Round the town you now must go
To find old Brumagem."
Had he lived till these days he might well have sung so, for improvements are being carried out so rapidly now that in another generation it is likely old Birmingham will have been improved off the face of the earth altogether. Prior to the days of steam, our forefathers went about their work more leisurely, for it was not until 1765 that the Act was obtained for the "enlightening" of the streets, and four years later when the first Act was passed (April 21, 1769) for street improvements. The Street Commissioners appointed by this Act, and who held their first meeting May 22, 1769, for many years did little more than regulate the traffic of the streets, keep them cleanish, and look after the watchmen. In course of time the operations of the said Commissioners were extended a little, and it is to them that we owe the existence of the central open space so long known as the Bull Ring, for they gave £1,730, in 1801, for the removal of nine tenements there and then blocking the way. Money must have been of more value then than now, for if such a purchase was necessary at the present date one or two more figures would require being added to the amount. This town improvement was completed in 1806, when the Commissioners purchased the remaining houses and shops round St. Martin's, but property owners had evidently learned something during the five years, for whereas the Commissioners at first estimated the further cost at £10,957, they reluctantly had to provide no less than £22,266, the additional sum required being swallowed up by "incidental expenses." The poet already quoted had apparently been absent during these alterations, for he wailingly bemoaned—
"Poor old Spiceal Street half gone,
The poor old Church stands all alone,
And poor old I can only groan,
That I can't find Brumagem."
Though an Improvement Act for Duddeston and Nechells was obtained in 1829, the town improvements for the next forty years consisted principally of road making, street paving, market arranging, &c., the opening-up ideas not getting well-rooted in the minds of our governors until some time after the Town Council began to rule the roast. That a great deal of work was being done, however, is shown by reference to the Borough accounts for 1840, in which year £17,366 was expended in lighting, watching, and otherwise improving the thoroughfares, in addition to £13,794 actually spent on the highways. 1852 saw the removal of the turnpikes, at a cost of over £3,200; in the same year £5,800 was expended in widening the entrance to Temple Row from Bull Street, and £1,800 for rounding off the corner of Steelhouse Lane and Snow Hill. In October, 1853, it was decided to obtain for £33,000 the 11,540 square yards of land at the corner of Ann Street and Congreve Street, where the Municipal Buildings, Art Gallery, and new Gas Office now stand. Almost every year since has seen the purchase of properties more or less required for substantial improvements, though some of them may not even yet have been utilised. A few fancy prices might be named which have had to be paid for odd bits of property here and there, but about the dearest of all was £53 10s. per yard, which the Council paid (in 1864) for the land required to round off the corner of New Street and Worcester Street, a further £1,300 going, in 1873, to extinguish certain leasehold rights. This is by no means the highest figure given for land in the centre of the town, as Mr. John Feeney, in 1882, paid at the rate of £66 per yard for the site at corner of Cannon Street and New Street, the portion retained for his own use costing him even more than that, as he generously allowed the Corporation to take 30-1/2 yards for £1,000. The introduction of the railways, and consequent obliteration of scores of old streets, courts, alleys, and passages, has been of vast service towards the general improvement of the town, as well in the matter of health and sanitation, as leading to the construction of many new buildings and the formation of adequate approaches to the several railway stations, the erection of such establishments as the Queen's Hotel, the Great Western Hotel, &c. Nor have private property owners and speculators been at all backward, as evidenced by our magnificent modern banking establishments, the huge piles of commercial buildings in Colmore Row, New Street, and Corporation Street, the handsome shops in New Street, High Street, and Bull Street, with many other edifices that our grandfathers never dreamed of, such as the Midland, the Grand, and the Stork Hotels, the palatial Club Houses, the Colonnade and Arcades, New Theatres, Inns of Court, &c., &c. Many of these improvements have resulted from the falling-in of long leases on the Colmore, the Grammar School, and other estates, while others have been the outcome of a far-seeing policy on the part of such moneyed men as the late Sir Josiah Mason, Isaac Horton, and others of somewhat similar calibre. Going away from the immediate centre of the town architectural improvements will be noted on all hands, Snow Hill, for one place, being evidently in the regenerative throes of a new birth, with its Gothic Arcade opposite the railway station, and the new circus at the foot of the hill, where for so many long years there has been nothing but a wreck and a ruin. In close neighbourhood, Constitution Hill, Hampton Street, and at the junction of Summer Lane, a number of handsome houses and shops have lately been erected by Mr. Cornelius Ede, in the early Gothic style, from designs by Mr. J.S. Davis, the architect of the Snow Hill Arcade, the whole unquestionably forming a very great advance on many former street improvements. The formation in 1880 of John Bright Street as an extension of the Bristol Road (cost £30,000) has led to the erection of many fine buildings in that direction; the opening-out of Meetinghouse Yard and the alterations in Floodgate Street (in 1879, at a cost of £13,500), has done much for that neighbourhood; the widening of Worcester Street and the formation of Station Street, &c., thanks to the enlargement of the Central Station, and the remodelling of all the thoroughfares in the vicinity of Navition Street and Worcester Wharf, also arising therefrom, are important schemes now in progress in the same direction; and in fact there is hardly any district within the borough boundaries in which improvements of more or less consequence are not being made, or have been planned, the gloomy old burial grounds having been turned into pleasant gardens at a cost of over £10,000, and even the dirty water-courses known as the river Rea and Hockley brook have had £12,000 worth of cleaning out bestowed upon them. It is not too much to say that millions have been spent in improving Birmingham during the past fifty years, not reckoning the cost of the last and greatest improvement of all—the making of Corporation Street, and the consequent alterations on our local maps resulting therefrom. The adoption of the Artizans' Dwelling Act, under the provisions of which the Birmingham Improvement Scheme has been carried out, was approved by the Town Council, on the 16th of October, 1875. Then, on the 15th of March, 1876, followed the Local Government Board enquiry; and on the 17th of June, 1876, the provisional order of the Board, approving the scheme, was issued. The Confirming Act received the Royal assent on the 15th of August, 1876. On the 6th of September, 1880, a modifying order was obtained, with respect to the inclusion of certain properties and the exclusion of others. The operations under the scheme began in August, 1878, when the houses in New Street were pulled down. In April, 1879, by the removal of the Union Hotel, the street was continued into Cherry Street: and further extensions have been made in the following order:— Cherry Street to Bull Street, August 1881; the Priory to John Street, June 1881; Bull Street to the Priory, January, 1882; John Street to Aston Street, February, 1882. Little Cannon Street was formed in August 1881; and Cowper Street in January, 1881. The first lease of land in the area of the scheme—to the Women's Hospital—was agreed upon in January, 1876; and the first lease in Corporation Street—to Mr. J.W. Danieli— was arranged in May, 1878. In July, 1879, a lease was agreed upon for the new County Court. The arbitrations in the purchase of properties under the scheme were begun in June, 1879, and in June, 1880, Sir Henry Hunt, the arbitrator nominated by the Local Government Board, made his first award, amounting to £270,405, the remainder of the properties having been bought by agreement. The loans borrowed on account of the scheme amount to £1,600,000, the yearly charge on the rates being over £20,000 per annum, but as the largest proportion of the property is let upon 75-year leases, this charge will, in time, not only be reduced yearly by the increase of ground-rents, as the main and branch streets are filled up, but ultimately be altogether extinguished, the town coming in for a magnificent income derived from its own property. The length of Corporation Street from New Street to Lancaster Street is 851 yards, and if ultimately completed (as at first intended) from Lancaster Street to Aston Road, the total length will be 1,484 yards or five-sixths of a mile. The total area of land purchased for the carrying-out of the scheme is put at 215,317 square yds. (about 44a. 1r. 38p.), of which quantity 39,280 square yards has been laid out in new streets, or the widening of old ones. Of the branch or connecting streets intended there is one (from Corporation Street to the corner of High Street and Bull Street, opposite Dale End), that cannot be made for several years, some valuable leases not expiring until 1890 and 1893, but, judging by the present rate of building, Corporation Street itself will be completed long before then. More than a score of the unhealthiest streets and lanes in the town have been cleared away, and from a sanitary point of view the improvement in health and saving of life in the district by the letting in of light and air, has been of the most satisfactory character, but though the scheme was originated under the Artisans' Dwelling Act, intended to provide good and healthy residences in lieu of the pestiferous slums and back courts, it cannot in one sense be considered much of a success. The number of artisans' dwellings required was 1,335, about 550 of which were removed altogether, the rest being improved and relet, or converted into shops, warehouses, &c. A piece of land between Newtown Row and Summer Lane, containing an area of 14,250 square yards was purchased for the purpose of leasing for the erection of artisans' dwellings, and a 50ft. wide street was laid out and nicely planted with trees, but, owing either to the badness of trade, or the over-building of small houses in other parts previously, less than a sixth of the site has been taken, and but a score of houses built, a most wonderful contrast to the rapid filling of Corporation Street with its many magnificent edifices present and prospective, that promise to make it one of the finest streets in the provinces. There cannot, however, be such necessity for the erection of small houses as was imagined when the Act was adopted here, for according to a return lately obtained, and not reckoning the thousands of little domiciles on the outskirts, there are in the borough 4,445 houses usually let at weekly rentals up to 2s. 6d. per week, 24,692 the rentals of which are between 2s. 6d. and 3s. 6d., and 36,832 others between 3s. 6d. and 7s. per week, a total of 65,969 working men's houses, but of which 5,273 (taking one week with another) are always void.
Toyshop of Europe.—It was during the debate in the House of Commons (March 26, 1777) on the first reading of a Bill to license the Theatre in Birmingham, that Mr. Burke, who spoke in its favour, described this town as "the great toyshop of Europe." At that time, and for long afterwards, hundreds of articles of utility manufactured here were roughly classed as "light steel toys," and "heavy steel toys;" though we should hardly now be likely to consider tinder boxes, steelyards, pokers, fire-shovels and tongs as playthings.
Trade Notes of the Past.—Foreigners were not allowed to carry on any retail trade here before 1663. The Brums never liked them. An official document of 1695, states that, the trade of the town was "chiefly in steel, iron, and other ponderous commodities." In 1702 it was enacted that if brass, copper, latten, bell-metal gun-metal, or shruff-metal be carried beyond sea, clean or mixed, double the value thereof to be forfeited, tin and lead only excepted. An Act was passed March 20, 1716, prohibiting trade with Sweden, much to the inconvenience of our local manufacturers, who imported Swedish iron for conversion into steel in large quantities. The Act 1 Geo. I., c. 27 (1720), forbidding the exportation of artizans to foreign countries was not repealed till 1825 (5 Geo. IV., c. 97). In April, 1729, our manufacturers petitioned that the colonists in America should be encouraged to send pig iron over here; ten years previously they bitterly opposed the idea; ten years later they repented, for their American cousins filled our warehouses with their manufactured goods. In 1752 it was stated that above 20,000 hands were employed here in "useful manufactures." In 1785 a reward of fifty guineas was offered here for the conviction of any person "enticing workmen to go to foreign countries;" the penalty for such "enticing" being a fine of £100 and three months' imprisonment.