"Home is…" in the West Midlands. Bostin.

Having somewhat exhausted locations in Wales over the summer, we took the opportunity of visiting family in the West Midlands to scout-out some locations in and around Birmingham.  First stop was at the new City Library, which was mainly a nosy visit to see what the place was like (having seen it on the Culture Show).

The roof terrace at the front of the Library offers a nice view out over the city, which would be nice as we fancied having a big dramatic cityscape to contrast with the countryside shots we've done so far.  No idea who we'd have to ask for permission about this sort of thing, but might be worth a look.

Not a bad skyline, nice mix of architecture...

This was followed by a morning scouting around in post-apocalypse Langley Green.  The poor weather didn't help, but frankly this area is a bit of a tip.  It was somehow much nicer when I (Ben) was growing up here, when the industries were still active.  The scene above is from a road which ran between metal-working factories until a few years ago.

This is the old Langley Maltings, which would make a good location.  Its a listed building which, like all listed buildings standing empty on potential housing land, suffered a slightly suspect fire, and is awaiting demolition. 

 Again, would be a good location, but would need permission to be on-site.  I know the cool urbex-photographer crowd would sneer at asking permission, but there's a difference between sneaking in somewhere with a camera and trying to navigate around a slowly-collapsing factory with a living rooms worth of furniture.  All these shots were taken through the fence, from the road.

Round the corner from the Maltings is the still-active chemical works of Solva, Langley Green, which will forever be Albrights and Wilsons to anyone who lived here.  The site is massively reduced from what it was when I was little, and some of the outlying parts of the site are abandoned, including the railway loading dock on the truncated Oldbury Town branch line.

This is handy, given our lack of success in finding a derelict railway line in Wales (which was there, but inaccessible by foot from anywhere with handy parking).  This line has been abandoned since the early 90's and is now completely severed from the main line so no chance of getting run over.  And happily its all on the public side of the fences.

Alongside the railway, and slightly more photogenic, a rather nice stretch of the canal, with decent views in both directions.

And the final location, this rather fantastic spot under the motorway, which I visited for a project a long time ago whilst at University.

Definitely some decent locations, and a nice contrast with the beaches and mountainsides, so we'll be coming back later in the year, maybe around Easter…

Coming next, more location scouting in the Severn Valley.