Birmingham, situated in an immensely rich iron, coal and limestone region, is the principal manufacturing centre in the state, and the most important centre for the production and manufacture of iron in the southern states. In the decade 1890-1900 the value of the products of Birmingham’s manufactories increased 78.9% from $7,064,248 to $12,581,066; in 1900 establishments under the “factory system” produced goods valued at $8,599,418, in 1905 at $7,592,958, a decrease of 11.7%.
Immediately outside the city limits in 1905 there were many large manufactories, including the repair shops of the Southern railroad; iron and steel, car wheels and cotton-oil were among the products of the suburban factories. In Jefferson county there were in 1900 more than 300 mining and manufacturing establishments, engaged, chiefly, in the production of iron, coal and coke, and a majority of these are in Birmingham and its suburban towns. A short distance south of the city is Red Mountain, 25 m. long and about 225 ft. high, rich in hematite iron ore; valuable limestone deposits are found some 30 m. distant, and in the vicinity are three great coalfields, the Warrior, the Coosa and the Cahaba. These natural advantages make possible the production of pig iron at an unusually low cost. In 1900 the Birmingham district produced six-sevenths of the total pig iron exported from the United States, and in 1902 nine-tenths of Alabama’s coal, coke and pig iron; in 1905 Jefferson county produced 67.5% of the total iron and steel product of the state, and 62.5% of the pig iron produced by the state. The first steel plant in the southern states was established at Birmingham in 1897; in 1902, at Ensley, one of the suburbs, there were 10 furnaces controlled by one company. The city has also a large trade in cotton, the annual receipts averaging about 100,000 bales. Among the manufactures are cotton goods, cotton-seed oil, yarn, furniture and machinery. Birmingham also has important lumber interests.
The city is a product of the industrial transformation in the southern states since the Civil War. In 1870 the site was a cotton field, where two railways, the South & North, and the Alabama & Chattanooga, now part respectively of the Louisville & Nashville and the Southern System, met, 2 m. from Elyton. In 1871 a land company, promoted by railway officials, founded Birmingham. Within four months the population was 1200; by 1873 it was 2500; in 1880 it was 3086; and in 1890 it had reached 26,178.
BIRMINGHAM, a city and a municipal, county, and parliamentary borough, the metropolis of one of the greatest industrial districts in England. Pop. (1901) 522,204. It lies in the north-west of Warwickshire, but its suburbs extend into Staffordshire on the north and west, and into Worcestershire on the south. It is 113 m. north-west from London by the London & North-Western railway, lying on the loop line between Rugby and Stafford; it is also served by the northern line of the Great Western, and by the north and west (Derby-Bristol) line of the Midland railway.
Site.—Birmingham, built upon the New Red Sandstone, is situated in the valleys of the Rea and other small feeders of the river Tame, near their sources, and upon the rising ground between these valleys. The site is, therefore, boldly undulating, varying from 200 to 600 ft. above sea-level, steadily rising towards the north and west, while the well-marked line of the Lickey hills skirts the site on the south-west, extending thence south-eastward. From the high ground to the south-east Birmingham thus presents the appearance of a vast semicircular amphitheatre, the masses of houses broken by innumerable factory-chimneys; the whole scene conveying a remarkable impression of a community of untiring industrial activity. The area of the town is nearly 20 sq. m., the greatest length from north to south 7 m., and the greatest breadth about 4 m. Yet Birmingham is a fraction only of an industrial district, of which it forms the south-eastern extremity, which itself resembles one vast city, and embraces such famous manufacturing towns as Dudley, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Wednesbury and many others. This is the district commonly known as the “Black Country,” which forms part of the South Staffordshire industrial district. Birmingham, however, does not lie actually within the “Black Country” properly so-called.
Streets and Buildings.—The plan of the town, as dictated by the site, is irregular; the streets are mostly winding, and often somewhat narrow. In the centre are several fine thoroughfares, containing nearly all the most important buildings. New Street, Corporation Street and Colmore Row are the chief of these. At the western end of New Street is a fine group of buildings, including the council house and art gallery, the town hall and post office. The council house and art gallery, begun in 1874 and completed in 1881, is in Renaissance style, and the material is Darley Dale, Spinkwell and Wrexham stone. The entrance is surmounted with a pediment filled with groups of excellent sculpture. The erection of that part which forms the art gallery was the work of the gas committee, to whom the council granted the site on condition that they would build such a gallery over their own office, the council having no powers at the time to raise the required funds. The art gallery contains a fine collection of modern paintings, including masterpieces of David Cox, Millais, Hunt, Henry Moore, Albert Moore, Briton-Riviere and Burne-Jones. In the industrial hall are rich stores of Oriental metal work, Limoges enamel, English and foreign glass and Japanese ceramics. In the side galleries are various textiles, and Persian, Rhodian, Grès de Flandres and other pottery. There is a remarkable collection of Wedgwood. Notable also is the collection of arms, which is probably the most complete in existence. The purchase of pictures has been made from time to time by means of an art gallery purchase fund of £12,000, privately contributed and placed under the control of the corporation. Many valuable works of art are the gift of individuals. In 1906 plans were obtained for additional municipal offices and another art gallery on a site on the opposite side of Edmund Street from the council house. The town hall, completed in 1850, is severely classic, modelled upon a Greek temple. The lower stage consists of a plinth or basement, 23 ft. high, upon which is reared a facade of peripteral character, with eight Corinthian columns (36 ft. high) at the two principal fronts, and thirteen columns on each side. These columns (imitated from those of the temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome) support a bold and enriched cornice, finished at each end with a lofty pediment and entablature. The exterior of the hall is built of Anglesea marble. The interior consists chiefly of a regularly-built room, designed specially for meetings and concerts, with an orchestra containing a fine organ. The hall seats upwards of 2000 persons, but when cleared of benches, as is the case at great political meetings, over 5000 may find standing room. The Midland Institute, adjacent to the town hall on the west, has a fine lecture theatre. To the south lie the post office, the inland revenue office and Queen’s College. To the north is the Gothic building of Mason College, an institution merged in the university. The Central free library, adjoining the Midland Institute, was rebuilt in 1879, after a fire which destroyed the fine Shakespeare library, the Cervantes collection, and a large series of books on, and antiquities of, Warwickshire, known as the Staunton collection. The Shakespeare series was as far as possible replaced, and the whole forms one of the largest reference and lending libraries in England. Edmund Street and Colmore Row are fine thoroughfares running parallel in a north-easterly direction from either side of the council house; in the first the principal building is the school of art, in the second are several noteworthy private buildings. Both terminate at Snow Hill station, that of the Great Western railway. New Street station, that of the London & North Western and Midland railways, lies close to the street of that name, fronted by the Queen’s hotel. The station is nearly a quarter of a mile in length. The roof of the older portion consists of a vast arch of glass and iron, carried on pillars on each side, and measuring 1100 ft. in length, 80 ft. in height, and 212 ft. in width in a single span. The building of the Royal Society of Artists fronts New Street itself with a fine classic portico; here are also the exchange (Gothic) and the grammar school of King Edward VI., a Perpendicular building dating from 1840, designed by Sir Charles Barry. Corporation Street was the outcome of a great “Improvement scheme” initiated in 1875, with the object of clearing away a mass of insanitary property from the centre of the town and of constructing a main thoroughfare from the centre to the north-eastern outlet, starting from New Street, near the railway station to Bull Street, and thence continuing to the Aston Road. The scheme received parliamentary sanction in 1876, and was finished in 1882 at a cost of £1,520,657. This led to an almost total extinction of the residential quarter in the centre of the town. The finest building in this handsome street is the Victoria assize courts. The foundation stone was laid by Queen Victoria in 1887, after Birmingham had been created an assize district; the building was completed in 1891. There is a handsome entrance, and within is a great hall, 80 ft. by 40, with a series of stained-glass windows. The exterior is red, and highly ornamented in the style of the Renaissance.
Among other noteworthy buildings are the county court, education offices and military drill hall. Among a fine series of statues and monuments may be mentioned the statue of Nelson by Richard Westmacott, in the Bull Ring; those of Joseph Sturge, at the Five Ways, and of Thomas Attwood, the founder of the Political Union, in Stephenson Place, both by J.E. Thomas; James Watt, a singularly beautiful work, in Ratcliff Place, by Alexander Munro; Sir Robert Peel, in New Street, by Peter Hollins; Albert, prince consort, in the council house, by J.H. Foley; and Queen Victoria, by Thomas Woolner; Sir Rowland Hill, in the hall of the post office, by Matthew Noble; and Dr Priestley, in New Street, by F.J. Williamson. There is also a fountain behind the town hall, commemorative of the mayoralty of Mr Joseph Chamberlain, and flanked by statues of Sir Josiah Mason, and George Dawson, who took active part in the municipal reform movement previous to Mr Chamberlain’s years of office. Sir Francis Chantrey’s famous statue of James Watt is in a special chapel at Handsworth church.
Suburbs.—The principal streets radiating from central Birmingham to the suburbs are served by electric tramways worked by the corporation, and also by motor omnibuses. The principal suburbs are as follows. Edgbaston and Harborne lie south-west of the centre of the city, being approached by Broad Street. These form a residential district principally inhabited by the richer classes, and owing to the enforcement of strict rules by the ground landlord, retain a remarkable semi-rural character, almost every house having a garden. Here, moreover, are Calthorpe Park, the botanical gardens, and the large private grounds attached to Edgbaston Hall, also the Warwickshire county cricket ground. To the south of Edgbaston, however, are the growing manufacturing districts of Selly Oak and Bourneville, and south of these, Northfield and King’s Norton, in Worcestershire. The districts to the east of central Birmingham are Balsall Heath, Sparkbrook, Small Heath and Saltley. On the south-east is the residential suburb of Moseley, and on the east that of Yardley. Between Moseley and King’s Heath to the south, is Highbury, the seat of Mr Joseph Chamberlain, whose active interest in the affairs of the town, both during his mayoralty (1873-1876) and at other times, was a principal factor in such works as the municipalization of the gas and water supply, the Corporation Street improvement, and the foundation of Birmingham University. On the east side the transition from town to country is clearly marked. This, however, is not the case on the west side, where the borough of Smethwick adjoins Birmingham, and the roads through West Bromwich and towards Oldbury and Dudley have the character of continuous streets. On this side are Soho and Handsworth, which gives name to a parliamentary division of Staffordshire. To the north lies Aston Manor, a municipal borough of itself, with Perry Bar beyond. To the north-east a populous district extends towards the town of Sutton Coldfield. Aston Hall is a fine Jacobean mansion standing in an extensive park. Aston Lower Grounds is an adjacent pleasure-ground. Besides these and the Edgbaston grounds the chief parks are Summersfield Park, towards Smethwick; Soho Park; Victoria Park, Handsworth; Adderley Park, towards Saltley; and Victoria Park, Small Heath. There is a race-course at Castle Bromwich, 3 m. east of the town.
Churches and Religion.—Birmingham is not rich in ecclesiastical architecture. It became a bishopric under the Bishoprics of Southwark and Birmingham Act 1904, including the archdeaconry of Birmingham and the rural deanery of Handsworth, previously in the diocese of Worcester. Before 1821 it was in the diocese of Lichfield. There were formerly a religious house, the priory of St Thomas the Apostle, and a Gild of the Holy Cross, an association partly religious and partly charitable, having a chantry in the parish church. The possessions of the priory went to the crown at the dissolution, and the building was destroyed before the close of the 16th century. The lands of the Gild of the Holy Cross were granted by Edward VI. to trustees for the support of the free grammar school. Until 1715 there was but one parish church, St Martin’s, a rectory, having the tithes of the entire parish of Birmingham. St Martin’s was erected about the middle of the 13th century, but in the course of ages was so disfigured, internally and externally, as to present no traces, except in the tower and spire, of its former character. In 1853 the tower was found to be in a dangerous condition, and together with the spire was rebuilt. In 1873 the remaining part of the old church was removed without disturbing the monuments, and a larger edifice was erected in its place. St. Philip’s, a stately Italian structure, designed by Archer, a pupil of Wren, was the next church erected. It was consecrated in 1715, enlarged in 1884, and became the pro-cathedral on the foundation of the diocese. It contains a rich series of stained-glass windows by Burne-Jones. Then followed St Bartholomew’s in 1749, St Mary’s in 1774, St Paul’s in 1779, St James’s, Ashted, in 1791, and others. St Alban’s is a good example of J.L. Pearson’s work, and Edgbaston church is a picturesque Perpendicular structure.