Mural to celebrate the city’s history

A writer and historian from Birmingham has chosen a selection of moments from the city’s past for a mural that will be unveiled in the Jewellery Quarter later this month.

Jon Bounds has worked alongside local artist Helen Miles to create the mural at new craft bar 1000 Trades as part of Birmingham Heritage Week.

Jon was asked to choose 10 moments that did the most to form the contemporary Brummie mind. Among the chosen moments are Birmingham’s first canal which was built in 1769, the first local radio broadcast in 1922 and the construction of the Rotunda in 1965.

Jon writes regularly about Birmingham and changes happening around the city.In 2014 he worked alongside Craig Hamilton and Jon Hickman in creating the book 101 Things Birmingham Gave the World.

The book picks out moments in history that can be correlated back to Birmingham. However, Jon admits they did claim a few moments that didn’t necessarily happen in the city.

He said: “We’ll claim Slade, despite the fact that they’re from Walsall. Like the stars on Broad Street, the vast majority of them aren’t actually from Birmingham, they’re from the greater area.

“Shakespeare – he’s basically a Brummie, right? Some of the things in the book are really obvious but we just found ways to weave Birmingham into the wider cultural story.”

However, despite Birmingham being able to claim everything from HP Sauce to the postage stamp in the book, Jon’s favourite moment in Birmingham’s history is an item that caused a household revolution, the electric kettle, which was created by Birmingham company Swan, previously Bulpitt & Sons, in the 1920s.

Jon said: “Just think about how often you use a kettle. All that time spent wasting waiting for a kettle to boil on the stove. The invention of the electric kettle genuinely is a phenomenal thing, one us Brummies should be really proud of.”

He spent more than 10 years creating Birmingham: It’s Not Shit, a website that aimed to go against the stereotype of the city. Jon set the website up around the time that the city found out that it had lost out to Liverpool in the competition to be the 2008 European Capital of Culture.

Jon said: “It was a reaction against the accepted voices of the city as their presentation of Birmingham at the time was bland, corporate and dull and it had no correlation to what Birmingham is actually like.”

However, in recent years Jon has turned his attention to Paradise Circus, a website where him and the other authors of 101 Things Birmingham Gave the World comment on the goings on of the city.

With the mural being unveiled later this month, Jon has found himself just a small part of Birmingham’s heritage and he has no plans to fall out of love with the city any time soon.

He said: “I think there is a lot to be said for just wandering around the city and learning about the history and culture and finding out about where you are connected to.”

“I used to love Central Library the most, but what I love the most about the city is the pieces of history in every corner and all of its hidden gems.”