Places Around B'ham #2 - Street Photography Adventures on the Bus 11 Outer Circle Route!

Have you ever been to a meetup? How about a photographers meetup?! Well, I have! Last Sunday! For the first time!

It all began near the Cross Guns Pub on the Soho Road, Birmingham. The weekend was extra hot and only 6 people have managed to show up. Never the less, the photographic adventure was still a go ahead. And after a ceremonial sit down for a cup of coffee, we began the journey down the road towards the city centre.

Now, I knew that Soho Road is full of little gems, hence I signed up to walk and shoot. But it was even better than I have imagined! You won't find anything like this sitting in the city centre - city centre has been newly developed. Go out into the area to witness the history!

When everyone else was concentrated on the life on the streets, I had my eyes up high. All these little details on the facades and odd shapes were calling me and my gear.

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And then we got our first grand stop - Shri Guru Ravidass Bhawan temple! Tempting the group to enter the courtyard, the temple felt to be a new build with the beautiful details. We did not go inside since none of us belonged to that religion and we didn't know how to behave inside.

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Just as we were all done with photographing surroundings, someone proposed to take a look at the King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for boys. According to Wikipedia ^[1], it was founded in 1862. Well worth the extra steps and a small detour!

The school building did remind me of Harry Potter for some reason, but it is one of the best in the city!

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Getting back on the Soho Road, we continued to walk and shoot. The next interesting object was the Handsworth Library. Interestingly enough, it has been a library since 1880 - that's over 100 years! ^[2] Another interesting fact is that this area was attracting wealthy people back in the 19th century ^[3], which could be the reason for many well preserved and detailed buildings in the area.

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Few more interesting random shots:

Plenty of fresh veg and fruit selling on the Soho Road.

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To finish the tour of the Soho Road, we stopped at the yet another temple - Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha. It dates back to 1970^[4] and is much bigger than the first one we saw earlier. It dazzles with reflections and tells a story right from the doorstep. You see, there are two small fountains with the swords. The meaning of this symbolic has been later shared by one of the members of the temple, who welcomed our group and invited inside (we did not go because it was nearly the end time for the meetup).

So the man told us that the sword represents the pureness and innocence - a sword of peace. The sword goes into the heart (symbolically), so, you first kill yourself before anyone else because sword represents the pureness (meaning that they should not kill). Respect life and never kill - only peace and love to one another. They come to the temple, they meditate! They welcome any religion and they respect every religion! This might not be 100% accurate since I rely on my memory under the hitting sun 😉.

Please, take a look at the last images around the temple and I hope you could visit the Soho Road once in Birmingham!

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!steemitworldmap 52.503788 lat -1.937168 long Places Around B'ham #2 - The Soho Road d3scr

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1. Handsworth Grammar School, accessed 13 May 2018. ↩

2. Handsworth Library, accessed 13 May 2018. ↩

3. 19th Century, accessed 13 May 2018. ↩

4. Guru Nanak Nishkam Sevak Jatha, accessed 13 May 2018. ↩