Alexandra Taylor: Writer

Despite the recession, business along the Alcester Road is booming and, among the old stalwarts, a number of bright young things have recently appeared.  ‘Cafephilia’ in Moseley opened in June after local residents Anthony, his partner Ian and their friend Julie spotted an empty shop and turned it into their dream cafe. Getting acquainted with the espresso machine is Tracy, who owns the hair salon in the basement, another debut venture. “My four o’clock cancelled,” she says, “so I’m just doing the coffees.”  This spirit of mutual support is also important to haberdashery ‘Guthrie & Ghani’, which opened in April. BBC ‘Sewing Bee’ finalist Lauren and husband Ayaz capitalised on Lauren’s high profile by bringing their successful online business to the high street. “We’ve been amazed by the enthusiastic welcome”, explains Ayaz, “It’s so helpful to chat to other businesses and share advice.” York Road in Kings Heath has nurtured a number of new ventures this year...

There are few municipal swimming pools as magnificent as Moseley Road Baths. Stepping off a crowded number fifty bus and through its doors is like taking a step back in time, to a more elegant era of stained glass, polished brass and gleaming tiles.  Opened in 1907, the building Grade II* Listed. The larger of its two pools is still surrounded by rows of individual changing cubicles, built for prudish Edwardians. There are also washing rooms, where, in an era of shared outdoor taps, generations of local people came to keep themselves clean.  However, in recent years the building has suffered from a lack of investment - windows are cracked, the roof leaks and the visually stunning First Class pool had to be closed in 2003 due to structural issues with the spectator gallery. Owners Birmingham City Council have declared that when the dilapidated Victorian boilers finally give up, the remaining pool will be drained and swimming at Moseley Road Baths will cease. It s...

It’s 5.30pm on a sunny Monday evening and I’ve arrived at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre on Park Road for my weekly yoga class. But today I’m not here just to give my muscles a stretch. I’m on a mission to find out the story behind the renovations that have recently transformed the building. Gone is the imposing and rather intimidating heavy wooden side entrance; instead visitors are now welcomed through a large, central glass doorway into a glazed atrium at the heart of the centre. The changing rooms that once evoked visions of school games lessons from the 1950s now feel fresh and modern with colourful mosaic mirrors and natural stone tiles. I ask Prabhakara, the centre’s resident yoga teacher and the bendiest person I have ever met, who I should talk to about the refurbishments, and he takes me to find Dharmashura, the Director of the centre. We discover him standing on tiptoes and wrestling with a tape measure in a slightly fraught discussion about light fittings. Although the bu...

If you thought Moseley in Bloom was just about filling hanging baskets with fuschias, then you couldn’t be more wrong. Keeping Moseley “cleaner and greener” is a year-round labour of love involving a huge range of events and activities and a small army of volunteers. I met up with Carol Miller, MiB’s ‘In Bloom Ambassador’, in Java Lounge for a well deserved hot chocolate. She’d just been trudging local streets to recruit participants for the hugely popular Open Gardens event in June. She’s been heavily involved in the charity for the last five years and is very passionate about the work that the team does to maintain Moseley’s flower power. “If the area is clean and colourful, it makes people feel better about themselves, and getting involved shows them they have the power to change things. It also brings the community together - we work closely with the council, street cleaners, schools, religious groups, local businesses and many other community organisations. All of us helping e...

Hampton, Middlesex. 1980. Seven year old Alexandra Taylor is praised for her excellent classwork and awarded a small, wooden pencil sharpener in the shape of a frog playing the flute. An innocuous event in itself, but little was teacher Mrs Allcock to realise that this minor event would alter the course of little Alexandra's life. So pleased was I with this gift that, when I saw a similar frog on a shop shelf, this time clutching a tiny baton, rigidly conducting a silent frog orchestra, I knew it had to be mine. Soon a drummer was also added to the small band of brothers, and my collection began. I often wonder if my obsession with frogs is based on some kind of irrational belief that one day one of them will turn into a handsome prince. On reflection I usually reject this theory - I don't recall ever kissing any of them, and it's more likely that I just have an obsessional personality. If it hadn't been frogs it could have been spiders, snakes, or even earwigs. B...

Yesterday I had veggie burgers for dinner. With chips and peas. Because that’s what the serving suggestion suggested. I felt comforted and secure - I only had to settle on the burgers and the rest of the meal was already decided for me. Today I determined to have some lovely mushroom grills, but in seeking the comfort of the serving suggestion on the packet I found myself plunged into confusion - a confusion that has forced me to re-evaluate the nature of the world today.  The serving suggestion on the packet of mushroom grills showed the succulent delicacy surrounded by a colourful array of vegetables - baby corn-on-the-cobs, finely diced carrots, peas and courgettes. But I don’t like courgettes!  At first the answer seemed simple - just have the meal without the courgettes. But there was more to it than that. One question kept asserting itself in my head and refused to go away. If I wasn’t going to follow the serving suggestion exactly, then why follow it at all? A h...

Because I commute, because my job takes me all over the country and because I don't have a car I spend a lot of time on trains. I spend almost as much time waiting at stations. This experience has led me to the inevitable conclusion that Milton Keynes Central is the most evil place on earth.  Initial impressions are deceptive - like most things in Milton Keynes the building is a massive, shiny, sqare edifice with an enormous, triumphant, swastika of a rail symbol dominating its front. It proclaims modernity, status, efficiency. But like many things with an appealing appearance, what lies behind is cold, empty and without soul.  There are two types of rail passenger, and MKC lets them both down. Sometimes I am Type Number One, racing to catch a train in the nick of time.There is panic in my mind - it's the last train, I'll miss my connection, the shops will be closed, I'll be too late for the play/dinner/cinema/that film on Channel 4 I've been waiting months to s...

There are an estimated 360 thousand homeless people in England alone. But whilst the recent political debate has concentrated on beggars and those sleeping rough in doorways, the vast majority of homeless people go unseen. 

Lisa Trickett from Birmingham City Council's housing department explained: "A lot of homelessness in this city is hidden. People don't sleep in cardboard boxes - they tend to squat in warehouses or sleep around the canals. People think there's not really a housing crisis anymore, that homelessness is not an issue, but it is an issue." 

 So with 'hidden’ homelessness on the increase, why is the problem receiving more attention than ever before? One of the major factors in keeping the issue of homelessness in the public eye has been The Big Issue. It is now impossible to walk through Birmingham's city centre without passing several Big Issue vendors touting their magazine. From this intense street presence most people would be forgi...