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Kingstanding Together

Birmingham history

Timeline

Birmingham’s story in dates — inventions and firms, riots and campaigns, and the buildings the city has lost.

Where a date is uncertain we mark it “about” or give a range, and the entry explains why. Filter by subject to see the industrial story, the Lunar Society or the demolition timeline.

1660s

  1. c. probably 1650s or 1660s — Erdington Hall rebuiltA new brick hall with stone dressings and Dutch gables is built on or near the old moated manor house, probably by John Jennens or his son Humphrey.Erdington Hall

1710s

  1. 1717 — Edgbaston Hall rebuiltSir Richard Gough built the present Edgbaston Hall on the site of a house destroyed in 1688. William Withering leased it from 1786.William WitheringEdgbaston Hall

1720s

  1. 1726 — First New Meeting House built in Moor StreetBirmingham’s New Meeting congregation of Protestant Dissenters built its first chapel in Moor Street. Joseph Priestley became its minister in 1780; rioters burnt it in 1791.Joseph PriestleyNew Meeting House

1730s

  1. c. by 1731 — The Lloyds’ slitting mill at work on the ReaThe Quaker Lloyd family hold the old Town Mill below Digbeth as ‘Lloyd’s Slitting and Corn Mills’, slitting bar iron into rods for Birmingham’s nailers. Iron profits later helped found Taylors & Lloyds bank.Sampson LloydLloyd’s slitting mill (the Town Mill), Digbeth
  2. 24 June 1738 — Lewis Paul patents roller spinningLewis Paul, ‘of Birmingham, gentleman’, patents ‘a machine or engine for spinning of wool and cotton in a manner entirely new’, drawing fibre between rollers turning at different speeds. The machine was built with the carpenter John Wyatt, whose name does not appear.Lewis PaulJohn Wyatt

1740s

  1. 1741 — John Wyatt’s weighing machine for BirminghamJohn Wyatt makes a compound-lever cart-weighing machine for Birmingham’s Overseers of the Poor. A working model is in the Science Museum. The Turnpike Act of the same year made weighing waggons necessary.John Wyatt
  2. c.1741 — Paul and Wyatt’s mill in the Upper PrioryLewis Paul and John Wyatt set up one of the earliest powered cotton-spinning mills in a warehouse in the Upper Priory, its spindles turned by two donkeys.Upper Priory Cotton Mill
  3. 1742 — Baskerville patents a japanning processJohn Baskerville patents a way of rolling and grinding thin metal plates and finishing them to look like mahogany or tortoiseshell. Japanned metalware makes his fortune.John Baskerville
  4. c. by 1743 — Upper Priory mill fails (lost)With John Wyatt imprisoned for debt, the Upper Priory cotton mill was almost derelict by 1743, and disappeared from the record after that year.Upper Priory Cotton Mill
  5. 1745 — Baskerville takes the lease of Easy HillBaskerville takes a building lease of about eight acres just north-west of the town, names it Easy Hill and builds a house and works there. The site is now Centenary Square.John BaskervilleEasy Hill
  6. 1746 — Roebuck and Garbett make sulphuric acid in lead chambersAt their Steelhouse Lane refinery, John Roebuck and Samuel Garbett begin making sulphuric acid on a large scale in chambers of lead instead of glass globes. The unpatented process cuts the cost of the acid to about a quarter and moves to a bigger works at Prestonpans in 1749.John RoebuckSamuel GarbettRoebuck and Garbett’s laboratory and refinery, Steelhouse LaneRoebuck & Garbett
  7. 1748 — Lewis Paul patents a carding machinePaul patents a machine for carding cotton and wool, the first suggestion of a continuous carding engine. It was tried in Birmingham and Northampton.Lewis Paul

1750s

  1. October 1752 — Baskerville’s workshop finishes its first punchesAt Easy Hill, John Baskerville tells the publisher Robert Dodsley that fourteen punches for his large titling letters have been “begun and finished in nine days only”. His punch-cutter John Handy did much of the cutting; the type was used for the Virgil of 1757.John BaskervilleJohn HandyEasy Hill
  2. c.1756–57 — Soho House builtThe house that became Soho House was built in the mid-18th century. Matthew Boulton acquired it unfinished in 1766 and enlarged it over the next thirty years.Matthew BoultonSoho House
  3. 1757 — Baskerville prints his VirgilBaskerville’s first book, a quarto Virgil, appears from his press at Easy Hill, using type, ink and paper he developed himself.John BaskervilleEasy Hill
  4. 1759 — Carron Company foundedJohn Roebuck, Samuel Garbett and partners found the Carron ironworks near Falkirk, with Birmingham capital. Its first furnace is blown on 1 January 1760.John RoebuckSamuel GarbettCarron Works, FalkirkCarron Company
  5. April 1759 — Death of Lewis PaulLewis Paul dies at Brook Green, Kensington, and is buried at Paddington on 30 April. His mills had failed, but his roller-spinning principle would be at the heart of the cotton industry.Lewis Paul

1760s

  1. 1761 — Boulton takes the Soho estateMatthew Boulton acquires the Soho estate on the Hockley Brook in Handsworth parish, Staffordshire, where a rolling mill already stood. Building of the Soho Manufactory begins the next year.Matthew BoultonSoho ManufactoryBoulton & Fothergill
  2. 1762 — Building begins at the Soho ManufactoryA year after Matthew Boulton and John Fothergill leased land on the Hockley Brook, building began on the Soho Manufactory. The works were finished around 1765–66.Matthew BoultonSoho ManufactoryBoulton & Fothergill
  3. 17 March 1762 — Frederick is sent from Greenock to GlasgowThe Watt family firm hands a Black child, named in a clothing list as “Fridrick”, to a carter to be taken to Glasgow for Lady Spynie. Later that year a letter to “James Watt junior merchant in Greenock” — argued by Stephen Mullen to be the engineer — asks what the boy has cost.James Watt
  4. 1763 — Baskerville’s Cambridge BibleAs printer to the University of Cambridge, Baskerville produces his folio Bible, generally reckoned his masterpiece.John BaskervilleEasy Hill
  5. 3 June 1765 — Taylors & Lloyds bank opens in Dale EndJohn Taylor, Sampson Lloyd and their sons open Birmingham’s first proper bank in Dale End. It later became Lloyds Bank. A blue plaque marks the site.John TaylorTaylors & Lloyds
  6. c. mid-1760s — The Lunar circle takes shapeMatthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin, William Small and their friends begin meeting, writing and experimenting together. Benjamin Franklin introduces Small to Boulton in 1765. There is no single founding date; the Library of Birmingham says the group existed “from the 1750s”.Matthew BoultonErasmus DarwinSoho HouseThe Lunar Society
  7. 1765 — Watt conceives the separate condenserWhile repairing Glasgow University’s model Newcomen engine, James Watt hits on the separate condenser, the idea that made the steam engine far less wasteful. He patents it in 1769.James Watt
  8. 29 November 1766 — Death of John WyattJohn Wyatt, co-inventor of roller spinning, dies and is buried at St Philip’s, Birmingham. Matthew Boulton and John Baskerville follow his coffin.John WyattMatthew BoultonJohn Baskerville
  9. May 1766 — Lady Shelburne watches John Taylor enamel a boxLord and Lady Shelburne tour Birmingham’s works. Taylor enamels a landscape on a box in front of them. Shelburne notes that a button passes through fifty hands, and that half the guns sent to Africa will burst.John TaylorJohn BaskervilleThe Gun Quarter
  10. 1766 — Boulton moves into Soho HouseMatthew and Ann Boulton move into Soho House, above the Manufactory. It becomes the favourite meeting place of the Lunar Society.Matthew BoultonSoho HouseThe Lunar Society

1770s

  1. 20 November 1772 — Henry Clay patents papier-mâché ‘paper ware’Patent No. 1027 gives the Birmingham japanner Henry Clay a monopoly on making japanned panels, coach roofs, furniture and tea trays “in paper”, by pasting sheets together rather than moulding pulp. It founds Birmingham’s papier-mâché industry.Henry ClayHenry Clay’s japanning works, Newhall Street
  2. 1773–74 — Roebuck’s share in Watt’s engine passes to BoultonRuined by flooded coal pits, John Roebuck settles a debt of about £1,200 to Matthew Boulton by handing over his two-thirds share in James Watt’s engine patent. Watt’s trial engine is shipped from Kinneil to Soho, and Watt follows in 1774.John RoebuckMatthew BoultonJames WattWatt’s Cottage, Kinneil House, Bo’nessSoho ManufactoryBoulton & Watt
  3. 1773 — Birmingham Assay Office establishedAfter a campaign led by Matthew Boulton, an Act of Parliament sets up an assay office in Birmingham to test and hallmark the town’s silver.Matthew Boulton
  4. 20 June 1774 — Theatre Royal opens on New StreetThe New Theatre, later the Theatre Royal, opens on New Street, built for Richard Yates at a cost of £4,000.Theatre Royal, New Street
  5. 1774 — Watt comes to BirminghamJames Watt moves to Birmingham, and his experimental engine is brought to Soho, where it pumps water back to the Manufactory’s mill pool.James WattMatthew BoultonSoho Manufactory
  6. 1775 — Death of John TaylorJohn Taylor, Birmingham’s great button and japanned-ware maker and co-founder of Taylors & Lloyds, dies leaving property worth about £200,000.John TaylorTaylors & Lloyds
  7. 1775 — The Lunar Society starts meeting by the full moonAfter Dr William Small dies in 1775, his friends decide to meet monthly on the Sunday nearest the full moon, so they have light to ride home by. They dine at two and talk until at least eight.Matthew BoultonJames WattErasmus DarwinSoho HouseThe Lunar Society
  8. 1775 — Withering comes to BirminghamTold of a vacancy by Erasmus Darwin, the physician William Withering moves from Stafford to Birmingham. The same year he is asked about a Shropshire family’s secret cure for dropsy, which leads him to the foxglove.William WitheringErasmus Darwin
  9. January 1775 — Baskerville dies and is buried at Easy HillJohn Baskerville dies at Easy Hill. A religious sceptic, he is buried in unconsecrated ground in his own grounds, under a cone, with an epitaph he wrote himself.John BaskervilleEasy Hill
  10. 1775 — Boulton & Watt partnership beginsParliament extends Watt’s 1769 patent by 25 years, to 1800, with Boulton’s help, and the partnership of Boulton & Watt begins.Matthew BoultonJames WattSoho ManufactoryBoulton & Watt
  11. 8 March 1776 — First commercial engine at Bloomfield CollieryA Boulton & Watt pumping engine with a 50-inch cylinder is set to work at Bloomfield Colliery, Tipton. A newspaper reports “a steam engine constructed upon Mr. Watts’s new principles”.James WattMatthew BoultonBoulton & Watt
  12. 1777–79 — St Paul’s Church built in the new Colmore squareSt Paul’s is built on land given by Charles Colmore, at the centre of a new square laid out to sell building plots. Within a few years the houses around it have workshops behind them.St Paul’s Church and St Paul’s SquareThe Jewellery Quarter
  13. c.1777 — Great Barr Hall remodelled in Gothick styleJoseph Scott began remodelling the old house at Great Barr in Gothick style. From 1785 it was let to Samuel Galton junior, and the Lunar Society met there.Samuel Galton juniorGreat Barr HallThe Lunar Society
  14. 1777 — William Murdoch joins Boulton & WattThe young Ayrshire millwright’s son William Murdoch joins the firm at Soho. He will work for Boulton & Watt for more than fifty years.William MurdochSoho ManufactoryBoulton & Watt
  15. 1778 — Keir runs SohoWith Boulton and Watt both away, James Keir manages the Soho works. He turns down the offer of a partnership as too risky.James KeirMatthew BoultonJames WattSoho Manufactory

1780s

  1. 23 August 1780 — Pickard’s ‘crank patent’James Pickard of Snow Hill, button maker, patents a way of making a steam engine turn wheels (no. 1263), after a crank was fitted to Matthew Wasbrough’s engine at his mill. Watt claims the idea was leaked from Soho and avoids the crank with the sun-and-planet gear.James PickardJames WattPickard’s mill, Snow HillBoulton & Watt
  2. 1780 — Priestley settles at Fair HillJoseph Priestley moves to Fair Hill, Sparkbrook, in a house provided through his brother-in-law John Wilkinson. Within months he becomes minister of the New Meeting.Joseph PriestleyFair HillNew Meeting HouseThe Lunar Society
  3. 1780 — Copying presses go on saleJames Watt & Co., a partnership of Watt, Boulton and Keir, starts selling Watt’s letter-copying press. The firm sells them until 1840.James WattMatthew BoultonJames Keir
  4. 1781 — Sun-and-planet gear patentedWatt patents the sun-and-planet gear, which lets his engines drive wheels. The Library of Birmingham credits the original invention to William Murdoch.James WattWilliam MurdochBoulton & Watt
  5. 1783 — Birmingham Commercial Committee formedBirmingham’s merchants and manufacturers form a standing committee to lobby Parliament, with Samuel Garbett as first chairman and Boulton among its members. It fights Pitt’s Irish trade proposals in 1785 and is the ancestor of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.Samuel GarbettMatthew Boulton
  6. 6 October 1783 — Thomas Attwood is bornThomas Attwood, future banker, currency reformer and founder of the Birmingham Political Union, is born at Hawne House, near Halesowen.Thomas Attwood
  7. 1785–1796 — The Lunar Society begins meeting at Great Barr HallSamuel Galton junior leases Great Barr Hall, just north of Kingstanding. According to Historic England, the Lunar Society “met occasionally at Great Barr between 1785 and 1796”.Samuel Galton juniorGreat Barr HallThe Lunar Society
  8. 1785 — Withering publishes An Account of the FoxgloveWithering’s book sets out 163 cases treated over ten years, with doses, preparation and side effects. It brings foxglove (digitalis) into medicine; its drug digoxin is still used for the heart.William Withering
  9. 1786 — Withering leases Edgbaston HallWithering takes a fourteen-year lease of Edgbaston Hall, where he breeds dogs and cattle, studies minerals and works on his botany.William WitheringEdgbaston Hall
  10. c. early 1788 — Birmingham petitions against the slave tradeAfter Thomas Clarkson’s visit in late 1787, Birmingham campaigners, among them Sampson and Charles Lloyd and William Russell, send a petition against the slave trade to Parliament. Joseph Priestley preaches against the trade at the New Meeting the same year.Joseph PriestleyNew Meeting House
  11. 1788 — Priestley preaches against the slave tradeAt the New Meeting, Priestley calls slavery “perhaps the greatest, and most crying evil under the sun”, as Birmingham prepares a petition to Parliament for abolition. The sermon is printed in Birmingham.Joseph PriestleyNew Meeting House
  12. 1788–89 — Soho Mint builtBoulton builds the steam-powered Soho Mint, hidden among his garden buildings between the Manufactory and Soho House.Matthew BoultonSoho Mint

1790s

  1. 28 June 1790 — Equiano thanks his Birmingham supportersOlaudah Equiano, the formerly enslaved writer and campaigner, publishes a letter in Aris’s Birmingham Gazette thanking Birmingham subscribers to his Narrative, including Galton, William Russell, Priestley and Boulton.Matthew BoultonJoseph PriestleySamuel Galton junior
  2. c.1787–90 — Heathfield built for James WattHeathfield, Handsworth, was built for James Watt, who moved in in June 1790 and lived there until his death in 1819.James WattHeathfield Hall
  3. June 1790 — Watt moves to HeathfieldJames and Ann Watt leave Harper’s Hill for Heathfield, their new house in Handsworth, where Watt sets up his garret workshop.James WattHeathfield HallWatt’s house at Harper’s Hill (Regent Place)James Watt’s garret workshop
  4. 1791 — Attwoods and Spooner open their bankMatthias Attwood, a Halesowen steel and nail maker, and Isaac Spooner found the Birmingham bank in which Thomas Attwood will spend his working life. It lasts until its collapse in 1865.Thomas Attwood
  5. 1791 — Birmingham joins the sugar boycottAfter the Commons votes down abolition in April 1791, Birmingham families join the boycott of slave-grown sugar. Mary Anne Galton, Samuel Galton’s daughter, supports it, and one Birmingham grocer reportedly sees his sugar sales halve in four months.Samuel Galton junior
  6. c.16–17 July 1791 — Rioters threaten Edgbaston Hall; troops restore orderWithering hides his books and specimens under hay in wagons as rioters approach Edgbaston Hall. The arrival of troops saves the house and ends the riots.William WitheringEdgbaston Hall
  7. 15 July 1791 — Easy Hill (Baskerville House) is burned (lost)Rioters sack and burn Baskerville House at Easy Hill, by now the home of John Ryland. Baskerville’s vault in the grounds is not disturbed.John BaskervilleEasy Hill
  8. 14 July 1791 — The Bastille dinner; the New Meeting and Fair Hill are burnedA dinner at the Royal Hotel marks the fall of the Bastille. A crowd attacks the guests, burns the New Meeting and Old Meeting, then ransacks and burns Priestley’s house and laboratory at Fair Hill. Priestley escapes.Joseph PriestleyNew Meeting HouseFair Hill
  9. 14 July 1791 — Keir chairs the Bastille dinnerJames Keir chairs a Birmingham dinner celebrating the French Revolution. It sets off the Priestley Riots of 14–17 July 1791.James KeirJoseph PriestleyFair Hill
  10. 1793 — Thomason opens his Church Street manufactoryEdward Thomason, trained at Boulton’s Soho, takes over his father’s buildings at Colmore Row and Church Street and starts making gilt buttons. The works grows into a showpiece making medals, tokens, plate and bronzes.Edward ThomasonThomason’s Manufactory, Church Street
  11. 1795–96 — Soho Foundry is built at SmethwickBoulton & Watt, led by their sons, build a foundry beside the Birmingham Canal to make complete steam engines on one site. Historic England describes it as the first factory built for the purpose.Matthew BoultonJames WattWilliam MurdochSoho FoundryBoulton & Watt
  12. August 1796 — Samuel Galton is disowned by the QuakersAfter he defends his family’s gun trade, Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting disowns Samuel Galton junior. His firm had supplied guns to the African slave trade.Samuel Galton junior
  13. 1797 — Cartwheel coinage struck at SohoBoulton wins the government contract, and the Soho Mint strikes the copper “cartwheel” pennies and twopences, marked “SOHO” beneath Britannia.Matthew BoultonSoho Mint
  14. 6 October 1799 — Withering dies at The LarchesWilliam Withering dies at The Larches, Sparkbrook, the house rebuilt on the site of Priestley’s Fair Hill, eight days after moving in. He is buried at Edgbaston Old Church.William WitheringJoseph PriestleyFair Hill

1800s

  1. 1800 — The sons take over the engine businessAs Watt’s patent expires, Boulton and Watt hand the engine business to Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt junior. Boulton keeps the Mint.Matthew BoultonJames WattSoho FoundryBoulton & Watt
  2. c.1802; reopened 1803 — New Meeting House rebuiltThe New Meeting congregation rebuilt their chapel on the Moor Street site. The building survives as St Michael’s Catholic Church.New Meeting House
  3. March 1802 — Gas lights at Soho for the Peace of AmiensGas lights are shown at each end of the Soho Manufactory during celebrations for the Peace of Amiens — a small display by William Murdoch, not a floodlit factory.William MurdochSoho ManufactoryBoulton & Watt
  4. 1804 — The Galtons leave the gun trade for bankingSamuel Galton junior and his son Samuel Tertius give up gunmaking and turn the Steelhouse Lane premises into the Galton bank.Samuel Galton junior
  5. 17 August 1809 — Death of Matthew BoultonMatthew Boulton dies at Soho House, aged 80, and is buried at St Mary’s Church, Handsworth, on 24 August.Matthew BoultonSoho HouseSt Mary’s Church, Handsworth

1810s

  1. 1812 — Westley Richards sets up as a gunmakerWilliam Westley Richards, about 22, goes into business at 82 High Street. Selling through a Bond Street agent, his firm becomes one of Birmingham’s best-known sporting gunmakers and is still working in the city today.William Westley RichardsWestley Richards, 82 High StreetWestley Richards & Co.
  2. 1813 — The Birmingham Proof House is establishedAn Act of Parliament, sought and paid for by the gun trade, makes proof of gun barrels compulsory and sets up guardians and a proof master. The Proof House in Banbury Street is built in 1813–14.Birmingham Gun Barrel Proof HouseThe Gun QuarterThe Guardians of the Birmingham Gun Barrel Proof House
  3. 1816 — Jennens and Bettridge begin making papier mâchéAfter Henry Clay’s patent has run out, Jennens and Bettridge begin business in Birmingham. Moving from tea trays to furniture and decorative wares, they become the most celebrated papier-mâché makers in Britain.
  4. 22 January 1817 — The first Newhall Hill meetingGeorge Edmonds of the Hampden Club chairs the first great open-air radical meeting on Newhall Hill. Between ten and twenty thousand people vote for universal suffrage and annual parliaments.Newhall Hill meeting ground
  5. 25 August 1819 — Death of James WattJames Watt dies at Heathfield and is buried at St Mary’s, Handsworth, where a chapel with Chantrey’s marble statue is later built for him.James WattHeathfield HallSt Mary’s Church, Handsworth

1820s

  1. 1821 — Joseph Gillott comes to BirminghamThe Sheffield cutler Joseph Gillott moves to Birmingham to work in the “light steel toy trade”, making buckles and chains. Within a decade he is pressing steel pens by machine.Joseph Gillott
  2. 21 March 1822 — William Church patents a type-casting and composing systemPatent No. 4664 describes a type-caster, a keyboard composing machine and a press, with used type to be melted and recast rather than sorted by hand. Church moved to Birmingham by 1824. Printing historians later counted it among the earliest composing machines known.William Church
  3. 1822 (traditionally 1824) — Robert Lucas Chance buys the Spon Lane glassworksRobert Lucas Chance buys the British Crown Glass Company’s works beside the Birmingham Canal at Spon Lane, Smethwick. The firm later dates its founding to 1824. It grows into Chance Brothers.Robert Lucas ChanceChance’s Glassworks, Spon LaneChance Brothers & Co.
  4. c. about 1822 — John Mitchell makes steel pens with press toolsAccording to his son, John Mitchell of Newhall Street began making steel pens with press tools of his own design in about 1822, replacing hand filing. It is the earliest claim for machine-made pens in Birmingham, though Gillott, Mason and Perry all have rival claims.John MitchellJohn Mitchell (pen makers)
  5. 1824 — John Cadbury opens his shop in Bull StreetJohn Cadbury, a 23-year-old Quaker, opens as a tea and coffee dealer at 93 Bull Street. He also sells cocoa and drinking chocolate he grinds himself: the beginning of the Cadbury business.John CadburyJohn Cadbury’s shop, 93 Bull Street (site)Cadbury Brothers
  6. 8 April 1825 — Birmingham women found an anti-slavery societyLucy Townsend and Mary Lloyd found the Female Society for the Relief of British Negro Slaves, usually called the first women’s anti-slavery society. Daughters of Lunar Society members, including Amelia Moilliet and Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, sit on its committee.James KeirSamuel Galton junior
  7. 1826 — Birmingham Anti-Slavery Society formedThe Quaker corn merchant Joseph Sturge becomes a leading figure in the new Birmingham Anti-Slavery Society. He later travels to the West Indies in 1836–37 to expose the ‘apprenticeship’ system that replaced slavery there.
  8. 1826 — Watt chapel added at St Mary’s, HandsworthThomas Rickman added a south-east chapel to St Mary’s Church, Handsworth, as a mausoleum to James Watt, holding Chantrey’s marble statue of 1825.James WattSt Mary’s Church, Handsworth

1830s

  1. 20 November 1830 — Josiah Mason’s first big order of pens leaves for PerryJosiah Mason sent his first lot of 100 gross of steel pens from Lancaster Street to James Perry in London. For decades every pen sold under Perry’s name was made by Mason in Birmingham.Sir Josiah MasonJosiah Mason’s pen works, Lancaster StreetPerry & Co.
  2. January 1830 — The Birmingham Political Union is launchedThomas Attwood’s union of “the lower and middle classes of the people” is launched at Beardsworth’s Repository, near the Bull Ring, before a crowd said to number 15,000. Its watchword: “Peace, Law, and Order”.Thomas AttwoodBirmingham Political Union
  3. c. 1831 or about 1835 — Cadbury starts making cocoa in Crooked LaneJohn Cadbury rents a warehouse in Crooked Lane and begins making cocoa and chocolate with a pestle and mortar, turning a shop sideline into manufacturing. Sources differ between 1831 and about 1835.John CadburyCadbury Brothers
  4. 3 October 1831 — 100,000 on Newhall HillAs the Reform Bill goes before the Lords, the Political Union fills Newhall Hill with a crowd claimed at over 100,000, including 20,000 from the Black Country. The meeting passes off peacefully.Thomas AttwoodNewhall Hill meeting groundBirmingham Political Union
  5. August 1832 — Sheet glass made at Spon LaneWith French and Belgian blowers, Chance begins making cylinder sheet glass in No. 2 glasshouse, “the French house”: the first regular manufacture of sheet glass in England.Robert Lucas ChanceChance’s Glassworks, Spon LaneChance Brothers & Co.
  6. 1832 — Muntz patents his yellow metalGeorge Frederick Muntz patents a copper-zinc alloy for sheathing ships (No. 6325) and for ships’ bolts (No. 6347). Cheaper than copper and able to be rolled hot, ‘Muntz metal’ is replacing copper on British merchant ships by the 1840s.George Frederick MuntzMuntz’s Metal Company
  7. 12 December 1832 — Birmingham elects its first MPsThomas Attwood and Joshua Scholefield are returned unopposed as the first two Members of Parliament for Birmingham.Thomas AttwoodBirmingham Political Union
  8. 7 June 1832 — The Reform Act becomes lawThe Reform Act receives the royal assent. Birmingham, which has never had an MP of its own, is given two.Thomas AttwoodBirmingham Political Union
  9. 16 May 1832 — Triumph on Newhall HillNews of Earl Grey’s recall reaches Birmingham at dawn. Crowds fetch Attwood from his home at Harborne and the Union meets in triumph on Newhall Hill, a scene painted by Benjamin Robert Haydon.Thomas AttwoodNewhall Hill meeting groundThe Grove, HarborneBirmingham Political Union
  10. 12 April 1834 — Joseph Lucas born in Carver Street, HockleyJoseph Lucas, founder of the Lucas business, is born in Carver Street, Hockley, the eldest son of Benjamin Lucas, a plater.Joseph Lucas
  11. 1834 — Nettlefold sets up a steam-powered screw works off Broad StreetAccording to Grace’s Guide, the London ironmonger John Sutton Nettlefold opens a steam-powered wood-screw works in Baskerville Place, off Broad Street, Birmingham. Garvin dates the move to Birmingham to about 1842.John Sutton NettlefoldNettlefold & Chamberlain
  12. 1835 — Dr Church’s steam coach runs on the Coventry RoadWilliam Church’s steam coach, built for the London and Birmingham Steam Carriage Company, makes public trials with up to forty passengers, running six miles out along the Coventry Road and back. It breaks down repeatedly and never runs a service to London.William Church
  13. 1835 — Birmingham Market Hall opensCharles Edge’s covered Market Hall opens beside the Bull Ring for the general retail market, with Doric columns at its entrances and basement shops along Bell Street.Birmingham Market Hall
  14. 23 May 1836 — Key Hill Cemetery opensThe Birmingham General Cemetery opens on Key Hill, laid out by Charles Edge for burials of all denominations: the first cemetery in Birmingham not attached to a church.Key Hill Cemetery
  15. 1837 — Alfred Bird opens his chemist’s shopAlfred Bird sets up as an ‘experimental chemist’ in Bell Street. The firm later counted 1837 as its foundation and the year of egg-free custard, though the custard story is family tradition.Alfred BirdAlfred Bird & Sons
  16. 1837 — Gillott claims 36 million pens a yearAn advertisement for Joseph Gillott’s pens claims some 36 million made in the previous year, a sign of how fast machine-pressing had transformed the trade.Joseph GillottJoseph Gillott & Sons
  17. 1838 — James Timmins Chance patents ‘patent plate’James Timmins Chance patents a process for grinding and polishing sheet glass (no. 7618). ‘Patent plate’ is later used to glaze the Houses of Parliament.Sir James Timmins ChanceChance’s Glassworks, Spon LaneChance Brothers & Co.
  18. c. 1838–45 — Victoria Works begun on Graham StreetBuilding begins on Joseph Gillott’s Victoria Works, Graham Street, reputedly partly designed by Charles Edge. Historic England dates the works to 1838–45, about 1850 and 1887.Joseph GillottVictoria Works, Graham StreetJoseph Gillott & Sons
  19. 1838 — Elkington’s Newhall Street works openElkington’s electro-gilding and electroplating works open on Newhall Street.Elkington’s electroplating works, Newhall Street
  20. 9 April 1838 — Curzon Street station opensPhilip Hardwick’s Birmingham terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway opens as the line to Rugby comes into use. Through trains to London follow on 17 September 1838.Curzon Street Station (1838)
  21. 4 July 1839 — The Bull Ring riotsMetropolitan Police brought in by the mayor break up a Chartist meeting in the Bull Ring. A pitched battle follows and troops restore order; there is more violence over the following days.
  22. 14 June 1839 — Attwood presents the Chartist petitionAttwood presents the National Petition, first adopted at Birmingham in August 1838, to the House of Commons with 1,280,000 signatures. On 12 July the House refuses to consider it, by 235 votes to 46.Thomas AttwoodBirmingham Political Union

1840s

  1. 1840 — The Elkingtons’ cyanide electroplating patentA patent in the Elkingtons’ names covers the Birmingham surgeon John Wright’s discovery that silver and gold dissolved in potassium cyanide plate evenly — the process that made commercial electroplating possible.George Richards ElkingtonHenry ElkingtonElkington’s electroplating works, Newhall StreetElkington & Co.
  2. 1840–41 — Pugin’s Bishop’s House builtGeorge Myers builds A. W. N. Pugin’s Bishop’s House on Bath Street, opposite St Chad’s, for Bishop Thomas Walsh, then Vicar Apostolic.Bishop’s House, Bath Street
  3. 1841 — Alexander Parkes takes his first patentWorking in Elkington’s casting department, Alexander Parkes patents a process for electro-depositing works of art — the first of dozens of patents.Alexander ParkesElkington’s electroplating works, Newhall StreetElkington & Co.
  4. 1842 — Muntz moves to French Walls, SmethwickWith demand outgrowing his Water Street mill, Muntz buys the French Walls works on the Birmingham Canal opposite Soho Foundry and converts it to non-ferrous metals. It makes yellow metal there until 1932.George Frederick MuntzFrench Walls Works, SmethwickSoho FoundryMuntz’s Metal Company
  5. 29 March 1842 — Josiah Mason joins the ElkingtonsJosiah Mason signed a partnership deed with George Richards and Henry Elkington, bringing the capital that turned their electroplating patents into a business. The firm traded as Elkington, Mason & Co.Sir Josiah MasonGeorge Richards ElkingtonHenry ElkingtonElkington’s electroplating works, Newhall StreetElkington & Co.
  6. 1843 — Bird’s Fermenting Powder (baking powder)Alfred Bird produces ‘Bird’s Fermenting Powder’, a baking powder that raises bread without live yeast, first for his wife. In 1855 it was supplied for baking fresh bread for the army in the Crimea.Alfred BirdAlfred Bird & Sons
  7. 1846 — Frederick Douglass speaks in the Gun QuarterThe American anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass speaks at Ebenezer Chapel on Steelhouse Lane, in the heart of Birmingham’s gun quarter. Joseph Sturge is in the audience.
  8. 1847 — Cadbury moves to Bridge StreetAfter the Great Western Railway takes his Crooked Lane premises, John Cadbury moves his cocoa and chocolate manufacture to Bridge Street, off Broad Street. The firm becomes Cadbury Brothers when his brother Benjamin joins him.Cadbury’s Bridge Street worksCadbury Brothers
  9. 1848 — Warstone Lane Cemetery opensThe Church of England Cemetery Company opens its burial ground in an old sand quarry on Warstone Lane. Its catacombs are completed in 1880.Warstone Lane Cemetery

1850s

  1. 29 April 1850 — The Soho Mint’s machinery is auctioned (lost)A year after the Soho Mint closes, its equipment is sold. Most goes to Ralph Heaton, whose Birmingham Mint carries on the trade, and to James Watt & Co., who open a new mint at Soho Foundry in 1860.Ralph Heaton IISoho MintBirmingham Mint, Icknield StreetRalph Heaton & Sons (the Birmingham Mint)
  2. 1850–51 — Smethwick glass for the Crystal PalaceChance Brothers makes the sheet glass for Paxton’s Crystal Palace, over 956,000 square feet in panes 49 by 10 inches. Most of the ironwork comes from Fox, Henderson & Co., also of Smethwick.Sir James Timmins ChanceRobert Lucas ChanceChance’s Glassworks, Spon LaneChance Brothers & Co.
  3. 1851 — Heaton’s mint strikes coins for ChileA year after buying the Soho Mint’s presses, Ralph Heaton & Sons strike copper coins for Chile, reported to be the first to carry the Heaton ‘H’ mint mark. Contracts for Britain, France and Italy follow.Ralph Heaton IIBirmingham Mint, Icknield StreetRalph Heaton & Sons (the Birmingham Mint)
  4. 26 October 1852 — Henry Elkington diesHenry Elkington, co-patentee of the Elkington plating processes and head of the firm’s artistic side, dies in Birmingham in his early forties and is buried at Northfield.Henry ElkingtonElkington & Co.
  5. 1 October 1852 — Snow Hill station opensThe Great Western Railway opens its line from Oxford to Birmingham, with a temporary timber station at Snow Hill.Snow Hill Station
  6. Autumn 1854 — Joseph Chamberlain arrives in BirminghamAged eighteen, Joseph Chamberlain comes from London to look after his father’s investment in the screw business. He takes charge of the firm’s commercial side from its Broad Street office.Joseph ChamberlainHeath Street Works (Nettlefold & Chamberlain), SmethwickNettlefold & Chamberlain
  7. 1854 — Nettlefold & Chamberlain founded at Heath Street, SmethwickJohn Sutton Nettlefold buys the British rights to an American pointed-screw machine. With £10,000 from his brother-in-law Joseph Chamberlain, he builds the Heath Street Works in Smethwick, run by their sons.John Sutton NettlefoldJoseph ChamberlainHeath Street Works (Nettlefold & Chamberlain), SmethwickNettlefold & Chamberlain
  8. c. 1855 — Chance lighthouse works under wayAfter a start around 1850, lighthouse-lens making begins in earnest at Spon Lane under James Timmins Chance. Work with Faraday at Whitby in 1860 makes Chance a leading maker of lighthouses worldwide.Sir James Timmins ChanceChance’s Glassworks, Spon LaneChance Brothers & Co.
  9. 1855 — First Parkesine patentAlexander Parkes takes out the first of a series of patents for the cellulose-nitrate material he will name Parkesine, the first plastic.Alexander Parkes
  10. 3 September 1856 — The Music Hall opens on Broad StreetThe Music Hall, Broad Street, opens with Messiah and Elijah. It is renamed the Prince of Wales Operetta House in 1863 and the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1865.Prince of Wales Theatre, Broad Street
  11. 6 March 1856 — Thomas Attwood diesAttwood dies at Ellerslie, Great Malvern, aged 72, and is buried at Hanley, near Upton-on-Severn.Thomas Attwood
  12. 1857 — James Tangye and Brothers begin in Mount StreetFive Cornish brothers — James, Joseph, Richard, George and Edward Tangye — form James Tangye and Brothers in a rented room at 40½ Mount Street, off the Parade, making hydraulic jacks.Richard TangyeGeorge TangyeTangye Brothers (Tangyes Ltd)
  13. 1858 — Mason’s almshouses and orphan home open in ErdingtonJosiah Mason built almshouses for aged women and a home for orphan girls on the corner of the Sutton road and Sheep Street (now Station Road), Erdington: the first of his great charities.Sir Josiah MasonJosiah Mason’s Almshouses, ErdingtonSir Josiah Mason Trust
  14. 1858 — The Midland Institute opens in Paradise StreetE. M. Barry’s building for the Birmingham and Midland Institute opens at the corner of Paradise Street and Ratcliff Place, beside the Town Hall.Birmingham and Midland Institute, Paradise Street
  15. 31 January 1858 — Tangye jacks help launch the Great EasternAfter weeks stuck on the slipway at Millwall, Brunel’s Great Eastern floats, pushed by hydraulic jacks including many made by the Tangye brothers in Birmingham. Richard Tangye later said: “We launched the Great Eastern, the Great Eastern launched us.”Richard TangyeTangye Brothers (Tangyes Ltd)
  16. 7 June 1859 — Attwood’s statue is unveiledA marble statue of Attwood, paid for by a subscription of £800, is unveiled in Stephenson Place, New Street, on the anniversary of the Reform Act.Thomas AttwoodStatue of Thomas Attwood (1859)
  17. 1859 — Webster and Horsfall move to Hay MillsFour years after James Horsfall’s partnership with Baron Dickinson Webster, wire production moves from the Websters’ Penns Mill near Sutton Coldfield to Horsfall’s works at Hay Mills.James HorsfallHay Mills wire works (Webster & Horsfall)Webster & Horsfall

1860s

  1. 1860–63 — Birmingham strikes Britain’s new bronze coinsBritain replaces its heavy copper coins with smaller bronze ones. About 285 million are struck in 1860–63, and the Royal Mint contracts much of the work to two Birmingham-area mints, James Watt & Co. at Soho Foundry and Ralph Heaton & Sons.Ralph Heaton IIBirmingham Mint, Icknield StreetSoho FoundryRalph Heaton & Sons (the Birmingham Mint)
  2. 1860 — The Heatons move their mint to Icknield StreetRalph Heaton & Sons outgrow Bath Street and move to new works on Icknield Street, beside Warstone Lane Cemetery. Its Italianate front, completed by 1862, survives and is listed Grade II.Ralph Heaton IIBirmingham Mint, Icknield StreetRalph Heaton & Sons (the Birmingham Mint)
  3. 1860 — Joseph Lucas starts in businessJoseph Lucas begins trading on his own account, selling paraffin, buckets, shovels and other hollow-ware door to door. By 1869 he is listed as a dealer in lamps and oils at 209 Great King Street.Joseph LucasLucas works, Great King Street, HockleyJoseph Lucas Ltd (Lucas Industries)
  4. 1861 — BSA incorporatedLarger Birmingham gunmakers incorporate the Birmingham Small Arms Company to mass-produce guns by machine, in answer to the government factory at Enfield. Its Small Heath works open in 1863.BSA works, Armoury Road, Small HeathBirmingham Small Arms Company (BSA)
  5. 1861 — Richard and George Cadbury take overJohn Cadbury retires and hands the failing Bridge Street cocoa works, with about a dozen employees, to his sons Richard (25) and George (22). They put in about £10,000 of family money and nearly fail by 1863.George CadburyRichard CadburyCadbury’s Bridge Street worksCadbury Brothers
  6. 1861 — Percussion-cap works licensed at WittonAfter the 1859 explosion at Whittall Street, a powder magazine and percussion-cap works is licensed at Witton. George Kynoch becomes proprietor in 1862.Kynoch’s Lion Works, Witton
  7. 1862–63 — Wiley’s pen works built on Frederick StreetJ. G. Bland designs a polychrome, fireproof pen works for W. E. Wiley, with Turkish baths heated by its engine’s steam. It is now the Argent Centre and home of the Pen Museum.Pen Museum, Argent Centre
  8. 1862 — Parkesine shown at the International ExhibitionAlexander Parkes exhibits objects made of Parkesine at the International Exhibition in South Kensington and receives a medal.Alexander Parkes
  9. 4 June 1862 — Joseph Sturge’s statue unveiled at Five WaysA statue of the Birmingham abolitionist Joseph Sturge by John Thomas is unveiled at Five Ways. It includes a figure of Charity comforting a Black child. It was restored in 2007.
  10. 1863 — BSA factory opens at Small HeathThe Birmingham Small Arms works opens on a 25-acre site on Golden Hillock Lane (later Armoury Road) to make small arms by machinery.BSA works, Armoury Road, Small Heath
  11. c. by 1863 — The Soho Manufactory is gone (lost)After closing around 1850, Boulton’s Soho Manufactory and the old Soho Mint are demolished in stages. By 1863 nothing is left above ground; the site is later partly dug for sand and built over with housing.Matthew BoultonSoho ManufactorySoho MintBoulton & FothergillBoulton & Watt
  12. 9 May 1864 — Hay Mills wins the Atlantic cable wire contractJames Horsfall signs a contract to supply 1,600 tons of armouring wire for the Atlantic telegraph cable, the biggest order in Webster & Horsfall’s history. About 250 workers at Hay Mills draw some 30,000 miles of wire.James HorsfallHay Mills wire works (Webster & Horsfall)Webster & Horsfall
  13. 1864 — Cornwall Works opens at SmethwickTangye Brothers & Price open their new Cornwall Works on the site of Rabone Hall, beside the Birmingham Canal at Smethwick, and move most of their production there.Richard TangyeGeorge TangyeCornwall Works (Tangyes)Tangye Brothers (Tangyes Ltd)
  14. 23 September 1865 — George Richards Elkington diesGeorge Richards Elkington, who turned electroplating into a world industry, dies at Pool Park, Denbighshire. His sons carry on the firm.George Richards ElkingtonElkington & Co.
  15. 1866 — The Atlantic cables are completedThe Great Eastern lays a new Atlantic telegraph cable armoured with wire from Hay Mills, then recovers and completes the cable lost in 1865. On Christmas Eve, Horsfall’s workers present him with a case of cable samples.James HorsfallHay Mills wire works (Webster & Horsfall)Webster & Horsfall
  16. 1866 — Cadbury’s Cocoa Essence goes on saleUsing a Dutch press to remove cocoa butter, Richard and George Cadbury launch Cocoa Essence, sold as “Absolutely pure”, at a time when most cheap cocoa was bulked out with starch and other fillers.George CadburyRichard CadburyCadbury’s Bridge Street worksCadbury Brothers
  17. 1866 — The Parkesine Company is formed at Hackney WickA company is set up in London to make Parkesine in bulk. It fails and is wound up in 1868.Alexander Parkes
  18. 12 April 1866 — John Sutton Nettlefold diesThe founder of the Nettlefold screw business dies in London and is buried at Highgate Cemetery.John Sutton NettlefoldNettlefold & Chamberlain
  19. 1868 (trust deed 29 July 1868) — Josiah Mason’s Orphanage opens in ErdingtonMason’s great orphanage on Bell Lane, begun in 1860, took in its first children, and on 29 July 1868 he handed it to trustees with land worth about £200,000. It was paid for and endowed entirely by him.Sir Josiah MasonJosiah Mason’s Orphanage, ErdingtonSir Josiah Mason Trust
  20. 1868 — Watt’s statue goes up in Ratcliff PlaceAlexander Munro’s statue of James Watt, compasses in hand, is set up in Ratcliff Place beside the Town Hall.James WattStatue of James Watt, Ratcliff Passage
  21. 18 March 1869 — Neville Chamberlain is bornArthur Neville Chamberlain, son of Joseph Chamberlain and Florence Kenrick, is born at Southbourne in Edgbaston.Neville ChamberlainJoseph Chamberlain
  22. 1869 — Chamberlain becomes a partner; the firm buys Imperial MillsJoseph Chamberlain is made a partner in Nettlefold & Chamberlain, and the firm buys the Imperial Mills opposite the Heath Street Works for nuts, bolts, wire and nails.Joseph ChamberlainHeath Street Works (Nettlefold & Chamberlain), SmethwickNettlefold & Chamberlain

1870s

  1. November–December 1870 — Explosions at Witton and Ludlow’s cartridge worksAn explosion at Kynoch’s Witton works kills eight; three weeks later one at Ludlow & Co.’s neighbouring cartridge works kills 51. The outcry brings government regulation of cartridge-filling.George KynochKynoch’s Lion Works, WittonKynoch (G. Kynoch & Co.; Kynoch Ltd)
  2. c.1871 — The Larches (rebuilt Fair Hill) demolished (lost)The Larches, rebuilt on Priestley’s Fair Hill estate and later home of William Withering and the Galtons, was demolished and the estate built over.William WitheringSamuel Galton juniorFair Hill
  3. c.1872–75 — Tom Bowling Lamp Works, Little King StreetJoseph Lucas and his son Harry set up the Tom Bowling Lamp Works in Little King Street, Hockley, named after their ship’s lamp for the fishing industry. The 1994 monument dates the first workshop to c.1872.Joseph LucasHarry LucasLucas works, Great King Street, HockleyJoseph Lucas Ltd (Lucas Industries)
  4. 1872 — Tangyes grant the half-holiday and a nine-hour dayAs the three elder brothers retire, Richard Tangye makes the Saturday half-holiday permanent at the Cornwall Works and grants a nine-hour day before his workers ask for it.Richard TangyeGeorge TangyeCornwall Works (Tangyes)Tangye Brothers (Tangyes Ltd)
  5. 5 January 1872 — Joseph Gillott diesJoseph Gillott dies at his home in Westbourne Road, Edgbaston, and is buried at Key Hill Cemetery. His collection of paintings later sells for about £170,000.Joseph GillottVictoria Works, Graham StreetJoseph Gillott & Sons
  6. November 1873 — Joseph Chamberlain becomes mayorJoseph Chamberlain is elected Mayor of Birmingham. In under three years the council takes over gas and water and launches the Improvement Scheme. He resigns in June 1876 on entering Parliament.Joseph ChamberlainThe Council House, Victoria SquareThe Chamberlain Memorial
  7. 1873–74 — St Cyprian’s Church built at Hay MillsJames Horsfall pays for St Cyprian’s Church beside his wire works, designed by Frank Barlow Osborn and built partly over the old mill race, with his workers’ chapel of 1863 as its chancel.James HorsfallHay Mills wire works (Webster & Horsfall)Webster & Horsfall
  8. 1 August 1874 — Huxley unveils Priestley’s statueA hundred years to the day after Priestley’s experiment that produced oxygen, T. H. Huxley presents F. J. Williamson’s statue of Joseph Priestley to the town of Birmingham.Joseph PriestleyStatue of Joseph Priestley, Ratcliff Passage
  9. 17 June 1874 — Chamberlain lays the Council House foundation stoneMayor Joseph Chamberlain lays the foundation stone of Yeoville Thomason’s Council House. The council first meets there in 1878.Joseph ChamberlainThe Council House, Victoria Square
  10. 1874 — Royal visit to Victoria WorksThe Prince and Princess of Wales are shown round Joseph Gillott’s pen works on Graham Street.Victoria Works, Graham StreetJoseph Gillott & Sons
  11. 1874 — Chamberlain retires from the screw tradeMayor of Birmingham since 1873, Joseph Chamberlain sells out of Nettlefold & Chamberlain to devote himself to politics. Garvin says the decision was taken in the spring; Grace’s Guide dates his departure to June.Joseph ChamberlainHeath Street Works (Nettlefold & Chamberlain), SmethwickNettlefold & Chamberlain
  12. 23 February 1875 — Mason lays the first stone of his science collegeOn his 80th birthday Josiah Mason laid the first stone of his science college in Edmund Street, founded to teach science for the manufactures of the Midlands. It opened in 1880.Sir Josiah MasonMason Science College, Edmund Street
  13. 1875 — Gas and water come into public handsUnder Mayor Chamberlain the corporation takes over Birmingham’s two private gas companies and, by an Act of 1875, the waterworks.Joseph ChamberlainThe Council House, Victoria Square
  14. 12 October 1875 — Council adopts Chamberlain’s Improvement SchemeUsing the new Artisans’ Dwellings Act, the council adopts Mayor Joseph Chamberlain’s scheme to buy and clear 93 acres of the worst streets in the town centre and drive a new street through them. Chamberlain asks the council for “a sagacious audacity”.Joseph Chamberlain
  15. 1878 — The Assay Office moves to Newhall StreetThe Birmingham Assay Office moves from Little Cannon Street to new premises on Newhall Street, in the Jewellery Quarter.The Jewellery Quarter
  16. 12 September 1878 — Tangye jacks raise Cleopatra’s NeedleCleopatra’s Needle, weighing more than 186 tons, is raised on the Thames Embankment with Tangye hydraulic jacks. The firm advertises that four jacks worked by four men did what had once taken hundreds of men and horses.Richard TangyeTangye Brothers (Tangyes Ltd)
  17. January 1879 — Central Library burnsFire guts Birmingham’s Central Library in Ratcliff Place. It is rebuilt on the same site, with Martin and Chamberlain’s reference library, and reopens in 1882.The Victorian Central Library, Ratcliff Place
  18. 1879 — First part of Corporation Street opensThe first part of Corporation Street, the centrepiece of the Improvement Scheme, opens. The Victoria County History calls its building the most extensive destruction of old buildings of the period.
  19. 1879 — Cadbury moves to BournvilleRichard and George Cadbury build a new factory on the Bournbrook estate, four miles south of Birmingham, with playing fields and sixteen foremen’s houses. Bridge Street closes and the works moves in the autumn.George CadburyRichard CadburyBournville works (Cadbury)Cadbury’s Bridge Street worksCadbury Brothers
  20. 1878–80 — Highbury built for Joseph ChamberlainJoseph Chamberlain buys land at Moor Green in 1878. J. H. Chamberlain’s house, dated 1879, and Edward Milner’s grounds become his home from 1880 until 1914.Joseph ChamberlainHighbury, Moor Green
  21. 1879–90 — Aston parish church rebuiltAston parish church is rebuilt to designs by J. A. Chatwin, keeping its 15th-century tower and spire.Aston Parish Church (St Peter and St Paul)

1880s

  1. 1880 — Mason Science College opensJosiah Mason’s science college opens in Edmund Street, in a Gothic building by J. A. Cossins. In 1900 it becomes part of the University of Birmingham.Sir Josiah MasonMason Science College, Edmund Street
  2. 20 October 1880 — The Chamberlain Memorial is inauguratedJ. H. Chamberlain’s Gothic memorial fountain, paid for by public subscription to thank Joseph Chamberlain for his mayoralty, is inaugurated with Chamberlain present.Joseph ChamberlainThe Chamberlain Memorial
  3. 1880 — Lucas patents the King of the Road lampJoseph Lucas is granted a patent for his lamp. The “King of the Road” bicycle lamp makes the firm’s name, and its first consignment goes to the United States in 1881.Joseph LucasLucas works, Great King Street, HockleyJoseph Lucas Ltd (Lucas Industries)
  4. 2 July 1880 — BSA contracts to make Otto dicyclesBSA agrees to supply 210 Otto “dicycles” at £8 15s each, its first step into cycle making. The first machine is delivered on 20 September 1880.BSA works, Armoury Road, Small HeathBirmingham Small Arms Company (BSA)
  5. 1880 — Nettlefolds Ltd incorporatedThe screw business becomes Nettlefolds Ltd and takes over the Birmingham Screw Company’s St George’s Works across the canal from Heath Street.Heath Street Works (Nettlefold & Chamberlain), SmethwickNettlefold & Chamberlain
  6. 1882 — Old Square largely destroyed (lost)Old Square, laid out in about 1713 with sixteen near-identical brick houses, is largely destroyed for Corporation Street. Panelling from No. 1 survives at Aston Hall.
  7. 6 July 1884 — Kynoch’s becomes a limited companyGeorge Kynoch sells his Witton ammunition business to a new limited company for £260,000 in cash plus shares. Four years later he is forced off the board and Arthur Chamberlain becomes chairman.George KynochKynoch’s Lion Works, WittonKynoch (G. Kynoch & Co.; Kynoch Ltd)
  8. c. 1886–87 — Bird’s moves to the Devonshire Works, DeritendAlfred Bird & Sons moves to a new site between Gibb Street and the River Rea. The Devonshire Works grows along the river until the 1930s; its buildings are now the Custard Factory.Alfred BirdThe Custard Factory (Bird’s Devonshire Works)Alfred Bird & Sons
  9. 23 March 1887 — Queen Victoria lays the Law Courts foundation stoneQueen Victoria lays the foundation stone of the Victoria Law Courts on Corporation Street, designed by Aston Webb and Ingress Bell. They open in July 1891.
  10. 14 January 1889 — Birmingham becomes a cityLetters Patent give Birmingham the title of city, fifty years after its incorporation as a borough in October 1838.

1890s

  1. 1893 — Herbert Austin comes to Birmingham with WolseleyHerbert Austin returns from Australia with Frederick Wolseley and becomes manager of the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company’s new factory in Broad Street, Birmingham; it soon moves to Aston.Herbert Austin
  2. 1893 — George Cadbury buys land for a model villageGeorge Cadbury buys about 120 acres near the Bournville works to stop speculative building and to plan a village of cottages with gardens. Building begins in 1895.George CadburyBournville villageCadbury Brothers
  3. 12 April 1893 — Baskerville’s lost coffin is found at Christ ChurchAn unregistered vault, catacomb no. 521, is opened at Christ Church, New Street. Inside is Baskerville’s coffin, hidden there quietly around 1829 after decades of wandering.John Baskerville
  4. 1894 — Westley Richards moves to BournbrookWestley Richards opens a purpose-built gun factory in Grange Road, Bournbrook, leaving the cramped workshops of the Gun Quarter. It stays for 114 years before returning to Pritchett Street, near the old quarter, in 2008.William Westley RichardsWestley Richards works, Grange Road, BournbrookWestley Richards & Co.
  5. 1894 — Newman Brothers move to Fleet StreetThe brass founders Newman Brothers move into their new works at 13–15 Fleet Street, where they make coffin furniture for over a century.Newman Brothers Coffin Works
  6. 1895 — Avery buys Soho FoundryW & T Avery, the weighing-machine makers, buy Soho Foundry from the failing James Watt & Co. and move all their manufacturing there. George Tangye takes custody of the Boulton & Watt papers.William Beilby AveryGeorge TangyeSoho FoundryW & T AveryBoulton & Watt
  7. 1895 — Soho Foundry sold to AveryAfter a century of steam-engine making, James Watt & Co. sell Soho Foundry to W. & T. Avery, the weighing-machine makers. The 1795–96 foundry building survives on the site.Soho FoundryBoulton & Watt
  8. December 1896 — Wolseley Autocar No. 1 shownHerbert Austin’s Wolseley Autocar No. 1 is exhibited at the National Cycle Show, following his experimental tricar.Herbert Austin
  9. February 1896 — First Lanchester car on the roadFrederick Lanchester and his brother George take his first car, built in 1895 with a single-cylinder engine and epicyclic gears, on its first test drive. A 1995 Civic Society plaque calls it “the first British motor car”.Frederick LanchesterLanchester Engine Company (Lanchester Motor Company)
  10. November 1897 — Chamberlain buys HoskinsBack from a failed sisal plantation in the Bahamas, Neville Chamberlain buys Hoskins of Bordesley, makers of metal berths for ships’ cabins, and runs it for seventeen years.Neville Chamberlain
  11. 12 November 1897 — Joseph Lucas Ltd registeredJoseph Lucas Ltd is registered as a public company with a nominal capital of £225,000 to take over Joseph Lucas & Son. The money pays for a five-storey factory on Great King Street.Joseph LucasHarry LucasLucas works, Great King Street, HockleyJoseph Lucas Ltd (Lucas Industries)
  12. February 1898 — Baskerville is reburied at Warstone LaneWith Christ Church due for demolition, Baskerville is moved to the catacombs of Warstone Lane Cemetery in the Jewellery Quarter, where he still lies.John BaskervilleWarstone Lane Cemetery
  13. 1899 — Herbert Manzoni is born in BirkenheadHerbert John Baptista Manzoni is born in Birkenhead, the son of an Italian sculptor and potter. He will study engineering at Liverpool University.Herbert Manzoni
  14. 30 November 1899 — Lanchester Engine Company formedFrederick, Frank and George Lanchester form the Lanchester Engine Company, backed by James and Allan Whitfield. In 1900 it moves to Armourer Mills, Montgomery Street, Sparkbrook.Frederick LanchesterLanchester works, Armourer Mills, Montgomery Street, SparkbrookLanchester Engine Company (Lanchester Motor Company)
  15. 22 March 1899 — Richard Cadbury dies in JerusalemRichard Cadbury dies of diphtheria in Jerusalem during a family tour of Egypt and Palestine. He is buried at Lodge Hill Cemetery, Selly Oak, and Cadbury Brothers becomes a limited company under George.Richard CadburyGeorge CadburyCadbury Brothers

1900s

  1. 24 March 1900 — Mason’s college becomes the University of BirminghamMason University College, as Mason’s college had become in 1898, was turned into the University of Birmingham by royal charter, after a campaign led by Joseph Chamberlain.Sir Josiah MasonJoseph ChamberlainMason Science College, Edmund StreetOld Joe and the Aston Webb buildings, University of Birmingham
  2. 1900 — Bournville Village Trust foundedGeorge Cadbury gives the Bournville estate, then hundreds of houses on about 500 acres, to a charitable trust, with rents to be spent on the estate and on housing reform.George CadburyBournville village
  3. 27 December 1902 — Joseph Lucas dies in NaplesJoseph Lucas, a lifelong teetotaller who refused wine in Naples, dies of typhoid at the Hotel Bristol. His son Harry becomes chairman of Joseph Lucas Ltd.Joseph LucasHarry LucasJoseph Lucas Ltd (Lucas Industries)
  4. 1902 — Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds formedNettlefolds merges with Guest, Keen & Co. By 1914 the new company makes over half Britain’s screws and about a quarter of its nuts and bolts.Heath Street Works (Nettlefold & Chamberlain), SmethwickNettlefold & Chamberlain
  5. 1903 — The Chamberlain Clock is erectedA cast-iron clock tower is put up at the junction of Warstone Lane, Vyse Street and Frederick Street to mark Joseph Chamberlain’s visit to South Africa.Joseph ChamberlainThe Chamberlain Clock
  6. March 1904 — Lanchester Engine Company goes into receivershipWith its directors unwilling to provide more capital, the Lanchester Engine Company goes into receivership. It is reconstructed as the Lanchester Motor Company, registered on 21 November 1904.Frederick LanchesterLanchester works, Armourer Mills, Montgomery Street, SparkbrookLanchester Engine Company (Lanchester Motor Company)
  7. 4 November 1905 — Herbert Austin finds LongbridgeHerbert Austin visits the derelict White & Pike works at Longbridge with his wife and his staff of three; within days he agrees terms of £7,500 with its owner. Ownership passes to him on 22 January 1906.Herbert AustinAustin works, LongbridgeAustin Motor Company
  8. 1909 — The University opens at EdgbastonKing Edward VII and Queen Alexandra open the University of Birmingham’s new buildings by Aston Webb and Ingress Bell, with Chamberlain Tower, ‘Old Joe’, at their centre.Joseph ChamberlainOld Joe and the Aston Webb buildings, University of Birmingham
  9. 1909 — BSA starts making motorcyclesThe Birmingham Small Arms Company begins making motorcycles at Small Heath. A year later it buys the Daimler Motor Company of Coventry.BSA works, Armoury Road, Small HeathBirmingham Small Arms Company (BSA)
  10. 1909 — Cadbury wins a farthing over slave-grown cocoaEight years after learning that its São Tomé cocoa was grown by forced labour, Cadbury stops buying it in March 1909. Later that year it sues the Standard for libel; the jury finds for Cadbury but awards one farthing.George CadburyBournville works (Cadbury)Cadbury Brothers

1910s

  1. November 1911 — Chamberlain joins the councilNeville Chamberlain is elected to Birmingham City Council for All Saints’ ward and becomes chairman of the new Town Planning Committee.Neville Chamberlain
  2. 1911 — George Tangye gives the Boulton & Watt papers to BirminghamGeorge Tangye presents the Boulton & Watt business archive, kept since 1895 in his ‘Watt Museum’, to Birmingham’s Reference Library. It is now the Library of Birmingham’s collection MS 3147.George TangyeJames WattMatthew BoultonHeathfield HallBoulton & Watt
  3. 15 April 1912 — Avery’s managing director lost on the TitanicWilliam Edward Hipkins, managing director of W & T Avery and the man who moved the firm into Soho Foundry, dies when the Titanic sinks on the way to America.Soho FoundryW & T Avery
  4. 1912 — Erdington Hall demolished (lost)Erdington Hall is demolished during the construction of Tyburn Road.Erdington Hall
  5. 18 February – 3 March 1913 — Strike at the Cornwall WorksAbout 1,600 Tangye workers strike for a minimum wage of 23 shillings and recognition of the Workers’ Union. The firm concedes the wage, and the men return on 3 March, early in the wider Black Country strike.Cornwall Works (Tangyes)Tangye Brothers (Tangyes Ltd)
  6. July 1914 — Joseph Chamberlain is buried at Key HillJoseph Chamberlain dies in London on 2 July 1914. His family declines burial in Westminster Abbey, and he is buried “among his own people” at Key Hill Cemetery.Joseph ChamberlainKey Hill Cemetery
  7. 1914–1918 — Longbridge becomes a war factoryAustin’s workforce rises from 2,638 to over 20,000 as North and West Works are built. By 1918 Longbridge has made around eight million shells, 2,000 aeroplanes and 2,500 aero engines.Herbert AustinAustin works, LongbridgeAustin Motor Company
  8. 1914 — Lucas buys Thomson-Bennett and wins the Morris contractJoseph Lucas Ltd pays £9,000 for the magneto maker Thomson-Bennett, the purchase Grace’s Guide sees as the root of its dominance in motor electrics, and wins a bulk contract to supply Morris.Harry LucasWilliam Morris, Lord NuffieldLucas works, Great King Street, HockleyJoseph Lucas Ltd (Lucas Industries)
  9. 29 September 1916 — The city’s own savings bank opensThe Birmingham Corporation Savings Bank, promoted by the Lord Mayor, Neville Chamberlain, opens in a semi-basement of the Water Department. No other council in Britain has one.Neville ChamberlainBirmingham Municipal Bank
  10. October 1917 — A ‘loop’ of streets round the centre is proposedA Public Works Committee report on road widths includes Councillor Talbot’s plan to widen ‘certain streets near the centre, forming a kind of loop round the centre’. The council’s 1989 history says the streets were almost identical to the line of the later Inner Ring Road. Widening lines were approved in January 1918.Herbert Manzoni
  11. November 1918 — Kynoch joins Nobel IndustriesKynoch Ltd, whose Witton works employed about 18,000 people in the war, joins the explosives merger that becomes Nobel Industries. In 1926 Nobel becomes part of ICI, and Witton becomes ICI Metals in 1929.Kynoch’s Lion Works, WittonKynoch (G. Kynoch & Co.; Kynoch Ltd)
  12. 1 September 1919 — The Birmingham Municipal Bank opensMade permanent by the Birmingham Corporation Act 1919, the Municipal Bank opens with a head office and seventeen branches.Neville ChamberlainBirmingham Municipal Bank

1920s

  1. 7 October 1920 — Death of George TangyeGeorge Tangye, chairman of Tangyes Ltd and for over forty years the keeper of James Watt’s house at Heathfield, dies at 85. The contents of Heathfield Hall are sold on 23–24 November.George TangyeHeathfield HallTangye Brothers (Tangyes Ltd)
  2. 1922 — The Austin Seven launchedThe “Baby Austin” goes on sale at £225, bringing a car within reach of families who had never owned one. Longbridge is making 25,000 a year by 1925.Herbert AustinAustin works, LongbridgeAustin Motor Company
  3. 24 October 1922 — Death of George CadburyGeorge Cadbury dies at the Manor House, Northfield. His ashes are placed in a columbarium at the Friends’ Meeting House on Bournville Green, with a bust of him set into the building.George CadburyBournville villageCadbury Brothers
  4. 1923 — Manzoni joins Birmingham’s Public Works DepartmentManzoni comes to Birmingham as an engineering assistant in the Sewers and Rivers Section of the Public Works Department. Four years later he is chief engineer of the section, and in 1929 deputy City Engineer.Herbert Manzoni
  5. 1924 — Morris buys Wrigley’s and creates Morris CommercialWilliam Morris buys E. G. Wrigley & Co of Soho, Birmingham, with about 350 workers, and turns it into Morris Commercial Cars. In 1927 he buys Wolseley, with its Adderley Park and Ward End works.William Morris, Lord Nuffield
  6. December 1924 — Watt’s workshop goes to the Science MuseumWith Heathfield about to be redeveloped, the Science Museum’s curator H. W. Dickinson arrives with lorries and takes away the entire contents of James Watt’s attic workshop, more than 8,000 objects, along with its door, window and floorboards.James WattJames Watt’s garret workshopHeathfield Hall
  7. 1926 — Lucas wins the Austin contractLucas buys its two largest competitors, C. A. Vandervell and Rotax, and wins the contract for all of Austin’s starting, lighting and ignition equipment for the following year.Herbert AustinLucas works, Great King Street, HockleyAustin works, LongbridgeJoseph Lucas Ltd (Lucas Industries)Austin Motor Company
  8. 1927–28 — Heathfield Hall is demolished (lost)James Watt’s home at Heathfield, Handsworth, is pulled down and its grounds built over with houses. The lodge on Radnor Road survives, with a Birmingham Civic Society blue plaque.James WattHeathfield Hall
  9. 1929 — Alexander Sports Ground opensBirchfield Harriers open their new ground on Aldridge Road, Perry Barr, later known as Perry Barr Stadium.Perry Barr Stadium (Alexander Sports Ground)
  10. c. late 1920s — Perry Hall demolished (lost)After the sale of the Perry Hall estate in 1921 and 1923, the Goughs’ moated hall is demolished. Its grounds become Perry Hall Park; the moat survives.Perry Hall, Perry Barr

1930s

  1. 4 August 1930 — The first Odeon opens in Perry BarrOscar Deutsch’s cinema on Birchfield Road opens: the first of his cinemas to use the name Odeon.Odeon, Birchfield Road, Perry Barr
  2. c. 1930–31 — BSA takes over LanchesterThe Lanchester Motor Company is bought by BSA, owner of Daimler, and production moves from Armourer Mills, Sparkbrook, to Coventry.Lanchester works, Armourer Mills, Montgomery Street, SparkbrookLanchester Engine Company (Lanchester Motor Company)Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA)
  3. 9 February 1931 — Gaumont Palace opensWilliam T. Benslyn’s Gaumont Palace opens on Steelhouse Lane with Raffles and A Royal Romance: the first cinema built new by Gaumont British.Gaumont Palace, Colmore Circus
  4. 22 October 1932 — Bank head office foundation stoneNeville Chamberlain, now Chancellor of the Exchequer, lays the foundation stone of the Municipal Bank’s new head office on Broad Street.Neville ChamberlainBirmingham Municipal Bank head office, Broad StreetBirmingham Municipal Bank
  5. 1 January 1932 — The Municipal Bank comes to KingstandingThe Municipal Bank opens an evening branch at 595 Kingstanding Road, open on Mondays and Fridays from six to eight. A new branch building follows in 1937.Birmingham Municipal Bank
  6. 1932 — Highbury given to the cityThe Highbury trustees give Joseph Chamberlain’s house and grounds to the City of Birmingham “for the benefit of its citizens”. Most of the grounds become Highbury Park.Highbury, Moor Green
  7. Autumn 1933 — J. B. Priestley visits BirminghamOn his first visit, the writer J. B. Priestley finds the approach “a dirty muddle”, admires Colmore Row’s “metropolitan air” and rides a tram through “a parade of mean dinginess”. His account appears in English Journey (1934).Corporation Street
  8. 27 November 1933 — Prince George opens the Municipal Bank head officePrince George opens T. Cecil Howitt’s Portland stone head office for the Municipal Bank on Broad Street, with Neville Chamberlain among the guests.Neville ChamberlainBirmingham Municipal Bank head office, Broad StreetBirmingham Municipal Bank
  9. October 1933 — Chamberlain opens the 40,000th council houseNeville Chamberlain opens Birmingham’s 40,000th council home, calling it “an achievement on the part of Birmingham which has no parallel in this or any other country”.Neville Chamberlain
  10. 17 July 1935 — Manzoni becomes City Engineer and SurveyorIn his mid-thirties, Manzoni succeeds Herbert Humphries as City Engineer and Surveyor, in charge of roads, sewers, planning and building. He will hold the post for 28 years.Herbert Manzoni
  11. 1936 — Still 38,000 back-to-backsAfter more than 73,000 council and private houses have been built since the First World War, Birmingham still has over 38,000 back-to-back houses, 13,000 houses without their own water supply and 51,000 without their own lavatory.
  12. November 1937 — Duddeston and Nechells redevelopment plan approvedThe council approves Manzoni’s plan to redevelop 267 acres of Duddeston and Nechells as a whole, separating homes from industry. It is the city’s first comprehensive redevelopment area plan, drawn up before the war.Herbert Manzoni
  13. 23 October 1937 — Kingstanding’s new bank branchThe Lord Mayor, Alderman H. Roberts, opens the Municipal Bank’s new branch building at 595 Kingstanding Road, replacing the evening branch with daily opening.Birmingham Municipal Bank
  14. September 1939 — Manzoni’s planning paper for a New York congressManzoni writes a paper on city planning and the Restriction of Ribbon Development Act 1935 for the British–American Engineering Congress in New York; the Institution of Civil Engineers publishes it in November 1939.Herbert Manzoni
  15. 17 March 1939 — Chamberlain’s Birmingham speechTwo days after German troops enter Prague, Neville Chamberlain tells a Birmingham audience that the liberty Britain has enjoyed for hundreds of years is the one thing he will not sacrifice for peace.Neville Chamberlain

1940s

  1. 9 November 1940 — Neville Chamberlain diesNeville Chamberlain dies at Heckfield, Hampshire. His ashes are buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey, beside Andrew Bonar Law.Neville Chamberlain
  2. c. December 1940 — St Thomas’s, Bath Row, is destroyed (lost)Rickman and Hutchinson’s church of St Thomas, Bath Row, built 1826–29, is hit in an all-night raid in December 1940. Only its west front and tower survive, now in the Peace Garden.
  3. 8–9 August 1940 — The first bombs fall on BirminghamThe first bombs of the Birmingham Blitz fall. The council dates the first raid to 8 August, other records to the 9th. Over the next 77 raids 2,241 people are killed.
  4. 17 May 1940 — Nuffield replaced at Castle BromwichWith no Spitfire yet completed at the Castle Bromwich factory Lord Nuffield had built, Lord Beaverbrook accepts his offer to give up control and hands the factory to Vickers.William Morris, Lord Nuffield
  5. 19 November 1940 — Bombing at the BSA works (lost)Bombs bring down part of the BSA New Building at Small Heath. According to the BSA Owners’ Club and local histories, 53 employees are killed and 89 injured.BSA works, Armoury Road, Small Heath
  6. 1940 — Market Hall gutted by bombing (lost)Enemy action reduces the Market Hall to a shell. Covered stalls are put up inside the walls, and trading carries on there until the early 1960s.Birmingham Market Hall
  7. 27 February 1941 — ‘We have not got to start replanning Birmingham’Asked by the Birmingham Mail whether the bombing has changed his plans, Manzoni says no: ‘we have not got to start replanning Birmingham. All we want is the opportunity to carry out the plans we have already.’Herbert Manzoni
  8. 1 January 1941 — Manzoni appointed CBE for civil defence workIn the New Year Honours Manzoni, as City Engineer and Surveyor of Birmingham, is made a CBE ‘for services in connection with Civil Defence’.Herbert Manzoni
  9. 16 October 1941 — Manzoni reports on central city planningCity Engineer Herbert Manzoni sends a confidential report on central city planning, built round a ring road, to the Public Works Committee. Four advisory panels follow, on traffic, housing, redevelopment areas and the city’s limits.
  10. 9 April 1941 — Prince of Wales Theatre destroyed (lost)A direct hit destroys the Prince of Wales Theatre in Broad Street during the April 1941 raids.
  11. 23 May 1941 — Herbert Austin diesLord Austin of Longbridge dies at his home, Lickey Grange, near Bromsgrove.Herbert AustinAustin Motor Company
  12. June 1942 — Manzoni’s paper on post-war planningThe Journal of the Institution of Civil Engineers publishes Manzoni’s paper ‘Post-war planning and reconstruction’, covering housing, slums, traffic and roads.Herbert Manzoni
  13. 29 April 1943 — Ring road approved in principleThe Public Works Committee approves Manzoni’s ring-road proposals in principle. The line follows the inner loop first suggested in 1917 and uses bombed sites where it can.Herbert Manzoni
  14. 23 April 1943 — The last air raid on BirminghamThe last of Birmingham’s 77 air raids. About 12,000 houses have been destroyed beyond repair, three-quarters of them slum or near-slum property, according to the Victoria County History.
  15. 6 June 1945 — Minister counts Birmingham’s bombed homesAnswering a written question, the Ministry of Works tells Parliament that about 90,000 Birmingham houses were affected by bombing, 5,000 of them destroyed, and about 2,000 other properties put out of use.
  16. July 1945 — Council backs a Bill for the ring roadThe full City Council authorises a Parliamentary Bill for the Inner Ring Road. Keith Jordan dates the council’s approval of the scheme to July 1944; Larkham, working from the archives, gives July 1945 for the Bill.
  17. 1946 — A housing survey counts the slumsA city housing survey finds 29,000 back-to-back houses, 6,500 homes without their own water supply, nearly 40,000 without their own lavatory and more than 142,000 without a bathroom.
  18. 7–23 May 1946 — Commons committee examines the Birmingham Corporation BillA House of Commons committee examines the city’s Bill for the ring road. Some clauses are removed, including one letting the council make parking spaces a condition of planning permission, after the Chamber of Commerce objects.Herbert Manzoni
  19. 1946 — Birmingham Corporation Act passedParliament gives the council powers to build the Inner Ring Road and buy the land compulsorily. Peter Larkham calls it the largest such council scheme to have come before Parliament.Birmingham Market HallBishop’s House, Bath Street
  20. 8 March 1946 — Frederick Lanchester diesFrederick Lanchester, pioneer of the motor car and of the theory of flight, dies in Moseley, where he had lived since 1924.Frederick Lanchester
  21. 29 January 1947 — Parliament debates the 1947 Planning BillLewis Silkin calls the Town and Country Planning Bill “the most comprehensive and far-reaching planning Measure” ever put before the Commons. It gives councils wide compulsory purchase powers, paying the existing-use value of land.
  22. 1947 — Council buys the five redevelopment areasThe council completes the purchase of about 1,400 acres of slum housing and old industry in five areas round the centre: Duddeston and Nechells, Summer Lane, Ladywood, Bath Row and Gooch Street.

1950s

  1. 1951 — The motor trade dominates BirminghamThe census shows 94,400 people in Birmingham working in the motor trade, 15.1 per cent of the working population, and 46,500 in electrical engineering. The Victoria County History says the motor trade now dominates the city’s industry.
  2. February 1952 — Austin and Morris form BMCThe Austin Motor Company merges with the Nuffield Organisation to form the British Motor Corporation, with Lord Nuffield as first chairman.William Morris, Lord NuffieldAustin works, LongbridgeAustin Motor Company
  3. 1953 — Birmingham’s last trams runThe last tram routes, to Erdington, Pype Hayes and Short Heath, are replaced by buses. The transport department now runs nearly 1,800 buses carrying 500 million passengers a year.
  4. 1 January 1954 — Manzoni knightedManzoni is knighted in the New Year Honours. On 16 February 1954 Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, acting for the Queen, confers the knighthood at Buckingham Palace.Herbert Manzoni
  5. 1955 — Over 50,000 Birmingham houses unfitA survey of 1954 finds over 50,000 houses, a fifth of the city’s homes, unfit to live in; in the national count of 1955 Birmingham estimates 50,250. The council reckons it needs 50,000 new homes and has land for 8,000.
  6. 21 November 1956 — A council deputation puts a price on trafficBirmingham’s deputation to the Minister of Transport argues that Lucas’s 300 vehicles average 10 mph across the city, and that faster roads would save the city’s 28,000 goods vehicles about £2 million a year.Joseph Lucas Ltd (Lucas Industries)
  7. 15 December 1956 — Theatre Royal closes (lost)After a last performance of the Fol-de-Rolls, the Theatre Royal on New Street closes and is demolished. An office building, the Woolworth Building, later rises on the site.Theatre Royal, New Street
  8. 14 September 1956 — The Golden Boys are unveiledSir Percy Mills unveils William Bloye’s gilded bronze of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch on Broad Street, designed in 1938 and delayed by the war.Matthew BoultonJames WattWilliam MurdochBoulton, Watt and Murdoch (“The Golden Boys”)Boulton & Watt
  9. 1956 — Gillott’s leaves Victoria WorksJoseph Gillott & Sons moves pen production from Victoria Works on Graham Street to a new factory near Dudley.Victoria Works, Graham StreetJoseph Gillott & Sons
  10. 1957 — Smallbrook Street cleared for the ring road (lost)Demolition clears Smallbrook Street for Smallbrook Ringway, the first section of the Inner Ring Road, after the Minister of Transport approves funding in January 1957.Smallbrook Street
  11. 8 March 1957 — Work on the ring road starts with a bangThe Minister of Transport, Harold Watkinson, inaugurates the Inner Ring Road by exploding a charge to bring down a wall, as recorded in the council’s own film of the first stage.
  12. 1957 — ‘Little of real worth in our architecture’Manzoni says he has ‘never been very certain as to the value of tangible links with the past’ and that ‘there is little of real worth in our architecture’. The council’s 1989 history dates the words to 1957; where he said them has not been traced.Herbert Manzoni
  13. 18 January 1957 — Ring road funding approvedThe Minister of Transport, Harold Watkinson, approves funding for the Inner Ring Road, eleven years after the Act. Work starts on the stretch from Horse Fair towards New Street station.
  14. February 1958 — The Victorian Society is foundedJohn Betjeman, Nikolaus Pevsner and others found the Victorian Society to protect Victorian and Edwardian architecture, just as Birmingham’s rebuilding gathers pace.
  15. 8 April 1959 — First ring-road subway opensThe subway from Hill Street to Hurst Street opens beneath the new road, reportedly the first in the country to be pedestrians’ only way across.Smallbrook Street
  16. January 1959 — Public Works Committee agrees to demolish the Market HallA Public Works Committee conference on the Bull Ring agrees to demolish the bombed Market Hall, opening the way for the ring road and the Bull Ring Centre.The old Bull Ring and Spiceal StreetBirmingham Market Hall
  17. 1 October 1959 — Ginsburg calls the ring road a ‘tragedy’In the Architects’ Journal, Leslie Ginsburg of the Birmingham School of Planning warns that the ring road ‘looks like being the greatest traffic and town design tragedy yet to afflict an English city’.Herbert Manzoni
  18. c. 1959 (some accounts 1960) — Bishop’s House demolished for the Inner Ring Road (lost)Pugin’s Bishop’s House is demolished to make way for the City Council’s Inner Ring Road. A chimneypiece and two chairs go to the V&A in 1961.Bishop’s House, Bath Street

1960s

  1. 30 June 1960 — Only 6,219 unfit houses clearedOf the 50,250 Birmingham houses estimated unfit in 1955, the housing minister Henry Brooke later reports, 6,219 have been cleared by the end of June 1960.
  2. 1960 — Manzoni becomes President of the Institution of Civil EngineersManzoni becomes President of the Institution of Civil Engineers for 1960–61. He chairs his last meeting as retiring President on 7 November 1961.Herbert Manzoni
  3. 1960 — Smallbrook Ringway opensThe first section of the Inner Ring Road, Smallbrook Ringway, opens. By 1961 the road has reached Carrs Lane.
  4. c. 1950s–1960s — The Gun Quarter is cut through by the Inner Ring Road (lost)Building the Dental Hospital and the Inner Ring Road demolishes much of the Gun Quarter, leaving, in the council’s words, ‘only a fragment’.The Gun Quarter
  5. c. 1960s — Elkington’s works largely demolished (lost)Most of the former Elkington works, by then the Museum of Science and Industry, is demolished. A late 19th-century range survives at 144 Newhall Street.Elkington’s electroplating works, Newhall Street
  6. May 1961 — The ringway splits Spiceal StreetJohn Ball’s photographs show the new Inner Ringway running between Spiceal Street and the Market Hall, with Phillips Street widened into one of its carriageways.The old Bull Ring and Spiceal Street
  7. March 1961 — Manzoni describes the Inner Ring Road to engineersIn the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Manzoni calls the ring road ‘a city street of novel character – it is not an urban motorway, nor principally a traffic street or a shopping street’.Herbert Manzoni
  8. c. early 1960s — Market Hall shell demolished (lost)The walls of the bombed Market Hall, still standing in 1962, are demolished for the Bull Ring Centre.Birmingham Market Hall
  9. 27 November 1963 — Traffic in Towns is publishedColin Buchanan’s report reaches MPs. The Minister of Transport, Ernest Marples, says: “Cars are a boon. But they have now started to choke movement.” Birmingham’s ring road has been under construction since 1957.
  10. 13 August 1963 — Demolition begins for the new library (lost)The City Engineer and Surveyor’s Department photographs demolition beginning in Great Charles Street for the new Central Library at Paradise Circus.Mason Science College, Edmund StreetBirmingham Central Library (John Madin)
  11. October 1963 — Masshouse Circus contract awardedThe construction contract for Masshouse Circus goes to Bryant Civil Engineering. In 1977 the Sunday Times alleged that Bryant had been preferred to a lower tender.Masshouse Circus
  12. 1963 — Manzoni retiresManzoni retires as City Engineer and Surveyor after 28 years in the post. Neville Borg succeeds him.Herbert Manzoni
  13. 1963 — The Grove, Harborne, is demolished (lost)Attwood’s old home, rebuilt for William Kenrick in 1877–78, is pulled down and its grounds become Grove Park. One panelled room goes to the Victoria and Albert Museum.Thomas AttwoodThe Grove, Harborne
  14. 1964 — Josiah Mason’s Orphanage demolished (lost)The trustees demolished Mason’s orphanage at Erdington, judging it out of date and too costly to maintain. Mason’s remains, and those of his wife and 53 children buried in the grounds, were removed and cremated. Most of the land became housing.Sir Josiah MasonJosiah Mason’s Orphanage, ErdingtonSir Josiah Mason Trust
  15. 1964 — Priory Ringway built from Old SquareThe new Priory Ringway dual carriageway runs from Old Square down to Masshouse Circus, photographed newly completed in 1964.Old Square
  16. 1964 — British Railways demolishes the Victorian New Street station (lost)The 19th-century New Street station and the Queen’s Hotel are demolished as British Railways rebuilds for West Coast Main Line electrification. The new station opens in 1967.The Victorian New Street Station
  17. 1964 — Mason College demolished (lost)The Edmund Street building of Mason College, opened in 1880 and the forerunner of the University of Birmingham, is demolished for the new Central Library. Fragments still stood in 1969.Sir Josiah MasonBirmingham Central Library (John Madin)
  18. 29 May 1964 — Bull Ring Centre opensThe Duke of Edinburgh opens the Bull Ring Centre, built by Laing in under three years. Historic England calls it the first indoor city-centre shopping centre in the UK.Birmingham Market Hall
  19. 1965 — Midland Institute compulsorily purchased (lost)The Birmingham and Midland Institute’s Paradise Street building is compulsorily purchased so that Paradise Street can be widened for re-routed traffic. The Institute moves to Margaret Street in 1966.Birmingham and Midland Institute, Paradise Street
  20. 1966 — Pevsner praises Birmingham’s ‘courage’Nikolaus Pevsner and Alexandra Wedgwood’s Warwickshire calls the courage of devising a completely new set of roads and open spaces in the centre of Birmingham ‘wholly admirable’, though they find the city’s high housing disappointing.Herbert Manzoni
  21. 27 July 1967 — Conservation areas become lawThe Civic Amenities Act lets councils protect whole areas “of special architectural or historic interest”. The Jewellery Quarter will become one of Birmingham’s in 1980.The Jewellery Quarter
  22. 21 April 1967 — Old Square mural unveiledA cast brass and iron mural of Old Square’s history by Kenneth Budd & Associates, commissioned by the Public Works Department for the new sunken precinct, is unveiled.Old Square
  23. 1969 — Tangyes leave the Cornwall Works (lost)Three years after joining the Central Wagon group, Tangyes moves from Smethwick to Greet in Birmingham, ending 105 years at the Cornwall Works. The site passes to another company and the old buildings are later cleared.Cornwall Works (Tangyes)Tangye Brothers (Tangyes Ltd)

1970s

  1. 1971 — Colmore Row widening droppedThe council abandons its plan to widen Colmore Row as part of the ring road scheme. The historian Peter Larkham sees this as a turning point in the city’s planning culture.
  2. 4 January 1971 — Traffic uses the whole ring for the first timeThe complete Inner Ring Road is opened to traffic, three months before the Queen’s ceremonial opening.
  3. 7 April 1971 — The Queen opens the Inner Ring RoadQueen Elizabeth II officially opens the completed Inner Ring Road, in use by traffic since January. The loop is two and a quarter miles long with 52 pedestrian subways.
  4. 1972 — Aston Expressway reaches Lancaster CircusThe Aston Expressway opens, linking the ring road to the M6. Its elevated section sweeps over Lancaster Circus on concrete supports.Lancaster Circus
  5. 18 November 1972 — Death of Sir Herbert ManzoniManzoni dies in Birmingham, the year after the Queen opened his Inner Ring Road. In 1974 Sutcliffe and Smith dedicate their history of Birmingham 1939–1970 to his memory.Herbert Manzoni
  6. 4–6 March 1972 — Snow Hill station closes (lost)The last trains run from Snow Hill on Saturday 4 March 1972; the official closure date is 6 March. The former hotel and booking hall had been demolished from 1969.Snow Hill Station
  7. 1973 — BSA’s motorcycle business collapses (lost)After BSA’s shares collapse, its motorcycle business is sold to Norton-Villiers-Triumph. The Small Heath works are demolished later in the 1970s.BSA works, Armoury Road, Small HeathBirmingham Small Arms Company (BSA)
  8. 1974 — Victorian Central Library demolished (lost)After Madin’s new library opens, the Victorian library of 1882 in Ratcliff Place is demolished. Its Shakespeare Memorial Room is dismantled and saved.Birmingham Central Library (John Madin)
  9. 1974 — Madin’s Central Library opensJohn Madin’s Central Library, an inverted ziggurat with a curved lending block, opens on the Paradise Circus civic site.Birmingham Central Library (John Madin)
  10. 24 December 1975 — Last motorcycle made at Small HeathAfter BSA’s absorption into Norton Villiers Triumph, a plan to concentrate production at Small Heath fails. Solihull Archives records that the last motorcycle was made there on Christmas Eve 1975.BSA works, Armoury Road, Small Heath
  11. 31 March 1976 — The Municipal Bank becomes a TSBThe Birmingham Municipal Bank closes its doors; the next day it reopens as the Birmingham Municipal Trustee Savings Bank.Birmingham Municipal Bank head office, Broad StreetBirmingham Municipal Bank
  12. 4 October 1976 — Demolition of Snow Hill station begins (lost)Demolition of the remaining Snow Hill station begins. A new, smaller station opens on the site in October 1987.Snow Hill Station
  13. 29 May 1977 — “City’s ringroad falling apart”After cracks close the Masshouse Circus underpass in mid-May, the Sunday Times publishes an engineer’s report predicting that Masshouse Circus and Smallbrook Ringway could collapse within a decade. An official interim report calls the road structurally sound.Masshouse CircusSmallbrook Queensway
  14. c. late 1970s to early 1980s — BSA Small Heath works demolished (lost)The main BSA works at Small Heath were demolished after motorcycle production ended on Christmas Eve 1975; sources give dates from 1977 to the early 1980s. The 1915–16 extension survives.BSA works, Armoury Road, Small Heath
  15. 7 June 1978 — Parliament asks who pays to mend the ring roadIn the Commons the West Midlands County Council’s estimate of about £440,000 for maintenance of the ring road in 1977–81 is given. Jeff Rooker MP says the Ministry of Transport paid three-quarters of its original cost.
  16. April 1978 — Ring-road contractors convictedThree directors of Bryant’s, the ring road’s main contractor, are convicted of corruption over council contracts worth £112 million since 1963.
  17. c. 1979–82 — Curzon Street hotel wing demolished (lost)Birmingham City Council takes over the old Curzon Street station and repairs the Principal Building, demolishing Robert Benson Dockray’s hotel wing of 1841.Curzon Street Station (1838)

1980s

  1. January 1980 — Jewellery Quarter becomes a conservation areaThe council abandons the Jewellery Quarter’s status as a redevelopment area and designates it a conservation area. Its report records that the public meeting “ended in spontaneous applause”. The area was enlarged in 1996 and 2000.
  2. 10 January 1980 — The Jewellery Quarter Conservation Area is designatedAfter an English Heritage survey finds the Quarter of international significance, a single enlarged conservation area is designated, taking in St Paul’s Square and Key Hill. The area was extended in 1996 and 2000.The Jewellery Quarter
  3. 1981 — Chance’s Spon Lane glassworks closes (lost)Flat-glass production at Smethwick, ended in 1976, is followed by the closure of the whole works after more than 150 years. Eight listed buildings and buried furnaces survive.Chance’s Glassworks, Spon LaneChance Brothers & Co.
  4. 1981 — Ansells’ Aston brewery closes (lost)After a series of strikes, Ansells closes its brewery at Aston Cross and moves production to Burton upon Trent. An MP told the Commons in March 1981 of 600 redundancies.
  5. 1986 — Gaumont demolished (lost)The Gaumont, closed on 29 October 1983 after a final showing of Yellowbeard, is demolished. The Wesleyan headquarters is later built on the site.Gaumont Palace, Colmore Circus
  6. 1987 — A City Centre StrategyThe council publishes a City Centre Strategy welcoming housing back into the centre and promising good pedestrian access, especially across the Queensway.
  7. 1987 — Prince of Wales Theatre site cleared (lost)The remains of the bombed Prince of Wales Theatre on Broad Street are demolished to make way for Symphony Hall, which opens in 1991.Prince of Wales Theatre, Broad Street
  8. 25–27 March 1988 — The Highbury InitiativeA symposium on the future of the city centre recommends that “the concrete collar of the Inner Ring Road be broken”. The council begins lowering and removing the road.
  9. c. by 1988 — Lucas Great King Street emptied (lost)Lucas moves ignition work to a new factory and sells or closes the rest. Nearly a million square feet at Great King Street stand empty; the blocks are demolished in the early 1990s.Lucas works, Great King Street, HockleyJoseph Lucas Ltd (Lucas Industries)

1990s

  1. 1990 — Cadbury World opens at BournvilleCadbury opens Cadbury World, a visitor attraction about chocolate and the firm’s history, on the Bournville factory site. More than 18 million people had visited by 2025.Bournville works (Cadbury)Cadbury Brothers
  2. 1991 — The International Convention Centre opensThe ICC opens on Broad Street as a flagship for a new service economy; a new pedestrian route is run from it across the lowered ring road into the city centre.
  3. 1993 — A bronze Attwood for Chamberlain SquareSioban Coppinger and Fiona Peever’s bronze of Thomas Attwood, sitting on the steps beside his empty soapbox, is installed in Chamberlain Square.Thomas AttwoodThomas Attwood statue, Chamberlain Square
  4. 1998 — The Lunar Society Moonstones are madeSteve Field designs carved sandstone memorials to the Lunar men, including Priestley, Withering, Galton, Darwin and Wedgwood. They stand at Queslett, on the edge of Kingstanding.Joseph PriestleyWilliam WitheringSamuel Galton juniorErasmus DarwinJosiah WedgwoodThe Lunar Society
  5. 1999 — Light rail returns to BirminghamThe Midland Metro opens between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, the first light rail service in the city since the last trams ran in 1953.

2000s

  1. c. By 2001 — New Street is pedestrianisedThe council reports that the full pedestrianisation of New Street has removed vehicles and increased footfall by over 50 per cent.
  2. 20 June 2000 — Demolition of the Bull Ring Centre begins (lost)Demolition of the 1964 Bull Ring Centre, 65,000 tonnes of concrete, begins. It is finished by March 2001.
  3. 29 September 2001 — Thinktank opens with the Smethwick EngineThinktank, Birmingham’s science museum, opens at Millennium Point. Its centrepiece is the Boulton & Watt engine that worked at Smethwick from 1779.James WattMatthew BoultonThe Smethwick Engine at ThinktankBoulton & Watt
  4. 28 April 2001 — The Pen Room opens in the Argent CentreFour founders open the Pen Room, now the Pen Museum, in the Argent Centre to preserve the story of Birmingham’s pen trade.Pen Museum, Argent Centre
  5. 2002 — Masshouse Circus demolished (lost)The raised Masshouse Circus section of the ring road is demolished, the first big break in the “concrete collar”. Birmingham Friends of the Earth sell chunks at 50p each.
  6. 2003 — The Birmingham Mint closes (lost)After more than 150 years of coining, the Birmingham Mint goes into administration in March 2003 and closes in May. Its listed Icknield Street front is later converted to housing.Birmingham Mint, Icknield StreetRalph Heaton & Sons (the Birmingham Mint)
  7. 4 September 2003 — The new Bullring opensThe Birmingham Alliance’s Bullring opens on the site of the 1964 centre, with Future Systems’ Selfridges store clad in 15,000 aluminium discs.Birmingham Market Hall
  8. c. after 2003 — Most of the Witton works demolished (lost)IMI moves its headquarters to near Birmingham Airport, and most of the remaining buildings of the former Kynoch works at Witton are demolished.Kynoch’s Lion Works, Witton
  9. 8 April 2005 — MG Rover goes into administration (lost)The collapse of MG Rover ends volume car making at Longbridge and costs more than 6,000 jobs. Limited assembly under Chinese ownership ends in 2016.Austin works, Longbridge
  10. 16 March 2007 — HP Sauce leaves Aston (lost)The last shift ends at the HP Sauce factory at Aston Cross after Heinz moves production to the Netherlands. Demolition begins in July.
  11. November 2009 — Minister refuses to list the Central LibraryMargaret Hodge rejects English Heritage’s advice to list Madin’s Central Library at Grade II, calling the decision “finely balanced”. A certificate of immunity from listing follows in 2011.Birmingham Central Library (John Madin)

2010s

  1. July 2011 — The Big City PlanBirmingham’s city centre masterplan aims to grow the city core by a quarter, beyond the old ‘concrete collar’ of the Inner Ring Road, with over 5,000 new homes in its areas of transformation.
  2. 20 July 2013 — Ring road tunnels shut for repairsThe A38 St Chad’s and Queensway tunnels, the main surviving parts of the ring road, close for six weeks of essential repairs.St Chad’s CircusParadise Circus
  3. October 2014 — The Coffin Works opens as a museumAfter a campaign by its last owner, Joyce Green, and a £2 million restoration by Birmingham Conservation Trust, Newman Brothers’ factory opens as a museum.Newman Brothers Coffin Works
  4. December 2015 — Work begins on ParadiseArgent starts work on the Paradise redevelopment. Madin’s library, Paradise Forum, the Conservatoire and the Adrian Boult Hall are demolished over the following year.Birmingham Central Library (John Madin)
  5. 23 September 2016 — MG ends car assembly at LongbridgeMG announces that vehicle assembly at Longbridge will stop and production move to China, ending, the BBC said, more than a century of car building on the site.Austin works, Longbridge
  6. c. 2015–16 — Central Library demolished (lost)After listing was refused in 2009 and the new Library of Birmingham opened in 2013, Madin’s Central Library is demolished for the Paradise redevelopment.Birmingham Central Library (John Madin)
  7. September 2018 — Paradise Circus closes to general traffic (lost)Paradise Circus, renamed Lyon Queensway, closes for the Metro and the Paradise redevelopment. Through traffic keeps using the A38 tunnel underneath.Paradise Circus
  8. December 2019 — Trams reach Centenary SquareThe Metro extension from Grand Central to Library opens, bringing trams to Centenary Square.

2020s

  1. 1 July 2020 — Attwood returns to Chamberlain SquareAfter nearly five years in store during the Paradise redevelopment, the bronze Thomas Attwood is returned to the steps of Chamberlain Square.Thomas AttwoodThomas Attwood statue, Chamberlain Square
  2. 29 March 2021 — Chamberlain Square reopensChamberlain Square reopens after five years of rebuilding, with the 1880 Chamberlain Memorial fully restored and its fountain working again.
  3. 17 July 2022 — Trams run along Broad StreetThe Metro opens along Broad Street to Edgbaston, with stops at Brindleyplace, Five Ways and Edgbaston Village, in time for the Commonwealth Games.
  4. 29 April 2022 — The Golden Boys return to Centenary SquareAfter five years in store during the Metro works, the statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch is reinstalled in Centenary Square outside Symphony Hall.Matthew BoultonJames WattWilliam MurdochBoulton, Watt and Murdoch (“The Golden Boys”)
  5. 6 October 2024 — Midland Metropolitan University Hospital opens on former GKN landThe new hospital at Grove Lane, Smethwick, built on former GKN land near the old Heath Street screw works, opens to patients.Heath Street Works (Nettlefold & Chamberlain), Smethwick
  6. October 2025 — Perry Barr Stadium demolished (lost)Weeks after the last races in August 2025, Perry Barr Stadium is demolished; the city council says no prior notification application was received and opens an investigation.Perry Barr Stadium (Alexander Sports Ground)
  7. July 2026 — Watt and Priestley return to Ratcliff PassageAfter about ten years in store during the Paradise redevelopment, the statues of James Watt and Joseph Priestley are reinstated at either end of Ratcliff Passage, beside the Town Hall.James WattJoseph PriestleyStatue of James Watt, Ratcliff PassageStatue of Joseph Priestley, Ratcliff Passage
  8. April 2026 — Blue plaque to Herbert Austin at LongbridgeThe Birmingham Civic Society unveils a blue plaque to Herbert Austin at South & City College’s Longbridge campus, on the ground of his factory, nominated and funded by the Austin Ex-Apprentices Association.Herbert AustinAustin works, LongbridgeAustin Motor Company