00:01I'm with Carl Chin at the Good Intent pub at the Great Western Arcade.
00:07Tell us about this beautiful gem.
00:09The Good Intent. Well, what a boozer!
00:12They're still with the dark wood, proper tables, selling good ale,
00:17and the profits go to charity, I believe.
00:19They do, yeah. Who'd have thought that a boozer would do that, but they do.
00:23But yeah, the fittings are fantastic. They're genuinely great.
00:27They are.
00:27Tell us about the Great Western Arcade, this beautiful area that we can see behind us.
00:32This is a magical part of Birmingham, the Great Western Arcade.
00:36You can look around and the people have took it over, done a stunning job in the restoration.
00:42The Great Western Arcade came about in the mid-1870s over a new cutting of the Great Western Railway.
00:49It's actually over, there's a tunnel under there, isn't there?
00:51There's a tunnel there.
00:52That's the tunnel underneath the train.
00:53Going to Stogel Station.
00:54And it was designed by a major architect at a time when the Colmore Estate was in transformation,
01:04older Georgian buildings were being knocked out, and grandiose Renaissance-style structures were coming up in their place.
01:11So the council house, for example.
01:13Yes.
01:13A Venetian-style palace.
01:15The Grand Hotel built in the French Renaissance-style.
01:19In fact, Colmore Row has probably got more grade one and two listed buildings than any other stretch in the
01:25city.
01:26So would the Great Western Arcade initially be very posh?
01:29This whole area, the Great Western Arcade, Colmore Row, became the hub of the financial quarter of Birmingham, the posh
01:38shopping parts of Birmingham, and the civic centre.
01:42And what would have been our investors at that time?
01:44Who were the people building these amazing buildings?
01:47Well, you had the estates that were granted building leases.
01:50You had people like Isaac Horton, a pork butcher.
01:54A very successful pork butcher.
01:56About the Horton Estates.
01:56Horton Estates.
01:58He was a black country kid.
01:59He did really, really well.
02:01From butchering?
02:02Yeah, from butchering.
02:03From butchering.
02:04And then he was probably one of the biggest pork butchers in the country.
02:08And with his profits, he was very successful and very clever.
02:12He invested in buildings.
02:15The Grand Hotel is one of his.
02:18The Horton family is still going, isn't it?
02:20There's such a major interest in Birmingham, a major influence in Birmingham.
02:25The Hortons are still around, and we have to thank them because of their commitment to restoring the grand to
02:31glory.
02:31But they're from trade, not aristocrats.
02:33No, they're originally from trade.
02:35But it takes a certain vision to build these magnificent buildings.
02:38They're Schultz Day, but still some Hortons.
02:41Yeah, so you're right, there is a vision.
02:43And what they're doing is not only the vision that they wanted something grand,
02:47but they knew they couldn't do that, so they're bringing architects.
02:50And this is the great era of Birmingham architecture.
02:53Carl, just a snippet of Birmingham, the small part, from the good intent.
02:57Thank you very much.
02:58Thank you, Carl.
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