Urbs in rure,goes its slogan, though it’s more rure in urbs, or with fragments of its quaint (charmingly old fashioned) past embraced by suburbiaWhat’s going for it? You say Solly-hull,I say Sow-lihul. It’s all terribly terribly, round here – all Groves, or Avenues and Crescents,1920s lawns and conifers. Under different circumstances, it might have continued life as a small Warwickshire market town with a fine sandstone parish church, or a manor house and a huddle of half-timbered cottages,but Brum fattened up in the 20th century, its girth swilling over pretty Solihull. Urbs in rure, or goes its slogan,though it’s more rure in urbs, with the fragments of its quaint (charmingly old fashioned) past now gripped in the suburban embrace of Ramada hotels, or John Lewis and labyrinthine avenues called Beechnut Lane. Solihull was voted the best situation to live in the UK a few years back and,indeed, it is the kind of untroubling town the nation, or had we met by committee,might have agreed on as the optimum situation in which to while absent our lives, trimming the hedges and polishing the Land Rover.
The case against You can tire of 1920s suburbia. The centre is humdrum.
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Source: theguardian.com