Description:The appointment of the Improvement Committee in July 1875 marked the earliest initiative by the City Council to tackle Birmingham’s slums. The originator of the scheme was the mayor, Joseph Chamberlain, a key exponent of the ‘Civic Gospel’ movement which sought to revitalise municipal life through ambitious programmes of public works. Using powers granted by the Public Health Act, 1872, and various housing legislation passed in 1875, these street improvement works were intended to provide as ‘channels of ventilation […] and without them we cannot preserve a healthy and vigorous life.’<small><sup>1</sup></small> Later housing reformers similarly argued green spaces in suburbs were the ‘lungs’ of the city.
This extract highlights the complex process of purchase, inspection and demolition of slum clearance works, and its effects on Birmingham’s poor. On 1 July 1879 Councillor William Cook inspected slum housing on John Street, depicting a wretched and downtrodden population. He described the inhabitants of number 13 as ‘hawkers of [ch]ips’, with two receiving parish relief. The courts at the rear were even worse, whilst at number 14 the tenants were described as so poor, they would never be able to meet their rent arrears: ‘As the Tenants refuse to leave until we find them houses elsewhere it will be necessary to obtain an Order from the Magistrates for their ejectment.’ Cook even scrawled the following addendum in the margin emphasising the finality of the committee’s decision: ‘I entirely concur in this recommendation. Should be closed at once.’ Between 1875 and 1882 alone, some 500 properties acquired were condemned and knocked down. Street improvements drove up land prices, and therefore the cost of working-class houses newly built, with only around 100 artisan’s dwellings erected to replace them.<small><sup>2</sup></small>
Critics accused Chamberlain and other ‘Improvement schemers’ of using working-class housing legislation solely to create his new ‘Parisian Boulevard’.<small><sup>3</sup></small> Illustrative and written evidence generally emphasised the wretched condition of the inhabitants of <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1419"> slums</a>, but the scheme would also have impacted on what censuses and trade directories show were densely-populated and probably tight-knit communities. By comparing maps of John Street drawn before and after redevelopment, we see the physical impact of clearance works on the urban landscape. Committee reports described the injurious effects evictions and the new Corporation Street were having on these small businesses.<small><sup>4</sup></small> Those affected migrated to other slum districts in Birmingham, pushing the problem of overcrowding elsewhere, whilst others moved to new <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1466"> terraces</a> built in Birmingham’s inner suburbs.
<font color="#666633"><small><sup>1</sup> J.T. Bunce, History of the Corporation of Birmingham vol. II 1851-1884 (Birmingham: Cornish Brothers, 1885), p.485
<sup>2</sup> Reports of the progress of the Birmingham Improvement Committee referenced in the Proceedings of Birmingham City Council, 9 November 1882 - 10 October 1893 [BA&H: L34.3]
<sup>3</sup> 'Concerning the Birmingham Improvement Scheme', Town Crier (November 1889), pp.5-6
<sup>4</sup> BCC Improvement Committee minutes, 13 December 1882 [BA&H: BCC 1/AX/1/1/5]</small></font>