The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a British dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham. At first called the Lunar Circle, "Lunar Society" became the formal name by 1775. The name arose because the society would meet during the full moon, as the extra light made the journey home easier and safer in the absence of street lighting. The members cheerfully referred to themselves as "lunaticks", a pun on lunatics. Venues included Erasmus Darwin's home in Lichfield, Matthew Boulton's home, Soho House, Bowbridge House in Derbyshire, and Great Barr Hall.
Aston University is a public research university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first college of advanced technology in 1956. Aston University received its royal charter from Queen Elizabeth II on 22 April 1966.
Birmingham City University is a university in Birmingham, England. Initially established as the Birmingham College of Art with roots dating back to 1843, it was designated as a polytechnic in 1971 and gained university status in 1992.
Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway stations and has hosted sixteen England internationals at senior level, the first in 1899 and the most recent in 2005. Villa Park has hosted 55 FA Cup semi-finals, more than any other stadium.
The culture of Birmingham is characterised by a deep-seated tradition of individualism and experimentation, and the unusually fragmented but innovative culture that results has been widely remarked upon by commentators. Writing in 1969, the New York-based urbanist Jane Jacobs cast Birmingham as one of the world's great examples of urban creativity: surveying its history from the 16th to the 20th centuries she described it as a "great, confused laboratory of ideas", noting how its chaotic structure as a "muddle of oddments" meant that it "grew through constant diversification". The historian G. M. Young – in a classic comparison later expanded upon by Asa Briggs – contrasted the "experimental, adventurous, diverse" culture of Birmingham with the "solid, uniform, pacific" culture of the outwardly similar city of Manchester. The American economist Edward Gleason wrote in 2011 that "cities, the dense agglomerations that dot the globe, have been engines of innovation since Plato and Socrates bickered in an Athenian marketplace. The streets of Florence gave us the Renaissance and the streets of Birmingham gave us the Industrial Revolution", concluding: "wandering these cities ... is to study nothing less than human progress."
Witton is an inner city area in Birmingham, England, in the metropolitan county of the West Midlands. It was within the ancient parish of Aston in the Hemlingford hundred of the historic county of Warwickshire. It is known as the home of Aston Villa Football Club at Villa Park.
The Bath Assembly Rooms, designed by John Wood the Younger in 1769, are a set of assembly rooms located in the heart of the World Heritage City of Bath in England which are now open to the public as a visitor attraction. They are designated as a Grade I listed building.
The Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex is a sports, convention and entertainment complex located in Birmingham, Alabama. The Sheraton Birmingham and Westin Birmingham are located on the complex adjoining the convention center. Alongside numerous exhibit halls, meeting and ballrooms, the complex features four entertainment venues: a stadium, an arena, concert hall, and theater.
The New Club is a private social club in the New Town area of Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded in 1787, it is Scotland's oldest club. The club occupied premises on St Andrew Square from 1809 until 1837, when it moved to purpose-built rooms on Princes Street. The 1837 building was replaced with a modern building to a design by Reiach and Hall, which is protected as a category A listed building. Women were admitted in 1970, and offered full membership from 2010. The only stated requirements for membership are that a candidate is over 18 and is "clubbable".
The Adam & Eve is a former public house located on the corner of Bradford Street and Warner Street, in Deritend, Birmingham, England. There had been a public house of this name in this location for at least 200 years.
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West Midlands metropolitan county, and approximately 4.3 million in the wider metropolitan area. It is the largest UK metropolitan area outside of London. Birmingham is known as the second city of the United Kingdom.
The Aston Triangle is an area of Birmingham City Centre, England. The area is mostly dominated by higher education facilities. Aston University is based within the Aston Triangle area and the logo of the establishment takes from the shape of the area. Birmingham City University also uses facilities on the Aston University campus. These are in Gosta Green together with Birmingham Institute of Art and Design and Aston Science Park. The site has large numbers of teaching buildings and student halls of residence, which are used by Aston University. Dalton, Lawrence, and Stafford Towers, three large towers containing student dwellings, were demolished in the early 2010s, and new student accommodation named the William Murdoch, the James Watt, the Harriet Martineau and the Mary Sturge Residences constructed.
Gay bathhouses in the United Kingdom are referred to as "gay saunas", as opposed to gay bathhouses, the term more commonly used in North America. There are gay saunas throughout the UK in most major cities, including eight in London.
St. Philip's Parish Library, also known as the Higgs Library, was a public library attached to St Philip's Church in Birmingham, England between 1733 and 1927.
Holte Bridgman's Apollo Gardens were one of the main pleasure gardens of 18th century Birmingham, located on Moseley Street in Deritend, within the parish of Aston.
Sawyer's Assembly Rooms in Old Square, Birmingham were the leading assembly rooms in Birmingham during the early period of the Midlands Enlightenment.
The Birmingham Musical and Amicable Society was a musical society formed by James Kempson and Michael Broome in 1762 in Birmingham, England. Most of its members were drawn from the choirs of St Philip's Church and St. Bartholemew's Chapel, who had met at Cooke's Coffee Shop in the Cherry Orchard in Birmingham since the 1730s.
The King Street Theatre was the first purpose-built theatre to open in Birmingham, England. The town had had earlier theatres, but the Theatre in Smallbrook Street, whose origins dated back to 1715, and Theatre in New Street, which was in an existence a few years later, were both makeshift structures; and the more substantial Moor Street Theatre, which opened in 1740, was a conversion of an existing building. King Street was a much more ambitious undertaking, being based on the examples of the established London patent theatres.
Classical music in Birmingham began in the late Middle Ages, mainly devotional music which did not survive the Reformation. Evidence is scant until the years following the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, when Birmingham's economy boomed. This was reflected in the scientific and cultural awakening known as the Midlands Enlightenment. The first sign of this transformation was the opening of the baroque St Philip's Church in 1715, which had a fine organ that attracted gifted musicians to the town.
The Tontine Buildings is a former hotel in Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, built in the late 18th century by the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Company. It is a Grade II* listed building.
