Gay Birmingham

Birmingham’s gay village is in the Southside area around Hurst Street, south of Birmingham Hippodrome theatre and the plethora of restaurants of the city’s Chinese Quarter. As well as pagodas and oriental-influenced architecture, look out for a gay piece of street art: a sparkly, rhinestone-encrusted rhinoceros on the roof of Wynner House.

Despite being Britain’s second biggest city after London, Birmingham is one of the more stealthy cities under the radar, yet those in the know have always rated Birmingham: in 2001 luxury British department store Harvey Nichols opened its first small-format store in Birmingham’s Mailbox development, and in 2003 Selfridges opened its third store outside of London here, in a shimmering RIBA Award-winning building (inspired by a Paco Rabanne sequined dress) that’s now an iconic city landmark. Birmingham has a long-established association with shopping. It was home to the UK’s first indoor city-centre shopping mall – although the original 1960s concrete complex was demolished in 2000 to make way for a big and shiny new version.

 For those planning a same-sex wedding, it’s worth knowing that Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter has Europe’s largest concentration of jewellery traders, producing 40% of all jewellery made in the UK. 

The gay scene in Brighton also thriving. One of London’s best-known gay club nights has a popular monthly residency in Birmingham, while Birmingham Pride is the UK’s largest two-day LGBT festival, attracting upwards of 70,000 people.It seems that Birmingham isn’t so stealthy after all!

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