WeiPoint at the Back to Backs

Birmingham Back to Backs are the last standing houses of their kind in the city, an icon of Birmingham’s history.

Originally built in the victorian era, Birmingham Back to Backs is now a museum dedicated to displaying the kinds of living conditions the different inhabitants of the Back to Backs would have experienced, from the 1830s to the 1970s. The houses have been expertly preserved and repaired by the National Trust, and provide a window into how much of the population of Birmingham would have lived during its industrial past.

Birmingham Back to Backs is available to be enjoyed by the public due to their dedicated and passionate team of volunteers. They provide tours around this most special of heritage sites, sharing the stories of those who once lived in the Back to Backs. WeiPoints director, Dr Wei Wu, has been one of these volunteers: working with the site in 2017 as part of their core of volunteers. 

WeiPoint seeks to make Birmingham fascinating history more accessible for the cities diverse international residents. The Back to Backs is a most excellent place to start this journey of exploration. In 2020, Wei will be returning to the Back to Backs to (for the very first time) run mandarin language tours at the site. WeiPoint will be working closely with the National Trust and Back to Backs to ensure an experience that is authentic and informative, that preserves the value of visiting the site, and experiencing the unique stories it has to tell, in mandarin. In addition to this, WeiPoint will be offering the chance for mandarin speakers who are interested to also run mandarin language tours at the Back to Backs. This can be an excellent and enjoyable way to immerse oneself in the cultural life of Birmingham while learning valuable skills. 

For WeiPoint, this will just be the beginning. Birmingham has a great many valuable heritage sites and museums to explore. WeiPoint hopes to be able to make much more accessible to the international community in the city. The Midlands is great, and its non-English speaking communities should be able to enjoy it in the most accessible way possible.