'Putting On The Screw'
Source: The Dart, 21 April 1884.
Artist: E.C. Mountford
From Mocking men of power : comic art in Birmingham, 1861-1911 by
Stephen Roberts & Roger Ward (
2014)
The Improvement Scheme, launched by Chamberlain in June 1875, was intended to replace an area of narrow streets, courtyards and insanitary and dilapidated housing with a great street, as broad as a Parisian boulevard'. For Chamberlain it seemed a win-win situation - there would be sanitary reform, income for the council from new shops and a clear assertion of civic achievement. Chamberlain is seen here with the municipal architect J.H. Chamberlain, who oversaw the project. The pulling down of buildings began in August 1878 and, within two years, the new Corporation Street had reached Bull Street. However, Chamberlain found his ambitions dashed. The purchase of buildings not covered by the Artisans' Dwellings Act 1875 pushed up costs, and private landlords failed to acquire and build on land where houses had been demolished.
By 1888 650 working class dwellings had been demolished and not one new house built. The Dart dubbed the whole enterprise, funded as it was by high-interest loans and overdrafts, the Insolvent Scheme'