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Did you know...

Birmingham Hippodrome Athletics at The NIA Simpsons - one of Birmingham's Michelin-starred restaurants
  • The city of Birmingham has staged more World and European championships than any other UK city
  • Birmingham has 3 Michelin-starred restaurants, Simpsons, Purnell’s and Turners – more than any other UK regional city
  • Birmingham Hippodrome is the UK’s most visited theatre with 500,000 patrons attending each year
  • Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has the world’s largest collection of pre-Raphaelite art
  • Birmingham is going to be the pre-training base camp for the USA and Jamaican track and field teams in the run-up to 2012 Olympic Games
  • Famous food brands from Birmingham include Cadbury’s chocolate, HP Sauce, Bird’s Custard and Typhoo Tea
  • Lawn tennis was first played in Birmingham in 1865. The Edgbaston Lawn tennis Society, founded in 1860, is the oldest surviving lawn tennis club in the world
  • The city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution and home to three of the greatest thinkers of their time: Watt, inventor of the steam engine, Boulton, manufacturer and business partner of Watt, and Murdoch, pioneer of gas lighting
  • Birmingham remains one of the greenest cities in the UK, with over 8000 acres of parks and open space
  • JRR Tolkein gained inspiration from his childhood haunts in Birmingham and translated them into The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. The imagery he created can be traced back to places and buildings in the city, including ‘The Two Towers’
  • The world’s largest collection of licensed album covers, including iconic art from bands such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and the Beatles, can be found in the city’s St Pauls Gallery
  • Birmingham’s Electric Cinema is the UK’s oldest working cinema, and celebrated its centenary in 2009