11C: Handsworth

Continuing the journey on Birmingham's 11C Outer Circle...

The 11C passes into Handsworth. I fail to alight and have to retrace my steps via the 11A from near Perry Barr.

Handsworth is by far the most vibrant, exciting and colourful of all the communities seen so far on the 11C. Among the temples and shopper-filled streets ply some less than usual buses, too.

Unlike elsewhere so far, few shops have closed down. Life here is in full swing, with its multi-cultural diversity. Bollywood sounds either trickle or pound their way onto the street.

Fruit & veg spills out to the pavement. There’s alfresco food cooking. There’s the Bank of India Birmingham Branch, the State Bank of India, the Bank of Punjab and the Bank of Baroda, again from India.

Side by side: an early 20th cetunry Methodist church and to its left a a modern extension to a large Sikh temple

And Asian restaurants, shops selling bright Asian clothes from brightly lit windows, a Sikh bridal shop, a Polish supermarket, Halal foodshops. Incongruously, among them is a branch of award-winning butcher Walter Smith, established 1885.