An Art Deco And Jewellery Lover’s Guide To Birmingham

From the crumbling ruins of the Acropolis to Milan’s La Scala, it’s not unusual for jewellery designers to call out canonical architectural wonders as inspiration. But for Laura Vann’s latest Cinema collection, the Birmingham-born-and-based jeweller looked a little closer to home. Some of the jewellery designer’s milestone moments growing up stemmed from a visit to the former Odeon Cinema in Sutton Coldfield, like a trip to see Spice World, her hair streaked with blue mascara, to fibbing about being 15 in order to watch The Sixth Sense. The graphic Art Deco aesthetic of the Grade II-listed building has inspired Cinema, Vann’s latest eponymous collection of fluted column and curvaceous earrings, T-bar pendants and rhythmically undulating bracelets, which draw on interior details, including sweeping curtains, gridded façades and globe lights.

Art Deco has long inspired Vann’s pieces – “the different cut stones, coloured gemstones, claw settings and bezel settings, it’s a really greedy take on design” – but she was unsure of how to “really nail” translating the design codes of Birmingham’s last functioning cinema from the period without things looking too literal or like Jazz Age-derived “peacock feathers and fans”. And so, Vann looked into the history of the cinema’s designer Harry Weedon, a Handsworth-born architect, who oversaw all of the Odeon’s Art Deco facades nationwide for its founder Oscar Deutsch during the 1930s. Another cinema just down the road in Kingstanding, which became a bingo hall in 1962, closed its doors for the final time in June, and there is currently an active online petition to rehabilitate it to its former glory.

“I was granted access to look at Weedon’s original line drawings and hand sketches that were in an archive at Birmingham City University,” Vann explains of her two-year design process. “What I saw in 2D allowed me to disassemble the building into jewellery.” She also learnt that the current iteration of Weedon’s practise operates from Birmingham’s historic Jewellery Quarter, where her dad also used to run his own jewellery business.

“It’s so nice to talk about Birmingham and not only discuss the Industrial Revolution or Peaky Blinders,” Vann smiles. Read below for the Brummie native’s guide for where to spend 24 hours in her home city.

Brunch at Hampton Manor

“This beautiful hotel has two amazing restaurants, plus a walled garden bakery, where everything is baked on site. You need to get there early as everything is usually sold out by 11am, including the stoneground sourdough and the cinnamon buns, which the bakery is renowned for.”

A walk in Sutton Park

“It’s huge, rugged in parts, and really feels like a piece of the countryside. It’s right on my doorstep, so I love it.”

Vintage jewellery shopping

“Walking around the entire Jewellery Quarter is a real experience. As well as our new designs, we sell second-hand jewellery at Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges, and source lots of our pre-loved pieces from there. These are designs which have incredible stories, that are tens if not hundreds of years old, which we refurbish and reset. Walking around there is one of my favourite things to do.”

Dinner at The Blow Water Cafe

“My friend Sabrina, a Hong Kong native, opened this restaurant in Kings Heath, which is designed to feel like a neighbour’s living room. Women-led, it has Hong Kong-inspired dishes (order the dumplings!), and doubles up as a cultural space, with pop-ups and food and wine-tasting nights with the Digbeth winery Midlands Press.”

A show at Symphony Hall

“Apparently this concert venue has the best acoustics in the UK! It hosts hundreds of events a year, and I have core memories of going to concerts here with my mum. It’s an amazing space and there really is something for everyone.”