Yeah, if my experience of the place is anything to go by, he prettied it up for the books 
It's been a while since Tolkien's time but I can say the place is still orc-infested, nightmarish, polluted and downright scary, although much depending on which part of the town you live in. I lived right next to Jewellery Quarter (on the other side of the canal) which at the time was about the worst place possible... a friend of mine lived in Perry Barr and I spent most of my weekends at her place because it was so much quieter there (and PB is not exactly a pleasant area either). So with all apologies to Brummies I would not live there again, it takes a certain spirit to survive Birmingham.
Oh, oh! I had another workplace story to share! I chanced to come across a work by one of Iceland's masters,
Kjarval! I don't know who I should compare him to but imagine one of the most important artists of your homecountry, Kjarval is that to Iceland.
I had to take a small picture out of its frame, make it a new passe-partout, back cardboard and glass pane, the usual stuff. At first it didn't look anything fancy, just a print of a photograph on an old piece of yellowed paper with random, messy doodles of flowers, naked women and one viking ship all around it. Then my attention was drawn to an equally haphazard signature that seemed to read "Kjarval", although with that kind of handwriting you really can't know. Amused, I turned the frame around and true enough, the note behind it said "myndskreyting (= illustration), Jóhannes S. Kjarval"... I had some really nervous times working on that one.
