UoB 125: Life as an English Student Then vs Now
Written by Student Content Shaper Natalie D’Allura
Twenty years ago
It’s the year 2005, and you walk through the northern wrought iron gates of the University of Birmingham’s Edgbaston campus, gates that generations of students have walked through before you. An impressive brick building, the library, stands before them. Somewhere in the distance a clocktower that you have come to know as Old Joe strikes one, two, eight times. You walk up the library’s stone steps, craning your neck to see the three heraldic shields at the top of the building’s entrance. The centre shield reads ‘PER ARDUA AD ALTA.’ ‘Through efforts to high things.’ When you enter the library, you’re greeted by its distinctive smell of books and brass. You lose track of time as you browse the books, as though the building has placed some kind of enchantment on you.
Eventually you’re brought back to the present when you remember that you have a class to attend, so you make your way over to the Arts building. You walk up two flights of stairs to your seminar tutor’s office, a small room with white walls and a view of the library. You are the last to arrive, so there are already several other students sitting in chairs with books resting on their laps. For the next hour, you talk with them about the reading. It’s in this small group that your opinions on the novel really begin to take shape as you articulate the thoughts you had while reading it. After the seminar, you take a walk around campus with a friend, whiling away an hour or so before heading back to the old brick library to get more reading done.
Today
Twenty-five years later, you walk through the same wrought iron gates that countless students have walked through before you. You admire Old Joe in the distance, towering above the surrounding buildings, as it strikes one, two, eight times. If you listen closely, you might also hear the screeching of the peregrine falcons who have made the clock tower their home. You make your way to the library, which glistens gold in the sunlight. The machine beeps as you scan your card to enter. Light pours in all around you as you search the shelves. When you find the book you’re looking for, you take a seat on the second floor overlooking the Green Heart, an expanse of grass where the old library once stood. All that’s left of it now is a staircase leading up to the three heraldic shields that used to be on top of the building’s entrance, but now sit at the top of a small hill. You never saw the building with your own eyes, and yet you are somehow nostalgic for it.
Eventually you remember what time it is and that you wanted to attend office hours before today’s seminar, so you cross the Green Heart to the Arts building. Your tutor’s office is a small room with white walls and a view of the field and the library. After looking over the essay you are working on, you walk with your tutor to another, larger room. For the next two hours, you discuss the week’s reading with your peers. It is during these two hours, listening to so many different readings of the same text, that you appreciate just how masterful the novel really is. As you leave the Arts building, you spot a group of your friends lying out in the grass and join them for a while before heading back to the glistening gold library to get some more reading done.
Thank you to Dr Eleanor Dobson, Professor David James, and Professor Nathan Waddell for sharing your memories with me. It was a pleasure to see the campus through your eyes.
Help us celebrate our 125th anniversary by sharing your story! Whether it's a cherished memory, a favourite spot, or a moment that makes this University special to you, pitch your idea to studentcommunications@contacts.bham.ac.uk.