BIRMINGHAM is hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons at the moment after the city council effectively declared itself bankrupt and unable to balance the books.

As night falls, the lights are still on across the skyline – but take a closer look at these pictures, and you’ll see many of Brum’s iconic landmarks in a new light that belies Birmingham’s size as the UK’s second largest city.

Because these shots were snapped this week at the canalside Legoland Discovery Centre, where iconic sites are scaled down in the family fun attraction’s plastic brick-built Miniland.

Master Lego builders have recreated some of Brum’s best-known buildings including the Rotunda, Grand Central complex, the Qube, the Mailbox, Selfridges, the International Convention Centre and the Library of Birmingham.

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They rub shoulders in unlikely proximity, alongside the likes of the Council House, historic Town Hall, Villa Park, Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Resorts World Arena, the NEC and the Bear Grylls Adventure centre.

I moved down from the North West of England in the late 1970s to work in Birmingham, which has become my adopted home city over the years, and which has been transformed beyond belief, particularly the sophisticated city centre.

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Brum’s current financial woes come despite the city having enjoyed one of the UK’s fastest economic recoveries from the pandemic, attracting record levels of inward investment. Like ‘real’ born and bred Brummies, I hope there’s light at the end of the tunnel.