I took a photowalk down my local Stirchley High Street on Friday to log the growing diversity of shops I'd been noticing there of late, including a new pop-up tearoom…
There are lots of independents in Stirchley Village (as it now seems to be have been renamed), such as: P Browell Tobacconist, Wards greengrocers, Pandora's Music Box, Skinnys Ink tattoo parlour, Music Exchange, Maginnis Opticians, Wolseley Sausage Company, The British Oak pub and others.
This is NOT a homogenous high street – and all the more interesting for it. For example, how many other Birmingham high streets can boast a European consulate?
There are quite a few clusters of businesses, too: hairdressers, hydroponics shops, carpet stores, junk shops, nail bars, balti restaurants, Chinese takeaways and a growing number of estate and letting agents – a sign that things are changing for Stirchley.
But the most interesting shop for me was the pop-up tearoom on the corner of Ivy Road. It's only open for another month or so before it moves on like a magical moveable feast to Hodge Hill – but it's a lovely little place to go and hangout for a bit.
There is free tea served in bone china cups, free biscuits, art, craft and storytelling projects, community conversation and someone to reminisce about Stirchley with – in my case a former lollipop lady, who summed up Stirchley as having it all – except for parking spaces.
The tearoom events progamme is here. Some evening events are also in the pipeline, possibly a film screening and more tea-tasting sessions with Karen (pictured top).
I intend to revisit Stirchley's high street evolution in more detail in a future post, namely because I wrote my first ever published article on the breakdown of shops here. But for now here's the slideshow, or see the full set on Flickr.
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