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History of Birmingham. Birmingham in 1732, on the verge of the Industrial Revolution. Birmingham has seen 1400 years of growth, during which time it has evolved from a small 7th century Anglo Saxon hamlet on the edge of the Forest of Arden at the fringe of the early Mercia into a major city.
- Overview
- History
- The contemporary city
Birmingham, second largest city of the United Kingdom and a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands metropolitan county. It lies near the geographic centre of England, at the crossing points of the national railway and motorway systems. Birmingham is the largest city of the West Midlands conurbation—one of England’s principal industrial and commercial areas—for which it acts as an administrative, recreational, and cultural centre. The city lies approximately 110 miles (177 km) northwest of London.
The historic core of Birmingham, along with Edgbaston and northern neighbourhoods such as Sutton Coldfield, Erdington, and Sheldon, lies in the historic county of Warwickshire. Northwestern neighbourhoods, such as Handsworth and Kingstanding, and Harborne in the southwest lie in the historic county of Staffordshire. Southern and eastern neighbourhoods—such as Bartley Green, Northfield, Moseley, and Yardley—belong to the historic county of Worcestershire. Area city and metropolitan borough, 103 square miles (268 square km). Pop. (2001) city and metropolitan borough, 977,087; urban agglom., 2,284,093; (2011) city and metropolitan borough, 1,073,045; urban agglom. (West Midlands built-up area), 2,440,986.
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Birmingham’s first market charter was granted in 1166, but it was not until the 14th century that it emerged as a settlement of any significance. Its lack of river transport, by cutting it off from maritime contacts important in the medieval period, impeded its development from a small manufacturing town to a large city until the late 18th century, when it became the leading nucleus of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Birmingham’s population grew from 15,000 in the late 17th century to 70,000 a century later; its metal and gun-making trades expanded, fine jewelry was made alongside cheaper lines, and its brass buttons and trinkets served a world market. The engineers James Watt (inventor of the steam engine), Matthew Boulton, and William Murdock (pioneers in steam engine development), the chemist Joseph Priestley, and the printer John Baskerville all lived in the city at that time and greatly contributed to the technological progress of Birmingham and the country. Boulton’s Soho Manufactory, which developed the steam engine for industrial use, became famous throughout Europe.
It was not until after the Reform Act of 1832 that Birmingham elected its own members to Parliament, and the city was not incorporated until 1838. In that same year, rail links to Liverpool and London were completed. In 1873 the rich local industrialist Joseph Chamberlain became the city’s mayor, and during his three-year tenure he initiated important reforms, among them sweeping slum and city-centre redevelopment schemes. Birmingham became a British pioneer in town-planning schemes (1911), one-way-traffic experiments (1933), and municipal airports (1939). Wartime industrial activity and heavy bombing left the city exhausted in 1945, but it eventually began razing slums and bombed-out areas in the central districts and replacing them with tall blocks of apartments and office buildings. A new inner ring road system, a rebuilt central train station, and new shopping and commercial complexes were part of the city’s postwar transformation. There is also a network of canals in the northwestern and southern parts of the city.
Birmingham remains the chief centre of Britain’s light and medium industry and is still sometimes described as “the city of 1,001 different trades.” The key to its economic success was the diversity of its industrial base, though it has been principally concerned with the metal and engineering trades. The largest single industry in terms of employment is the production of motor vehicles. Bicycles and motorcycles are made in the area, though the bicycle trade has declined. The city is also one of the main centres of the machine-tool industry. Since the 1970s, however, the city’s service sector has grown to rival the manufacturing sector.
The central focus of Birmingham is Victoria Square, with the classical Town Hall (1834), the Renaissance-style Council House (1874–81), and the City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, which is noted for its Pre-Raphaelite paintings and its English watercolours. St. Philip’s Cathedral (1715), in its green churchyard, forms another focus, and the Georgian area around St. Paul’s Church (1779) also has a character of its own. Other centres have formed around St. Chad’s Cathedral (Roman Catholic), designed by A.W.N. Pugin (1841); Centenary Square (1989) and the adjacent International Convention Centre (1991); and the Bullring shopping centre (2003), whose centerpiece, Selfridges department store, has won numerous design awards. The store’s curved form, covered with 15,000 aluminum discs, serves as a dramatic counterpoint to its neighbour, the Neo-Gothic St. Martin’s Church.
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- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Historical population of Birmingham, between 1651 and 2011. The 2021 census recorded 1,144,900 people living in Birmingham, an increase of around 6.7% from 2011 when 1,073,045 were recorded. It is the 27th largest city in Europe by population within its city boundary.
14. März 2021 · Birmingham is the second-largest city in England. It began as an Anglo-Saxon village. In the early 12th century it grew into a town. In 1166 the King gave the Lord of the Manor, Peter De Birmingham, the right to hold a weekly market at Birmingham.
Timeline of Birmingham history. This article is intended to show a timeline of events in the History of Birmingham, England, with a particular focus on the events, people or places that are covered in Wikipedia articles.
Learn how Birmingham evolved from a Saxon settlement to a major industrial and commercial centre in the Midlands. Discover the geography, history and culture that shaped the city from the 6th to the 20th century.
19. Jan. 2024 · The youngest of the state’s major cities, Birmingham was founded in 1871 at the crossing of two rail lines near one of the world’s richest deposits of minerals. The city was named for Birmingham, England, the center of that country’s iron industry. The new Alabama city boomed so quickly that it came to be known as the “Magic City.”
