Solihull is an ever-growing commuter suburb situated about 8 miles south of Birmingham in the West Midlands, UK. It used to be a couple of streets of shops, with a square where you could grab a cup of coffee, and it has a library theatre lurking on the outskirts. I remember when there were no multi-storey car parks, and the only big name stores were Beatties and Marks and Spencers.
I came home from Uni last year to discover that like Boston MA and Canterbury in the south of the UK, Solihull had succumbed to Big Dig syndrome and had dug up most of its car-parks and flattened a lot of rather manky 60's architecture in order to build a swanky new plaza thing called Touchwood.
It's Vile.
Still, it appears to have given Solihull a new lease of life, (although I suspect after the novelty wears off it will become mostly empty of shops as people go to Brum instead.)
Solihull has very little significant history as such, unlike nearby centres of culture such as Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon or Coventry. About the most famous person to come from Solihull is comedian Jasper Carrott, and he's actually from Knowle which is further down the road.
Ocean Colour Scene are also from this general area, and in typical small local parish fashion, my mum...
knows someone elses mum...
whose son was taught by someone...
who knew one of them...
once....
It's a nice place. Bland, inoffensive and boring. My grandparents have lived there for all of their married lives, and they love it. Don't go there, there are so many better places to be. | 
