Eastside City Park to Eagle & Ball Pub

This route will take you through to Bullring and St Martin’s Square where you can do some fashion shopping and get a taste of some foods from the food stalls. Have a bite to eat at Boston Tea Party café thereafter, we will go to the Eastside Jazz Club and finish off at Eagle & Ball Pub for a pint.

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We will start our walk at the Eastside City Park in Curzon Street, which hosts the Birmingham Science Garden (marked 3 on the map). The garden has interactive displays for everyone to enjoy and offers free entry after 3 p.m. with different closing times depending on the season. This discovery space has three zones such as Energise, Mechanise, and Mobilise where you can respectively use renewable energy to power a mechanical theatre, “feed” an 8-metre machine, and ride a wagon with square wheels! This science garden belongs to the Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum (marked 1 on the map) which you can buy tickets for if you’d like to visit.

As you exit the park (marked 4 on the map), you will head on to New Canal Street (6 on the map) until you reach New Bartholomew Street where you will turn right into (7 on the map). Follow the road until you reach Bordesley Street (at 9 on the map) where you will turn right. Once you reach the small intersection, turn left into Park Street (passed 10 on the map). Continue under the bridge.

As you exit the bridge, you will see a large sculpture-like building on the right. Continue straight (11-14 on the map) until you reach St. Martin’s Church (marked 15 on the map) where you will see the entrance to St. Martin’s Square and Bullring & Grand Central. St. Martin’s Church is a Grade II listed building, meaning it is of more than special interest including the fact that the designer also worked on the Houses of Parliament. Although this isn’t the original church, there has been a church on this site since 1290! At Bullring & Grand Central, you can do some shopping at a wide variety of shops such as Dior, Gap, Topshop, H&M, and many more (you might get lucky and see an open event or display).

Once your shopping spree is complete, find your way back to St. Martin’s Church where you will find stairs (16 on the map) that go up and through St. Martin’s Walk which passes more stores on either side of you. Once you reach an intersection with three tall sculptural light wands, turn into High Street (17 on the map).

When you reach the next intersection, turn right into Dale End (at 19 on the map). Continue straight and under the Priory Queensway bridge (20 on the map).

At the bend in the road, turn left into Newtown Street (21 on the map). At the end of the street, you will see the Boston Tea Party (22 on the map) on your right at the corner. You can stop here for a small pastry or a coffee before you continue the walk. Boston Tea Party is known for its vegan and vegetarian food options as well as its efforts towards sustainability; they were the first UK café chain to ban single-use coffee cups in 2018! Bring your reusable cups or buy or borrow one from them.

Head right down Corporation Street where you can see some Victorian buildings built with red bricks. Corporation Street was named after the Charter of Incorporation in 1838 which enabled Birmingham’s first town council to be set up. This road was designed to look like a Parisian boulevard.

The street will curve slightly to the right, following the curve into Ryder Street (at 23 on the map). Cross the road at the intersection (24 on the map) towards Aston University.

Walk along the green pathway until you reach an open circular space (you can see this in the light grey area on the map). Continue straight over the area towards the car park (the darker grey square on the map).

Pass the car park on your right towards the Martin Luther King Multi Faith Centre (27 on the map). Walk under the archway and turn right until you reach another main road which you will cross into Jennens Road. Jennens Road is named after a wealthy ironmonger family in the 18^th Century. It is believed that Charles Dickens based his book “Bleak House” on the Jennens family.

The building you see is the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (28 on the map). Inside is the Eastside Jazz Club (Birmingham’s only dedicated jazz club) where you can watch a show on Tuesday evenings by booking tickets on their website.

As you exit the Conservatoire, turn right towards the red-bricked Birmingham City University building (the light and dark grey areas on the map above). Just before the intersection, turn right into Cardigan Street and walk towards the grey Birmingham City University building.

Continue straight then turn left into Gopsal Street until you reach Eagle & Ball Pub (marked B on the map) where you can take a rest and have a pint now at the end of our tour. This pub is in a Grade II listed building and was built in the 1840s and it is believed the Peaky Blinders may have paid a visit or two here once upon a time.

Where we started (Eastside City Park) is not far from here. Simply head back up Gopsal Street, turn left, and continue down Cardigan Street to find the park on your right (marked A on the map).

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Resources:

If you enjoyed this route, see our 7.5km Fresh Parks Walk

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