Bullring Birmingham

The Bullring Shopping Centre

Many of you may have heard of the Bullring, or perhaps just seen pictures of the Birmingham bull or the eyesore that is the Selfridges building, but you can’t spend time in Birmingham without a visit to it. The Bullring is far more than just a shopping centre, and every year it seems to grow, this year saw the introduction of new restaurants known as ‘Spiceal Street’ between the centre itself and St Martin’s Church. However, the Bullring was not always just the large shopping centre that it is known for today, its history stretches back hundreds of years to when the area was used for markets, something it is still known for today.

Source

Getting there:

It is easy to make your way to the Bullring, due to its excellent transport links, it is located right next to New Street station, Birmingham’s main train station. However Moor Street station is just as close if your train doesn’t go to New Street, Snow Hill station is a bit further away but still within easy walking distance. Any bus which has City Centre on its destination will bring you within 10 minutes walk of the Bullring. There is also more than ample parking if you are driving there, although the official car parks allow for easier access to the centre if you are willing to walk for five minutes you can find much cheaper parking in unofficial car parks. The official car parks are of course all well signposted, most of which show the availability of spaces, to prevent you from ending up at a full car park.

The Birmingham Bull:

You can’t come to the Bullring and miss seeing the bull, and even having a cheeky picture taken with him, if you are lucky you may even see him in one of his very snazzy outfits. Once for his birthday he was painted silver, and sometimes in the winter he is given a lovely knitted jumper to keep him warm. He is often surrounded by tourists taking photos with him, so make sure when you visit you don’t miss out – a word of advice though, once you manage to get up on his back it is quite hard to get down again. He is located at the heart of the Bullring, in front of the doors next to the rotunda.

Shopping:

The Bullring has everything from technology to clothes shops, with one of only four Selfridges in the UK, one of the largest Debenhams and the largest Forever 21. This means that it draws customers from far and wide, but I would recommend avoiding it at Christmas time, as it becomes incredibly busy. The centre is open late most days of the week and often offers special days, for example the student shopping event, where the centre is open late at night for Students only, with shops offering hefty discounts and freebies so be sure to keep an eye out for those. The Bullring centre itself is spread over 3 floors and across two buildings, although the Lower ground floor allows indoor access to both and is, of course lined with yet more shops. There are interactive maps located across all floors to allow you to easily navigate the Bullring and find what you want, with all of the smaller shops being in the centre of the complex and Selfridges and Debenhams taking up all three floors at either end. The Selfridges end can be easily distinguished from the outside as it is the one that is meant to look like some form of futuristic bee hive or something, but is really not all that easy on the eyes.

Eating:

In the Bullring you are spoilt for choice with places to eat, Selfridges has its own floor dedicated to food places, including sushi, curries, sweets and a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop – keep an eye out for that red light if you fancy some free doughnuts. There is also the Jelly Bean bull on this floor of Selfridges, which is always worth a look. Of course there is also Spiceal Street, a new development of restaurants including a Jamie’s Italian and my personal favourite Wagamama. If you wish to venture a bit further from the Bullring Centre itself there is also ‘The Loft’ which is the top floor of the Pavillions building just a few hundred metres down the road, (38 High Street Birmingham) which is a food court with a wide variety of reasonably priced options for food. In the Pallasades, which can be found through ‘The Link’ (a shop-lined walkway between the Bullring buildings and New Street station) there are a number of fast food outlets such as Burger King, McDonalds (24hour) and Subway. So really no matter what you fancy there will be something to entice your taste buds in the Bullring.

Source

Other Events:

There are often promotions across the centre that means that you get to try products for free, usually located on the lower ground floor outside Selfridges or Debenhams or at the entrance by the bull. Be sure to check them out as getting anything free is always good news, especially as a student! There have even been filming for television shows such as Gok Wan’s fashion fix in the Bullring centre, where a giant catwalk has appeared down the middle of the centre, as well as filming for the Apprentice, where Alan Sugar’s job applicants have attempted to sell to a Birmingham crowd.

All in all the Bullring has everything you could want to find in a shopping centre and a little bit more, I would say I'm biased, but people from all over the world seem to shop here, so I can't be that wrong. It is easy to spend a whole day here, as the attraction is not just the shops, but all of the architecture and history that it contains too.