Birmingham… “Decent housing for decent people” 13 Nov 2017 The Icknield Port Loop of the Birmingham Canal Navigations is one of those swathes of dereliction, just outside of Birmingham city centre, that shouldn't really exist anymore. It's a long,…
Black Country… “Slums” of the Black Country 21 Dec 201528 May 2018 We've come to the end of this series on some of the distinct areas of the Black Country that found themselves with a special stigma in the nineteenth century. Based on the Birmingham…
Black Country… “Slums” of the Black Country: Anvil Yard, Cradley Heath 14 Dec 20157 Apr 2017 Not far from the Lye Waste lies the ancient manor of Cradley. At the first talk I gave at Wolverhampton Art Gallery in the summer, somebody mentioned to me that I ought…
Black Country… “Slums” of the Black Country: Waste Bank, Lye 7 Dec 201521 Dec 2015 The South Staffordshire coalfield defines the Black Country for many purposes, but as a culturally-defined region, its borders are highly porous. Wolverhampton is in or out, depending on who you ask;…
Black Country… “Slums” of the Black Country: Town End Bank, Walsall 30 Nov 20157 Apr 2017 Class distinction, democracy and proper drains. John Betjeman, In Westminster Abbey The protagonist of Betjeman's satirical poem unwittingly summarised the approach of mid-Victorian society to many issues. As we've seen, poor…
Black Country… “Slums” of the Black Country: Gold’s Hill, West Bromwich 23 Nov 201521 Dec 2015 The Black Country is constructed not just upon topography but upon geology. Mines can only be built where there's something to mine; other sorts of works require proximity to those materials; infrastructure is…
Black Country… “Slums” of the Black Country: Darlaston 16 Nov 201521 Dec 2015 I've ummed and aahed a bit about what to write about the Post's report on Darlaston. It's really the same old story: surface drainage, evils, abomination, bubbling and seething, stagnant, over-flowing, the…
Black Country… “Slums” of the Black Country: Oatmeal Square, Wednesbury 9 Nov 201521 Dec 2015 Our Birmingham Daily Post correspondent is concerned with the sanitary condition of the Black Country. Filth, smells, pigs, crowded courts - all acted as signals for diseases like cholera, typhoid,…
Black Country… “Slums” of the Black Country: Eel Street, Oldbury 2 Nov 201521 Dec 2015 The Post's next community is one I'm loathe to try and explain in detail. Oldbury was infamous as one of the most polluted towns in the country - so much so that…
Black Country… “Slums” of the Black Country: a tour of Willenhall 26 Oct 201521 Dec 2015 It comes as no surprise that our loquacious correspondent was a fan of the eminent art critic, writer and proto-environmentalist John Ruskin, whose prose was classically Victorian (read, excessively wordy). In his Birmingham…
