Birmingham is essentially the UK’s second city, behind London. It is the second largest city, the second largest populated, the second largest centre of higher education and many more statistics sitting behind London. Birmingham was also voted the third best place to shop behind London and Glasgow.
Birmingham was a medium-sized market town during the medieval period, however grew at an astonishing rate during the industrial revolution. The city grew to prominence as a manufacturing and engineering centre. Today, Birmingham is a commercial centre, regarded a Beta- world city by Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Now the city’s economy is dominated by the service sector.