I walked along the amazing street in Birmingham that has the worst vibes in the city

Too bad, I think, as I pass a dispenser cup of Coke with a straw, sitting next to an empty bottle of Bacardi someone left in the street. It is dropped next to an empty can of 8% Dutch Courage Cider outside some of the most stunning buildings in the entire city, the Courts.

I walk down Corporation Street, one of the most distinctive and theoretically beautiful corners of the city. And yet, even with its vivid red bricks and terracotta facades that seem to grow more stunning the higher you look up into the sky, a gray cloud hangs over the area.

I’m not sure I really believe in the concept that a place can have bad energy. But walking down past the Victoria Courts, where the Queen Vic looks down on neighborhood Brummies to find out their fate, I wish I had a stick of sage lit for the stain and a bunch of crystals hidden in my bra. I don’t know exactly what auras are, but this one needs cleaning.

Read more: I visited a £10 attraction in Birmingham and ended up in a police cell

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I’m here to have breakfast at the Perch before spending a few hours in what turns out to be one of Birmingham’s most underrated, well-kept and hands-on museums, Steelhouse Lane Prison. Both prove to be excellent reasons to come.

But outside, the vibes are absolutely terrible. So I go explore, to find out why I get this horrible feeling in my gut, simply walking down a city street that has proven, time and time again, to be one of the greatest loves of my entire life.

I stop to think outside of the best Better Call Saul looking window display I’ve ever seen in real life. “24 HR CRIMINAL AAWYERS” is almost a caricature of a real place, blocked with twisted barbed wire, a board strewn with old newspaper and graffiti on the windows proving that “TRAKZ” woz once eya and they brought spray paint when they brought came .

The law firm is in the dark and reminds me of one of those old school places that Batman’s parents probably passed by when they were robbed by the villains. Or somewhere, Patrick Swayze would have been killed in front of his wife’s baby, to turn into a specter that haunts Whoopi Goldberg. You know the kind of place I mean, one that’s more “dirty movie set” than reality.

Next to it is the Central Hall, built in 1904. Or, as it is now written, CENTR L HAL. Like Swayze’s character in that 1990 movie, he’s a ghost of his former self these days, there as a lovely memory, but he can’t touch you like he used to.

The place has been empty since 2017 and while there is talk of turning it into a hotel, along with a gym, nightclub and event space. Things have quieted down on that though and I think they really need to deal with it, looking at the skull graffiti and weeds heading towards the tower. A man with a sleeping bag draped over his shoulders stops to ask for money, and I’m reminded that there are bigger problems here at ground level.

Further down the road I encounter even more nervous energy. Birmingham Children’s Hospital did a wonderful job of trying to make the hospital as welcoming and carefree as possible and I could have cried at the big red balloon animal dog they brought out to lighten the mood.

That’s sweet, I hope it works, but I’m getting out of there as fast as I can, thanking my lucky stars I don’t have to spend time there. Thank God for the Children’s Hospital and all it does for the city.

Perch brunch provides an ideal respite from negative energy and my vibe returns to neutral. Pretending to be a museum cop sends me right back into the green. Corporation Street is absolutely gorgeous in theory, but the specter of fear still haunts me as I head back towards Pigeon Park.