SECOND CITY SECRET STAIRWAYS

OK…Listen up dear reader.

Things have been just a bit too colourful and up beat in the Shpics image emporium of late………Time for a bit of a change..

So here we go…Back to black & white Birmingham…. Smack dab in the middle of the Grey Kingdom.

I’ve got a bit of a thing about open stairways…(Got a bit of a thing about pathways in general,  metaphorical and physical), so given that to my way of thinking, an open stair’s just a path with a nice twist of  fear thrown in,  I thought I’d dig under Birmingham’s top layer and find some of it’s escape routes.

I like the fact that fire escapes are probably the only stairs designed to be used primarily for going down, as opposed to travelling in both directions. You can’t beat a bit of purity of purpose.

I desperately tried to find one of those super-cool fire stairs where the bottom flight is hinged and hangs suspended until some escapee puts their weight on the treads and thus decapitates some innocent passerby…I was all ready to do my whole West Side Story song and dance routine, (a proven crowd pleaser at the Shpics christmas party), but sadly Birmingham isn’t New York.

But..Missing hinged sections aside … How many cities could combine vertigo with claustrophobia so successfully?

Let’s hear it for Birmingham!

PLEASE CLICK TO OPEN IN A NEW WINDOW….THEY LOOK SO MUCH BETTER!

All Images Copyright Stuart Allan Hyde