The last time I was in central Birmingham was 13th March 2020. I took the following week off sick, probably with COVID-19, and then after that, my office shut and we were all instructed to work from home until further notice. It's only now some 18 months later that the company I work for have started to re-open their office to staff and yesterday, Tuesday 3rd August was my first time back in the office since March last year! I sort of documented the day in an IG reel (minus the boring me-sat-in-an-office bits) which you can see by clicking this bit of text but whilst I was there, I had a little bit of time to shoot some photos before I had to jump on a train home so I tried to hit up some of the major hotspots I used to see in Birmingham on a daily basis:
R.I.P Jessops!
It was weird to be in the Bull Ring and see Debenhams closed, having been there for as long as I've been going to Birmingham which is something nuts like 20 odd years and I was disappointed, but not surprised, to see Jessops had gone. But it was great to see the new Selfridges art installation, whilst they refurb the building, and I'm hoping to get back there at some point next week to snap some better photos!
On the subject of next week, it will be my last week working in central Birmingham as I'm moving jobs to a new company South-West London based, but the role will be remote based full time, which better suits my relocation plans. It's bittersweet, as I'm looking forward to the new role and excited about moving further south, but Birmingham feels like home to me and I've always enjoyed working in the city centre, so a part of me will miss it but I guess I'll be able to come back and visit if I'm ever in the area in the future!