1. Birmingham
Dr Chris Upton
Reader in Public History
Newman University Birmingham

3. Westley’s Prospect (1732)

4. Samuel Lines, View from St Philip’s
(1821)

5. Aerial view of Birmingham 1886

6. Birmingham’s Growth
• 1838
• Inclusion of Edgbaston, Duddeston &
• 1550 pop c1,500 Nechells, Deritend & Bordesley
• 1650 pop c5,000 • 1891
• 1750 pop c30,000 • Inclusion of Harborne, Balsall Heath
• 1800 pop c70,000 • 1911 (Greater Birmingham Act)
• 1900 pop 520,000 • Inclusion of Handsworth, Northfield,
Yardley, Aston, Kings Norton
• 1981 pop 1,013,431
• 1928 Inclusion of Perry Barr
• 2001 pop 977,000
• 1974 Inclusion of Sutton Coldfield

7. A Town Transformed
• Full twenty years and more are passed
Since I left Brummagem.
But I set out for home at last
To good old Brummagem.
But ev'ry place is altered so
Now there's hardly a place I know
Which fills my heart with grief and woe
For I can't find Brummagem
• James Dobbs, 1825
• One has no great hope of
Birmingham. I always say there
is something direful in the sound.
• Mrs Elton in Jane Austen's
Emma

8. The New Birmingham

9. Disconnections
• Old --- Young
• Centre --- Suburbs
• Rich --- Poor
• Day --- Night
• Past --- Present

10. Ownership
• I can’t find
Brummagem…

11. Big City – Little City

12. The shamrock in the turban
• As I was walking down the street
• Shifting identities: As used to be in Brummagem,
I knowed nobody I did meet
For they've changed their face in
Brummagem…
• The mosque
• The neighbourhood
• The village
• The suburb
• The pub
• The past…

13. • A sense of place
• A feeling of ownership
• A haven
• Continuity
• A shared past
• A shared future ?