Local information
Travel advice
- By rail: Birmingham New Street station has direct connections to and from much of the UK.
- By car: Set your satnav to N 52° 28' 17.84'' W 1° 54' 1.67'' for the Etap hotel (or to "1 Great Colmore Street" or "B15 2AP" if you can't use coordinates).
- By plane: If you fly in from abroad then consider taking a plane to Birmingham International Airport, which is only a short train ride from the central New Street Station.
Directions from the Etap Hotel to the University
- By rail: Walk to Birmingham New Street station and take one of the local trains towards "Longbridge" or "Redditch" which leave every 10 minutes throughout the day (usually from Platform 9 or higher). The second stop is called "University". Alight from the train and turn left as you leave the station. You are now looking directly at the Computer Science building and it will look to you much as in the image on the left at the top of this page.
- By bus: Upon leaving the hotel, cross Bristol Road (the big dual carriageway outside the hotel) via the underpass and turn right. Walk along Bristol Road until you reach the next bus stop. The numbers 61, 62 and 63 are all equally useful. Take any of these and stay on the bus for about 15 mins until you pass a largish Fire Brigade building on the left; you have now reached the south-eastern corner of the campus. Shortly afterwards you'll see a Tesco Express combined with a petrol station on your right. Leave the bus at the next bus stop (called "Dawlish Road"). Cross Bristol Road and turn into Grange Road, which is next the "Goose at the OVT" pub. Follow this street into the University campus via the Grange Road gate (on the bottom of the campus map). To reach the Computer Science building from Grange Road gate, continue for about 100m on the road on which you entered the University until you reach a four-way junction. Take a left turn and follow this road for about 250m until you come to a T-junction. Turn left again and Computer Science is the second building on your left. It is labelled Y9 on the campus map. See also this Google Map for a description of the route.
- On foot: Google says it's 2.4 miles and will take you 52 minutes.
- By taxi: Ask the driver to take you to "University" train station.
- By car: This is generally not advisable because of road works and a lack of parking spaces on campus. If you need to drive for some special reason, then set your satnav to N 52° 26' 59.22'' W 1° 55' 36.94'' (or to the "Barber Institute" if you can't use coordinates) for the "East Gate" of the University campus. The staff there can advise you where to park your car.
Directions from the University to the Etap-hotel (by bus)
Go back to Bristol Road. When you reach Bristol Road at the Goose at the OVT turn left and walk along Bristol Road until you reach the next bus stop. Take a 61, 62 or 63 bus towards the City Centre. After about 15 minutes you reach a big junction with a McDonalds on your left. Leave the bus at the second stop after this junction. The Etap-hotel is on the left of the main road.Campus maps
The University maintains an interactive map; follow the link to view larger map and you find links to "Y9 Computer Science" and "R28 Learning Centre" in the list on the left. A PDF version is also available.On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the talks are in UG04 in the Learning Centre; on Thursday they are in LG32 in the Learning Centre. The Learning Centre and the Computer Science building are directly opposite each other at the entrance to the campus as you enter from the "University" train station.