Archiving the Wholesale Market

The Wholesale Market covers 0.5 square miles in the city centre

Birmingham rag market, indoor and outdoor market are easy to find, but the Wholesale Market, the mother of all Birmingham Markets, not many people seem to know about, or that it will be demolished in early 2018.

How to Curate an Exhibition

Putting together a good exhibition can be good fun and rewarding - it takes a lot of thought and, depending on what you want to achieve, can look very different. PHC are delivering workshops on 'How to Curate an Exhibition' for the British Library and Library of Birmingham, as part of 'Connecting Stories'

HeritageMeet 2017

On a cold, wet evening in Digbeth, at the home of Friction Arts, we meet to discuss heritage for the coming week, month, year and decade or so.  It's the third annual PHC get together to
take stock of what we do, and what we want to do.

Carbooters Mecca to close

For over forty years there's been a Carboot on the site of the Wholesale Market in Birmingham, but with plans to move the Wholesale Market to Witton, what will happen to the carboot?

Sunday carboot at Wholesale Market, going, going

Sunday morning we arrive at the car boot, packed with people and traders.  We have cameras and are ready to photo what could be one of the last Sunday carboot sales at Birmingham Wholesale Market:

'We just turn up and hope it's still here'

Says Andy from APS recycling, one of the 200 or so stalls there today.

Wholesale Memory

Friction Arts documenting our Wholesale market

For many people who call Birmingham home, the Markets are an afterthought, a part of the city that they may only occasionally dip into. What they may not realise is that Birmingham started its life as a Market Town, when Peter de Bermingham was granted a charter to run a market from what was at the time just a small settlement.

So, it’s something of a tragedy that the historic Wholesale Markets are set to close this year without many people making much of a noise.