Goodbye Underworld

Birmingham’s subways were once a ubiquitous feature of the urban landscape, now only a few remain as testament to its last great makeover in the mid 20th century – Victorian industrial slum to modern motropolis. Surviving only on the fringes of the ‘new’ city centre, they exist as permanent outcasts. The latest unfashionable past that must be swept away.

Gosta Green, under the Aston Expressway

Once a part of daily city life, like a giant assault course of steps, ramps, slopes and tunnels entwined with and encased beneath the super highways which ringed and dissected the city.

The epicenter and ultimate expression of Birmingham’s subway culture was the Bullring Shopping Centre, 20 acres of commerce entombed in a bomb proof concrete bunker criss crossed by flyovers and ring roads with the pedestrian relegated to the very bottom ring of its particular hell.

A balance existed between the everyday and the subversive within the system. In the day well lit spaces lined with kiosks, cafes and thronged with buskers, beggars and businessmen were the transient, subterranean artery’s of the city….but at night when the city emptied they took on a darker tone and became an anti utopian playground. These isolated and secret spaces were utilised by groups on the very margins of society, acting out lives deemed unacceptable or inappropriate by the everyday. Needles, graffiti, used condoms and the stench of piss were initially removed each morning ready for the day shifts arrival but are now the very essence of the surviving subways.