Birmingham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

City of Birmingham
Birmingham Skyline viewed from the south
Coat of Arms of the City Council
Nickname: "Brum", "Brummagem", "Second City", "Workshop of the World", "City of a Thousand Trades"
Motto: Forward
Birmingham shown within England and the West Midlands
Coordinates: 52°28′59″N 1°53′37″W / 52.48306, -1.89361
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	West Midlands
Ceremonial county	West Midlands
Admin HQ	Birmingham City Centre
Founded	6th century
Municipal borough	1838
City	1889
Government
- Type	Metropolitan borough
- Governing body	Birmingham City Council
- Lord Mayor	Randal Brew
- Council Leader	Mike Whitby (C)
- Council Control	Conservative / Liberal Democrat
- MPs	Richard Burden (L) Liam Byrne (L) John Hemming (LD) Dr Lynne Jones (L) Khalid Mahmood (L) Steve McCabe (L) Andrew Mitchell (C) Clare Short (IL) Siôn Simon (L) Gisela Stuart (L)
Area
- Total	103.4 sq mi (267.77 km²)
Elevation	459 ft (140 m)
Population (2005 est.)
- Total	1,006,500 (Ranked 1st)
- Density	9,684/sq mi (3,739/km²)
- Conurbation	2,284,093
- Ethnicity (2001 Census)	70.4% White 2.9% Mixed 19.5% S.Asian 6.1% Black 0.5% Chinese 0.6% Other
Time zone	Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0)
- Summer (DST)	British Summer Time (UTC+1)
Postcode	B
Area code(s)	0121
ISO 3166-2	GB-BIR
ONS code	00CN
OS grid reference	SP066868
NUTS 3	UKG31
Website: www.birmingham.gov.uk

Birmingham (pron. IPA: /ˈbɜːmɪŋəm/ Burr-ming-am) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. Birmingham is the largest of England's core cities, and is often considered to be the second city of the United Kingdom.^[1] The City of Birmingham has a population of 1,006,500 (2006 estimate).^[2] It forms part of the larger West Midlands conurbation, which has a population of 2,284,093 (2001 census)^[3] and includes several neighbouring towns and cities, such as Solihull, Wolverhampton and the towns of the Black Country.

The city's reputation was forged as a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, a fact which led to Birmingham being known as "the workshop of the world" or the "city of a thousand trades".^[4] Although Birmingham's industrial importance has declined, it has developed into a national commercial centre, being named as the third best place in the United Kingdom to locate a business, and the 21st best in Europe by Cushman & Wakefield in 2007.^[5] It is also the fourth most visited city by foreign visitors in the UK.^[6] In 1998, Birmingham hosted the G8 summit at the International Convention Centre and remains a popular location for conventions.^[7]

People from Birmingham are known as 'Brummies', a term derived from the city's nickname of Brum. This comes in turn from the city's dialect name, Brummagem,^[8] which is derived from one of the city's earlier names, 'Bromwicham'. There is a distinctive Brummie dialect (distinct vocabulary and syntax) and accent (way of speaking), both of which differ from the adjacent Black Country.

History

Main articles: History of Birmingham and Timeline of Birmingham history

William Westley's 1731 map of Birmingham. The top of the map is orientated westwards.

The BCN Main Line canal of the Birmingham Canal Navigations between the International Convention Centre (left) and Brindleyplace (right) in central Birmingham, (which has more canals than in Venice).

The Victorian New Street Station

Birmingham started life in the 6th century as an Anglo-Saxon farming hamlet on the banks of the River Rea.^[9] The name 'Birmingham' comes from "Beorma ingas ham", meaning "home of the people of Beorma."^[10] Birmingham was first recorded in written documents by the Domesday Book of 1086 as a small village, worth only 20 shillings.^[10]

In the 12th century, Birmingham was granted a royal charter to hold a market,^[9] which in time became known as the Bull Ring, transforming Birmingham from a village to a market town. As early as the 16th century, Birmingham's access to supplies of iron ore and coal meant that metalworking industries became established.^[11] By the English Civil War in the 17th century Birmingham had become an important manufacturing town with a reputation for producing small arms. Arms manufacture in Birmingham became a staple trade and was concentrated in the area known as the Gun Quarter.^[12] During the Industrial Revolution (from the mid-18th century onwards), Birmingham grew rapidly into a major industrial centre and the town prospered. During the 18th century, Birmingham was home to the Lunar Society, an important gathering of local thinkers and industrialists.^[13]

By the 1820s an extensive canal system had been constructed, giving greater access to natural resources to fuel to industries. Railways arrived in Birmingham in 1837 with the arrival of the Grand Junction Railway, and a year later, the London and Birmingham Railway. During the Victorian era, the population of Birmingham grew rapidly to well over half a million^[14] and Birmingham became the second largest population centre in England. Birmingham was granted city status in 1889 by Queen Victoria.^[15] The city established its own university in 1900.^[16]

Birmingham was originally part of Warwickshire, but expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, absorbing parts of Worcestershire to the south and Staffordshire to the north and west. The city absorbed Sutton Coldfield in 1974, and at the same time became a metropolitan borough in the new West Midlands county. Up until 1986, the West Midlands County Council was based in Birmingham city centre.

Birmingham suffered heavy bomb damage during World War II's "Birmingham Blitz", and the city centre was extensively redeveloped during the 1950s and 1960s.^[17] This included the construction of large tower block estates, such as Castle Vale, the reconstruction of the Bull Ring and the redevelopment of New Street station. In recent years, Birmingham has been transformed, with the construction of new squares, the restoration of old streets, buildings and canals, the removal of the pedestrian subways, and the redevelopment of the Bull Ring shopping centre.^[18]

In the decades following World War II, the population of Birmingham changed dramatically, with immigration from the Commonwealth of Nations and beyond.^[19] The population peaked in 1951 at 1,113,000 residents.^[14]

Geography

Birmingham is situated just to the west of the geographical centre of England on the Birmingham Plateau - an area of relatively high ground, ranging around 150-300 metres above sea level and crossed by Britain's main north-south watershed between the basins of the Rivers Severn and Trent. To the south and west of the city lie the Lickey Hills,^[20] Clent Hills and Walton Hill, which reach 315 metres (1,033 ft) producing extensive views over the city.

Geologically, Birmingham is dominated by the Birmingham Fault which runs diagonally through the city from the Lickey Hills in the south west, passing through Edgbaston, the Bull Ring and Erdington, to Sutton Coldfield in the north east. To the south and east of the fault the ground is largely softer Keuper Marl, interspersed with beds of Bunter pebbles and crossed by the valleys of the Rivers Tame, Rea and Cole along with their tributaries.^[21] To the north and west of the fault, varying from 45-180 metres (150-600 ft) higher than the surrounding area and underlying much of the city centre, lies a long ridge of harder Keuper Sandstone.^[22][23]

Much of the area now occupied by the city was originally a northern reach of the ancient Forest of Arden, whose former presence can still be felt in the city's dense oak tree-cover and in the large number of districts such as Moseley, Saltley and Hockley with names ending in "-ley": an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "woodland clearing".^[24]

Climate

The climate in Birmingham is a temperate marine climate, like much of the British Isles, with average maximum temperatures in summer (July) being around 20°C (68°F); and in winter (January) is around 4.5°C (40°F). The weather is hardly extreme, however, there have been a few tornadoes in the area - the most recent being in July 2005 in the south of the city, damaging homes and businesses in the area.^[25]

Occasional summer heatwaves, such as the one experienced in July 2006 have become more common in recent years, and winters have become milder since the 1990s with snow becoming much less frequent. Similar to most other large cities, Birmingham has a considerable 'urban heat island' effect.^[26] During the coldest night recorded in Birmingham (14 January, 1982), for example, the temperature fell to -20.8°C (-5.4°F) at Birmingham International airport on the city's eastern edge, but just -12.9°C (8.8°F) at Edgbaston, near the city centre.^[27] Relative to other large UK conurbations, Birmingham is a snowy city, due to its inland location and comparatively high elevation.^[27] Snow showers often pass through the city via the Cheshire gap on North Westerly airstreams, but can also come off the North sea from North Easterly airstreams.^[27]