Outer Circle Bus Service

Description:Local Bus Services in South-West Birmingham

Published by Birmingham Corporation Tramways and Omnibus Department (BCT) in 1930, this booklet promotes the Outer Circle bus service almost as a tourist facility, offering a twenty-five mile circular tour of what was then Birmingham's fringe. Places to visit are listed, including parks and historic sites. This contrasts with the image of the Inner Circle, for many years known as the 'Workmen's Special' and seen as simply serving older residential and industrial areas.<small>¹</small>

From 7 April 1926, the Outer Circle (officially route number 11) incorporated earlier services, such as the number 10 which had been introduced in January 1923. The latter connected Kings Heath, Stirchley, Cotteridge, Bournville, Selly Oak, Harborne and Bearwood and it reduced the need for the circular train service via the <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1843">West Suburban Railway</a> and Lifford Curve, which finally ended during World War Two.

Skirting the Edwardian fringe-belt of south-west Birmingham,<small>²</small> the number 10 (later 11) in many ways epitomised the idyll depicted by the BCT booklet's cover. Vicarage Road, Kings Heath and Lordswood Road, Harborne, offered views of leafy suburbs, whilst Bournville Village Green provided a glimpse of 'Merrie Englande'. Its twentieth-century rest house was modelled on Dunster's sixteenth-century yarn market and was complemented by the genuine articles: the medieval Minworth Greaves and <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1924">Selly Manor</a>, both having been rescued from demolition and re-erected near Bournville Green.<small>³</small> However, the bulk of passengers would use the service for more prosaic purposes: to reach shops, entertainment venues and places of employment. In this regard, the routing via the factories of Stirchley, Bournville and Selly Oak was significant, permitting access to various shopping centres, pubs and cinemas.

The circular routes (from 1932 including the City Circle, serving central slums and workshops) augmented radial tram and bus services that were themselves being extended along arterial roads to serve new municipal and private housing developments (see <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1837">'The Bristol Road Tramway'</a>). The range of travel opportunities was further enhanced as inter-suburban bus routes filled gaps in the primary 'spoke and wheel' pattern. From October 1935 the number 27 provided more direct links between Kings Heath, Stirchley, Bournville and Hay Green than 'The Eleven'. It catered particularly for residents in those parts of Bournville that were being developed beyond Linden Road and, crucially, it offered more convenient access for many people to Stirchley's shopping area (see <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1926">'Ten Acres and Stirchley Co-operative Society'</a>).

All municipal transport facilities were expected to produce a financial surplus and the BCT booklet was as much an advertising device as a source of information. BCT's emphasis on financial responsibility ensured that only new services with a robust financial case were introduced, which worked against the interests of many residents and the express aims of other council departments (see <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1938">'Birmingham City Transport'</a>).<small>⁴</small>

<small>Note: Route numbers used in this discussion are:
No.8 Inner Circle (1928 to date)
No.10 Kings Heath to Bearwoord (1923 - 1926)
No.11 Outer Circle (1926 to date)
No.19 City Circle (1932 to 1970s)
No.27 Kings Heath to Hay Green (1935 to date, with extensions at various times)</small>


<font color="#666633"><small>¹ Details of these services are given in D. Harvey, M. Hanson and P. Drake, The Inner Circle, Birmingham's No.8 Bus Route, (2002), D. Harvey, M. Hanson and P. Drake, Outer Circle, Birmingham's No.11 Bus Route, (2003), M. Keeley, M. Russell and P. Grary, Birmingham City Transport, a History of its Buses and Trolleybuses (1977)
² For a discussion of the significance of the urban fringe-belt, see J.W.R. Whitehand and N.J. Morton, 'The Fringe-belt Phenomenon and Socio-economic Change', Urban Studies vol.43/11 (October 2006)
³ Minworth Greaves is a fourteenth - fifteenth century building with twentieth century additions, which was transferred to Bournville in 1929-1932. Selly Manor is fifteenth - sixteenth century and was re-erected in Bournville between 1912 and 1916. See A. Foster, Pevsner's Architectural Guide to Birmingham (2005) pp.258-261
⁴ Michael Hunkin has demonstrated that effective suburban transport provision was not readily achieved e.g. Weoley Castle residents were not immediately provided with transport links upon being re-housed from inner slums by the City Council. See essay “Manors from Heaven”: the municipal housing boom and the challenge of community building on a new estate, 1929-1939, http://www.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/spaces/housing-essay.htm<;/small></font>