Birmingham's main shopping district, and the building that announced the city's architectural ambitions to the rest of Britain. The Selfridges department store at the Bullring, designed by Future Systems and completed in 2003, is clad in 15,000 aluminium discs and has become one of the most recognisable buildings in the country. It is frequently cited as the building that persuaded other British cities that genuinely adventurous architecture was worth commissioning.
The indoor shopping centre is conventional enough — the Bullring and Grand Central complex has all the chain stores you'd expect — but the outdoor Bullring market is more interesting. One of the largest outdoor markets in Britain, trading six days a week, it sells fresh produce, clothing, electronics, and housewares at prices well below the shops. The nearby St Martin in the Bull Ring church, with its blue-green spire visible from the market, is a medieval church rebuilt in the 19th century that has been the focal point of this trading district for 800 years.