A Tale of One City

A Tale of One City

The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Tale of One City: The New
Birmingham
by Thomas Anderton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at
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Title: A Tale of One City: The New Birmingham Papers Reprinted
from the "Midland Counties Herald"
Author: Thomas Anderton
Release Date: February 28, 2004 [EBook #11356]
Language: English
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A TALE OF ONE CITY:
THE NEW BIRMINGHAM.
_Papers Reprinted from the "Midland Counties Herald"_,
BY
THOMAS ANDERTON.
Birmingham: "MIDLAND COUNTIES HERALD" OFFICE.
TO BE HAD FROM CORNISH BROTHERS, NEW STREET;

MIDLAND EDUCATIONAL CO., CORPORATION STREET.
1900

I.
PROLOGUE.
The present century has seen the rise and development of many towns
in various parts of the country, and among them Birmingham is entitled
to take a front place. If Thomas Attwood or George Frederick Muntz
could now revisit the town they once represented in Parliament they
would probably stare with amazement at the changes that have taken
place in Birmingham, and would require a guide to show them their
way about the town--now a city--they once knew so well. The material
history of Birmingham was for a series of years a story of steady
progress and prosperity, but of late years the city has in a political,
social, and municipal sense advanced by leaps and bounds. It is no
longer "Brummagem" or the "Hardware Village," it is now recognised
as the centre of activity and influence in Mid-England; it is the Mecca
of surrounding populous districts, that attracts an increasing number of
pilgrims who love life, pleasure, and shopping.
Birmingham, indeed, has recently been styled "the best governed city in
the world"--a title that is, perhaps, a trifle too full and panegyrical to
find ready and general acceptance. If, however, by this very lofty and
eulogistic description is meant a city that has been exceptionally
prosperous, is well looked after, that has among its inhabitants many
energetic, public-spirited men, that has a good solid debt on its books,
also that has municipal officials of high capabilities with fairly high
salaries to match--then Birmingham is not altogether undeserving of
the high-sounding appellation. Many of those who only know
Birmingham from an outside point of view, and who have only lately
begun to notice its external developments, doubtless attribute all the
improvements to Mr. Chamberlain's great scheme, and the adoption of
the Artisans' Dwellings Act in 1878. The utilisation of this Act has
certainly resulted in the making of one fine street, a fine large debt, and
the erection of a handful of artisans' dwellings. The changes, however,
that culminated in Mr. Chamberlain's great project began years before
the Artisans' Dwellings Act became law.
The construction of the London and North Western Railway

station--which, with the Midland Railway adjunct, now covers some
thirteen acres of land--cleared away a large area of slums that were
scarcely fit for those who lived in them--which is saying very much. A
region sacred to squalor and low drinking shops, a paradise of marine
store dealers, a hotbed of filthy courts tenanted by a low and degraded
class, was swept away to make room for the large station now used by
the London and North Western and Midland Railway Companies.
The Great Western Railway station, too, in its making also disposed of
some shabby, narrow streets and dirty, pestiferous houses inhabited by
people who were not creditable to the locality or the community, and
by so doing contributed to the improvement of the town. Further, the
erection of two large railway stations in a central district naturally
tended to increase the number of visitors to the growing Midland
capital, and this, of course, brought into existence a better class of
shops and more extended trading. Then the suburbs of Birmingham,
which for some years had been stretching out north, south, east, and
west, have lately become to a considerable extent gathered into the
arms of the city, and the residents in some of the outskirts, at least, may
now pride themselves, if so inclined, upon being a part of the so-called
"best governed city in the world," sharing its honours, importance, and
debts, and contributing to its not altogether inconsiderable rates.
I do not purpose in these pages to go into the ancient history of
Birmingham. Other pens have told us how one Leland, in the sixteenth
century, visited the place, and what he said about the "toyshop of the
world." Also how he saw