The sounds you’re most likely to hear in Selly

Not a day goes by in the sprightly, dangerous corners of Selly Oak, where we are free to roam the streets in piece and quiet.

Our wonderful student world is home to many an endearingly hazardous background noise. We come across a mixed bag of things every day and have grown to love them all, here’s a cheerful list of the things you’re most likely to hear on a regular basis in Selly Oak.

Old Joe

The great protector of our uni. The almighty leader marching us through our troublesome times. There is something comforting when lying in bed and hearing the massive gong echoing from campus through the streets and into our terraced abodes.

Big Joe enjoying the sun.

Burglar alarms

Well things just took a pretty sharp downward turn from the redbrick glories of campus, didn’t they?Unfortunately, we do hear a lot of these. Sometimes up to four separate burglar alarms shreiking away in that unmistakable shrill bleeping, in just one day. We reassure/kid ourselves that if the alarm only lasts a few seconds that equates to techinical error as apposed to a real break-in.

Car alarms and honking

Car alarms are also set off in Selly all of the time. Whether accidental or not, we shall never know, but either way it is another famous noise one hears everyday at the very core of Bristol Road. Last Friday, I  heard nine car horns in 10 hours – drivers in Birmingham really need to chill out and stop speeding. You will hit us students.

Sophie Lyth, 3rd Year Psychology Student, March 2013

Police sirens

A fun game to play whilst strolling down Bristol Road, is to guess whether the siren you hear is that of a police car, ambulance or fire-engine. Dark jokes aside, we are all well aware that more sirens equals more crime. But equally, the more sirens should mean the more police catching Selly miscreants…we hope.

Police car down Heely Road last week.

Ambulance sirens

In any place other than Selly (with the exception of A&E) you wouldnt believe that I hear at least four sirens from Hubert Road, every single day. On Saturday night, I was sitting in the charming Frankie and Benny’s, enjoying an evening meal and within 2 hours, seven ambulances shot past the restaurant heading into Selly.

Ambulance by Frankie & Benny’s.

Drunken girls

Admittedly, I have partaken in this famously noisey activity, as I am sure most female Selly residents have. On behalf of all, I apologise to those we woke up. The constant shouting, chanting and crying girls are a vital part of Selly’s nightlife.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been chucked out of FAB for being in the blokes’ toilets, or your roosters was completely inedible, all of us end up walking back in Selly finding something to be shouting our heads off about.

One of my personal favorites of the Selly Oak noises has to be picking up fellow students conversations as I walk past. The most popular words I come across each day are obviously – “ALDI”, “Tesco”, “FAB” and “Delivery”. We have more in common with eachother here than we think. After all, 17p lemonade mixers plus Fab tickets equals Roosters at 3-4am, “dying” and then eating a dominios delivery the next day, no matter who you are.

…Really? We’re playing dead now

Obviously, University of Birmingham students know we are the only people who can insult our beloved Selly, but we don’t mind owning it ourselves. Why? Because unsettling as these regularities may be, our neighborhood would not be the same without them.