birmingham, West Midlands, England.

Omega Sektor was a computer gaming centre brand, which previously owned two venues in the UK. One smaller venue was based in Harrow, the other on Corporation Street in Birmingham. The Birmingham venue claimed to be the largest of its kind in the Europe. The centre cost approximately £4 million and opened its doors to the public on Saturday 11 August 2007, with a VIP opening day on the 10th. The building was previously occupied by Virgin Megastores. The centre occupied 22,000 square feet (2,000 m2) and contained consoles including one PlayStation 3 (which is mainly used for tournaments) and Xbox 360s in addition to over 250 high-spec PCs. The centre also included an internet café, a VIP room for private events, large plasma screens and projectors scattered around the centre and a sound-proof room where music videos were displayed.

Martineau Galleries is a proposed mixed-use development for Birmingham, England which was shelved in 2009 but re-approved in 2020. It was to connect the Eastside to the city centre core, a major retail area.

The Victoria Law Courts is a red brick and terracotta judicial building, which accommodates Birmingham Magistrates' Court, on Corporation Street, Birmingham, England. It is a Grade I listed building.

The Colmore Building, formerly known as Colmore Plaza, is a 14-storey office building in the Colmore Business District area of Birmingham City Centre.

Bull Street tram stop is a tram stop on the West Midlands Metro tram system serving Bull Street in the Birmingham city centre, England. Construction started in June 2012, and it was opened on 6 December 2015, becoming the first stop of the city-centre extension to open, and the first on-street tram stop to operate in Birmingham since the closure of the Birmingham Corporation Tramways in 1953, and the temporary southern terminus of the service. The rest of the extension to Grand Central was opened on 30 May 2016, and then onto Edgbaston Village in July 2022. Work started on a new line to Birmingham Moor Street in 2022 which will be gradually extended to the eventual terminus at Birmingham Airport. To allow for the new connection to be made it became necessary to temporarily terminate all trams at Bull Street.

McLaren is a 69-metre, 21 storey tall office building in Birmingham, England. Designed by Paul Bonham Associates and built in 1972, it is a thin brown office building and currently the 16th tallest occupied building in Birmingham. Originally it housed part of the staff training department of Midland Bank, now HSBC. The building is owned by property company Bruntwood who purchased it from the Birmingham Alliance in 2008.It is situated on the edge of two redevelopment sites to the south and east. Masshouse to the east and Martineau Galleries to the south are due to be redeveloped at some time in the future. The entrance is on Priory Queensway, and near the junction with Moor Street Queensway. During 2009 the building was renovated with its exterior glazing given a fresh look. As at December 2012 the building was 65% occupied.

Martineau Place is a shopping centre located in the city centre of Birmingham, England. It contains a mixture of shops and restaurants, with the emphasis on food and drink which is located on the roofs of the shops. Retailers include Sainsbury's, Deichmann, Boots, Argos and Poundland, the upper levels of the centre include a 168-room hotel. It is located on land bounded by High Street, Union Street, Bull Street and Corporation Street, with primary retail frontages on all these streets. It is directly opposite the House of Fraser department store, formerly known as Rackhams. The Martineau Way pedestrian route runs through the centre of Martineau Place, and includes further retail frontages. This also connects the Centre to main thoroughfare New Street (via Union Passage) and to the separate Priory Square shopping centre (via Dalton Way).