Birmingham: home to the Balti Triangle, shopping districts like The Mailbox, Symphony Hall and Tom Cullen, the man behind I Choose Birmingham, an award winning high-end magazine showcasing the very best things to do in the city. I wanted to know just what made Tom, who won the title of Birmingham Young Professional of the Year award in Communications last year, leave London and return to his home town of Birmingham.
Bethan:Where were you brought up in the Midlands?
Tom: I was brought up in Birmingham. When I say that I suspect people think moving back was simply like moving home and wasn’t such a big deal, but if you grew up in Birmingham when I grew up here, the 80’s, moving back wouldn’t really be on the agenda. I was travelling back to see family often, and I could see year-by-year that the city was improving.
You have worked at the likes of Shortlist and FHM, if you had a successful career in London, what made you move back to Birmingham?
Things were going well in the capital, particularly with ShortList, which was invaluable in teaching me about high-end “freemium” magazines, where the emphasis is on quality editorial. And that’s what I Choose Birmingham is. I wanted to set up on my own and I saw a gap in the Birmingham market.
Plus, there’s the housing situation in London. My wife and I were expecting our first child and were looking at terrible flats in half decent areas of London, or half decent flats in terrible areas of London and we wondered why we were compromising when in Birmingham we could have both. We moved here two and half years ago now. We have a three-year-old girl and a baby girl due in June. Help me!
How long did you live in London and where did you work there?
In total it was 12 years, I think. FHM, ShortList and Mr Hyde were the titles I mainly wrote for or edited.
What was your aim with I Choose Birmingham?
The aim was to highlight the best things to do in Birmingham and to do it with an engaging tone of voice. To not be afraid of interesting turns of phrase and splashes of editorial colour. And I wanted to do it in a simple, but beautiful, weekly email.
What is it about Birmingham that you love so much?
All of it. It’s the rich mix of culture, food and entertainment. I love how Birmingham wants to better itself and how it’s stopped caring – finally, after many decades – what the rest of the UK thinks of it.
What are your favourite places in Birmingham and where would you recommend?
Food at the Original Patty Men, Nomad, Opus and Byzantium. Cocktails at 40 St Paul’s, Gas Street Social or at Bourne & Co. For culture, shows and more at The REP, Symphony Hall and The Hippodrome. There’s too much to love, hence we have to publish a weekly email to highlight it all. It could be a daily email, it really could, there’s that much happening.
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