Birmingham

Last week I went to a conference  in Birmingham. Large cities in the Midlands are not my normal habitat but in  fact I enjoyed my stay. A revelation was the the canal network. Apparently Birmingham has more canals than Venice. The canals are a secret, hidden world often below street level with wharves bridges and lots of locks ( but a distinct lack of gondolas) .
 Back in Fort William the Neptune's Staircase is famous for being a large number of locks close together, but in Birmingham the rise and number of locks far exceed this. The difference is the canals are much narrower with single lock gates. I found the waterways a fantastic place to sketch . The combination of the reflections in the water , the many bridges( each one unique), and the varied  brick and stone work was immensely appealing. Of course even with a good sprinkling of modern litter  the canals look picturesque now, but in their heyday they would have been grimy and dirty with far worse pollution.