James Tucker in Cov

Digbeth is just to the south of the Bullring in Birmingham, and is an old industrial area. It's still largely full of garages, warehouses and car rental places. The central feature of it all is the colossal set of railway arches marching out of the city through Digbeth. The neighbourhood is built around them, and there are businesses inside the arches themselves, both in the piers as you pass through under the railway, and also odd, sometimes makeshift structures built in and around the arches. Overall, Digbeth is pretty grim, but like most of the city, there is potential for gentrification in the complex of brick warehouses. The one place (one street, really) that seems to have really gone for it is called the Custard Factory- it reminds me of Yorkville in Toronto, actually. There are a couple of vintage shops, music stores, a vegetarian cafe, several art galleries and a couple of large clubs. There are a couple of new, somwhat gaudy buildings in there, as well as some debatable sculpture. The only indication from the main street of all of this is the brightly painted warehouse walls, as the newer buildings are hidden around corners.
As for the rest of Digbeth, there is little in the way of retail business outside of a couple pubs (one dating from 1368) and clubs, but here and there are some interesting proto-hippy sort of cafes and whatnot scattered through the area. It doesn't look likely to explode into the next exciting place, but clearly people are trying. And what's there doesn't look likely to go away.