Birmingham Back to Backs

The Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England. Although best known as the home stage of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, it also hosts a wide variety of other performances including visiting opera and ballet companies, touring West End shows, pantomime and drama. With a regular annual attendance of over 600,000, the Hippodrome is the busiest single theatre in the United Kingdom, and the busiest venue for dance outside London.

Hurst Street is a street located along the edge of the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England.The Birmingham Back to Backs, a complex of four restored houses, extends from Hurst Street to Inge Street. They are the last surviving example of this nineteenth-century construction type in the city. Restored by the Birmingham Conservation Trust, since July 2004, they are now a museum operated by the National Trust.A number of architectural details survive in the buildings on Hurst Street, as old as lintels of 1790s design and including an automobile showroom and a large Fisher & Ludlow automobile factory from the 1930s.In the mid-nineteenth century, Hurst Street was the centre of Birmingham's Jewish community, with most Jewish immigrants to Birmingham living in slums around Hurst Street. The Hebrew National School was replaced by a new building on Hurst Street in 1843. Courses for 85 boys included Hebrew and Hebrew literature in addition to the customary school curriculum. The school relocated and the building was demolished in 1856. The Unitarian Association for the Midland Counties (later the Birmingham Unitarian Domestic Mission Society) built a chapel known as the Hurst Street Domestic Mission on Hurst Street in 1844. It had schoolrooms beneath the chapel, and additional schoolrooms behind the chapel were added later. Its large central room became known as the People's Hall, where free lectures were held. The school's efforts to educate the city's poorest children were praised by the Inspector of Schools in the 1850s.Hurst Street is the location of the Birmingham Hippodrome, a theatre specialising in ballet, opera, and musicals, which serves as the home of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Immigrants from Hong Kong moved into the area around Hurst Street in the decades following World War II, and by the 1980s the area was recognized as the city's Chinese Quarter. The area is also known as the Gay Village and the annual celebration of Birmingham Pride is centred on Hurst Street.In May 2009, the Birmingham City Council approved a £530,000 environmental improvement scheme to enhance Hurst Street and its surroundings, including the extension of street trees to the full length of Hurst Street, widening pavements to create space for café bars to provide outdoor seating, and brighter street lighting with decorative lanterns.Hurst street has been experiencing gentrification, with many City Centre Apartments being built in the district. There have been a number of complaints that the nightlife will be a nuisance for apartment owners and this has put a lot of strain on businesses in the Gay Village.

Southside is a new name for the district in the city centre of Birmingham, England. It contains the Chinese Quarter, the city's Gay Village, The Arcadian and the Hippodrome Theatre. At the end of May 2009, the Birmingham City Council approved plans for a £530,000 environmental improvement scheme at the heart of the city's Gay Village area. The changes included extending the avenue of street trees to the full length of Hurst Street and parts of Kent Street; widening pavements to create space for café bars to provide outdoor seating and brighter street lighting with decorative lanterns.

The Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England is located in the city centre's Southside. It is an area with a predominantly Chinese influence as a result of a concentration of Chinese owned businesses, organisations and social clubs. The area now covers a neighbourhood that includes Hurst Street, Ladywell Walk and Pershore Street. Many of the buildings in the area have Chinese architectural features and art including Chinese style roofs and wall murals in the Arcadian Centre depicting historical scenes typical of the Silk Road.

The Patrick Centre for the Performing Arts is a studio theatre located on Thorp Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England, next to the headquarters of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Birmingham Hippodrome (public access is via the Hippodrome). Seating 206, it is operated by DanceXchange and specialises in the staging of contemporary dance. The theatre was designed by Associated Architects and opened in 2001.

Ringway Centre is a Grade B locally listed building located on Smallbrook Queensway in the city centre of Birmingham, England. The six-storey, 230 metres (750 ft) long building was designed by architect James Roberts as part of the Inner Ring Road scheme in the 1950s and is notable for its gentle sweeping curved frontal elevation.Completed in 1962, the Ringway Centre was the first part of the Inner Ring Road scheme to be completed, and the only part with street-level shops and footways. The building currently provides office space on its upper floors and commercial space at street level.

The Birmingham Gay Village is an LGBT district or "gaybourhood" next to the Chinese Quarter in Birmingham city centre, centred along Hurst Street, which hosts many LGBT-friendly businesses. The village is visited by thousands of people every week and has a thriving night life featuring clubs, sports bars, cocktail bars, cabaret bars and shops, with most featuring live entertainment including music, dancing and drag queens.The 2017 gay, lesbian and bisexual population of the West Midlands was recorded at 2.2% or 128,920 of the estimated 5.86 million residents of the West Midlands region. In 2009, the gay and lesbian population of Birmingham was estimated to be around 6 percent or 60,000 of the estimated 1.03 million residents.

Peters Bookselling Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of J S Peters & Son Ltd., a family run business operating in the children's book selling market, and is based in Birmingham, England.

The Thorp street drill hall is a former military installation in Birmingham, England.

Centre City Tower is a commercial building in the Birmingham city centre, England owned by Bruntwood.The building's architects were Richard Seifert and Partners. The Centre City complex consists of two buildings, the Tower and the Podium. The Podium is a low-rise building that surrounds the Tower base, but (with the exception of fire escapes) there is no direct connection between the two. This arrangement means that the first floor of the Tower is at approximately seventh-floor level when compared with other buildings. When first constructed, the Podium contained at ground level a nightclub and a theatre. The theatre was a requirement of the City Council, who stipulated that a public amenity should be provided as a condition of granting planning permission. However, the proximity of three other theatres probably contributed to no-one taking up the concession to run the theatre and it remained unused until c.1990, when it and the nightclub space were converted to additional office accommodation, under the title 'Centre City Atrium'. Before building work commenced, the 'lost' theatre was featured in an article in the UK trade journal New Civil Engineer. This may explain why the street at the back of the building is called 'Theatre Approach' though the presence next door of the former Tatler Theatre may be a more convincing explanation. The Podium exterior was cleaned in mid-2006 using a power-washer. It was named as the 'ugliest building in the UK' by photography experts ParrotPrint.

The Water Services Regulation Authority, or Ofwat, is the body responsible for economic regulation of the privatised water and sewerage industry in England and Wales. Ofwat's main statutory duties include protecting the interests of consumers, securing the long-term resilience of water supply and wastewater systems, and ensuring that companies carry out their functions and are able to finance them.Ofwat primarily sets limits on the prices charged for water and sewerage services, taking into account proposed capital investment schemes (such as building new wastewater treatment works) and expected operational efficiency gains. The most recent review was carried out in 2019; reviews are carried out every five years, with the next due to take place in December 2024.The Water Act 2014 extended retail competition to all non-household customers of English water companies from April 2017 and provided for possible future competition in wholesale markets. Ofwat's role includes regulating such water and wastewater markets and promoting effective competition wherever appropriate.Ofwat consists of a board, plus an office of staff which carries out work delegated to them by the board. The Environment Agency is responsible for environmental regulation, and the Drinking Water Inspectorate for regulating drinking water quality. Water in Northern Ireland is regulated by the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation, and the supply and treatment is carried out by the government-owned Northern Ireland Water. There is no separate charge for water for residents or companies in Northern Ireland. Instead, water is paid for by the rates system. The water industry regulator in Scotland is the Water Industry Commission for Scotland.

Tin Tins was an all-night Birmingham dance club that closed in 1997. It influenced many contemporaneous and subsequent dance clubs. It was located in the current location of the Debenhams store in the Bullring Shopping Centre.