Midlands Plateau

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 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.

Old Square is a public square and road junction in the Core area of Birmingham City Centre, England.

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 'West Midlands Police Museum is located in a Victorian cell block on Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham, England, which was operational from 1891 until 2016. One of two museums operated by the West Midlands Police, (the other being in Coventry) The Lock-up is open to the public and for school/group visits and special events. Visit the website for more details: https://museum.west-midlands.police.uk. The museum houses comprehensive artifacts and archives of the West Midlands Police and its predecessors dating back to before the formation of Birmingham City Police in 1839, as well as a small collection of paintings, including a portrait of Sir Charles Horton Rafter, the longest-serving Chief Constable of Birmingham. The archives contain many records of police officers who served in the area of the present West Midlands Police and are of particular interest to genealogists.The museum re-opened in April 2022 at the Victorian listed cell block at Steelhouse Lane police station following a heritage lottery-funded refurbishment. .

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.

Steelhouse Lane police station is a former police station in central Birmingham, England. It was built for the Birmingham City Police and opened in 1933 as their Central Police Station, replacing a Victorian station on the same site. It was used by their successor, the West Midlands Police, until 2017 where they transferred to Lloyd House, also the force's HQ. The carvings over the entrances, including the coat of arms of Birmingham, are by the local sculptor William Bloye. The station sits on a plot of land at the rear of the former Victoria Law Courts (now a magistrates' court), which was originally acquired for the extension of the court building. It faces Birmingham Children's Hospital. The 1933 station itself, in neo-Georgian style is not a listed building, but the adjacent, late-nineteenth century cell block on the corner of Coleridge Passage was given Grade II protection on 8 July 1982 for its special architectural interest: the three-story building has a brick and terra cotta facade with many ornaments, and it has a slate roof. The station sits in Birmingham City Council's Steelhouse Lane conservation area, which was designated in October 1993. A tunnel links the cell block to the courts.The City of Birmingham Orchestra, (later renamed the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) held its first rehearsal in the band room at the old station, at 9.30am on 4 September 1920. For around sixty years, until closed in 2005, the station housed a private bar, allowing officers to drink when not on duty.The police station closed for the final time on Sunday 15 January 2017. There are plans to relocate the West Midlands Police Museum to the listed cell block.

The Que Club was a music venue in Birmingham, England that was famous for hosting many well-known bands and club nights. As well as hosting famous acts, the Que Club became a centre for alternative culture, including the rave music scene.The Que Club was located in the Grade II-listed Methodist Central Hall in Birmingham. The venue was opened in 1989 after the building was purchased by Rod Stewart's former manager Billy Gaff.Artists performing at the venue included Altern8, Blur, David Bowie, Carl Cox, The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Massive Attack and Run-DMC.During this time, the building still served as a place of worship when not in use as a venue.The Que Club closed in 2017. A documentary film, In The Que, has been made about the club. A retrospective exhibition to celebrate the legacy of the Que Club was held at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 2022. The photographer Terence Donovan visited the Que Club in 1996, and his photographs of the rave scene there have been exhibited.

The Methodist Central Hall, 196–224 Corporation Street, Birmingham, England, is a three-storey red brick and terracotta Grade II* listed building with a distinctive tower at the northern end of Corporation Street. The design complements the Victoria Law Courts opposite, also in terracotta, and includes eclectic details such as the corner turrets resembling Indian chattris. It is located within the Steelhouse Conservation Area. The terracotta was manufactured by the renowned firm of Gibbs and Canning of Tamworth, which also produced decorative works for 179-203 Corporation Street and the interior of the Victoria Law Courts in Birmingham and the Natural History Museum in London. It was built 1903–04 by architects Ewan Harper & James A. Harper. The main hall seated 2,000 and it had more than 30 other rooms, including three school halls. It cost £96,165. The street level has twelve bays of shops (four with their original fronts). The building also runs along Ryder Street and has more original shop fronts. In 1991, the Methodist Church was converted into the Que Club, a nightclub and music venue; however, since its closure in 2002, the building fell empty and was poorly maintained. Currently it is only partially in use and its deteriorating condition has led to it being listed on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register. The building has been the subject of various proposals for conversion to apartments and offices. In 2018 Birmingham City Council approved plans to restore and renovate the building including a 147-bed hotel.In July 2022, it was announced that Press Up Entertainment, would begin converting the building into a 150 bedroom hotel and event space following a grant of planning permission.

The Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts is a Crown Court venue, which deals with criminal cases, in Dalton Street, Birmingham, England.

Birmingham Children's Hospital is a specialist children's hospital located in Birmingham, England. The hospital provides a range of specialist services and operates the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for the city. The service operates as part of Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, whose CEO is Sarah-Jane Marsh.

Birmingham General Hospital was a teaching hospital in Birmingham, England, founded in 1779 and closed in the mid-1990s.