What it Was Like to Live in BIRMINGHAM in the 1970s

What was life really like in Birmingham in the 1970s? From the sweet smell of Cadbury chocolate drifting through Bournville to the thundering production lines at the Longbridge car plant, from the reggae sound systems shaking the walls in Handsworth to the brutalist concrete of the Bull Ring and Spaghetti Junction, this video takes you back to a city that was loud, proud, and unforgettable. Black Sabbath invented heavy metal on these streets. The balti curry was born in the restaurants of Sparkbrook. Aston Villa rose from the Third Division to lift the League Cup at Wembley. A pint cost fifteen pence, a balti cost fifty pence, and a terraced house in Aston was yours for three thousand five hundred pounds. But the seventies also brought tragedy, with the nineteen seventy four pub bombings changing the city forever. If you grew up in Brum during the seventies, this one is for you. Share your memories in the comments. Ta-ra a bit. Image and video credits: Some photographs and reference images used in this video are courtesy of Geograph.org.uk contributors and Wikimedia Commons contributors, used under Creative Commons licence (CC-BY-SA). We are grateful to these communities for preserving and sharing visual history. Thank you. Subscribe to The Old Britain Days for more videos exploring life in British cities during the 1970s and 1980s.