Just a few more to complete the set! You may like to ponder the premise which led to it's demolition and all the other massive changes to that part of the City....this is from an article from the Faces and Places Magazine of 1896 "
BIRMINGHAM IMPROVEMENTS UNDER THE ARTISANS' AND LABOURERS' DWELLINGS IMPROVEMENT ACT, 1875
The present age has been called the age of great cities. For a century past, but still more noticeably during the last thirty years, the chief centres of population have increased immensely in size. This enlargement is, of course, chiefly due to the expansion of trade and enterprise, to locomotive facilities, and to the increase of population which has been stimulated by these improvements. Another cause, which did not exist in less civilised days, conduces to the rapid growth of cities. When war was the rule and peace the exception, every town was virtually more or less a fortress, and, for the sake of protection, people packed their houses closely together within the boundaries of the city walls.
Nowadays, every citizen who can afford it tries to have his family abode beyond the reach of the smoke and noise of the central districts, and so a ring of new buildings is added annually to the circumference of the city. One of the most serious evils of modern times results from this tendency to emigrate towards the suburbs. The closely packed houses of the older districts, which were never too healthy, are deserted by the rich and prosperous, and, when in a state of decay and dilapidation, become tenanted by the very poor, who crowd these tenements to an extent never contemplated by those who built them. Intemperance, improvidence, and uncleanliness are confirmed. And intensified by the miserable character of these habitations.
In nearly every town in the kingdom there may be found what may be styled a mediaeval nucleus of this sort; in some instances, as in our own City of London, the old buildings are gradually replaced by structures intended solely for business purposes; but even then one evil is only replaced by another, since the poor, having no dwellings at hand, are compelled to travel long distances to and from their work. For many years philanthropists pondered over the mischief arising from this condition of things, and palliative measures were introduced by individuals and charitable associations; but nothing, as far as we are aware, was accomplished on a comprehensive scale until the passage of a Local Improvement Act in Glasgow, in 1866.
1875 an Act entitled 'Artisans and Labourers dwellings Improvement Act" received the assent of Parliament. This Act confers on the sanitary authorities of all towns of more than 25,000 inhabitants very extensive powers of dealing with unwholesome and dilapidated houses, especially as regards compulsory power to buy land or other property, formerly any owner who chose to be cantankerous or greedy could paralyse any attempted municipal improvement which touched his property.
Mr. Cross's Act has recently been taken up in good earnest by the authorities of Birmingham - a town which, though exceptionally salubrious among great cities as far as advantages of site are concerned, yet has, in its central districts, a miserable collection of damp, dilapidation, and decay; where the deaths are twice as numerous as in the suburb of Edgbaston - young children die especially fast, as one of the tenants pithily put it, "There's more bugs than babies" - where perfect health is unknown and decent habits almost impossible.
Those who have read Mr. Councillor White's graphic description of the condition of St. Mary's Ward will not deem the above expressions a whit too strong. A plan of improvement, drawn up in accordance with the representations of the Medical Officer of Health, has been brought forward by Mr. White and carried before the Council, and it is gratifying to add that it was unanimously accepted, although a few aldermen and councillors abstained from voting, owing to motives of delicacy, because they owned property on the line of intended demolition.
It will be perceived, on reference to our map, that the proposed scheme is one of an extensive character; it is intended to combine the advantage of new and improved dwellings for the poorer classes with convenient thoroughfares. Those who know Birmingham are aware how much a route for vehicular traffic is needed between New Street and Bull Street. In the proposed improvements a new thoroughfare will commence in New Street, opposite the Exchange, and will be carried right through, across Legge Street and Bagot Street, into the Aston Road. New subsidiary side streets will also be made.
