I never thought I'd live to see the words "I made the pilgrimage to Birmingham" written without irony.
I live in the city and believe me, we don't see many pilgrims....
Seriously though if anyone is thinking of travelling to India from the UK, the CGI in birmingham only issues 200 visas a day and although they open at 9, anyone joining the que after 8.20 is unlikely to get a visa.
Its common to see people arrive at 9am after having driven 200 miles get turned away at the door and you just have to feel for them.
Queing to get your application in is likely to exceed 3 hours and queing to pick up your endorsed passport in the afternoon is likely to exceed 2 hours.
Unless you actually live in the city, do yourself a favour and download the application from the CGI website and use the option of applying for your via by post. I'll cost you an extra couple of quid and take a few days but it's a lot less hassle.
To be honest, I work 10 minutes from the consular office and my next visa appication will be by post - it really is that bad.
Edit: Heres the section of the CGI website relating to visa's.
http://www.cgibirmingham.org/visas.htm