Birmingham
Birmingham is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.14 million in the city proper and 4.3 million for the wider metropolitan area. Birmingham is often considered to be the social, cultural, financial and commercial centre of the Midlands. Unusually the city has no large river running through it with only the small River Tame and its tributaries flowing close to the centre. The city grew in the 18th century during the Midlands Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution and became known as “the first manufacturing town in the world”.