Misplaced Pages

Hurst Street

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Jenova20 (talk | contribs) at 10:04, 25 April 2012 (Centred around, not just on). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 10:04, 25 April 2012 by Jenova20 (talk | contribs) (Centred around, not just on)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Hurst Street
Birmingham Back to Backs on Hurst Street
LocationBirmingham, England
Postal codeB5
Coordinates52°28′26.76″N 1°53′48.12″W / 52.4741000°N 1.8967000°W / 52.4741000; -1.8967000

Hurst Street is the main street of the Birmingham Gay Village and is located along the edge of the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England.

The Birmingham Back to Backs, a complex of four restored houses, extends from Hurst Street to Inge Street. They are the last surviving example of this nineteenth-century construction type in the city. Restored by the Birmingham Conservation Trust, since July 2004, they are now a museum operated by the National Trust.

A number of architectural details survive in the buildings on Hurst Street, as old as lintels of 1790s design and including an automobile showroom and a large Fisher & Ludlow automobile factory from the 1930s.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Hurst Street was the center of Birmingham's Jewish community, with most Jewish immigrants to Birmingham living in slums around Hurst Street. The Hebrew National School was replaced by a new building on Hurst Street in 1843. Courses for 85 boys included Hebrew and Hebrew literature in addition to the customary school curriculum. The school relocated and the building was demolished in 1856.

The Unitarian Association for the Midland Counties (later the Birmingham Unitarian Domestic Mission Society) built a chapel known as the Hurst Street Domestic Mission on Hurst Street in 1884. It had schoolrooms beneath the chapel, and additional schoolrooms behind the chapel were added later. Its large central room became known as the People's Hall, where free lectures were held. The school's efforts to educate the city's poorest children were praised by the Inspector of Schools in the 1850s.

Hurst Street is the location of the Birmingham Hippodrome, a theatre specialising in ballet, opera, and musicals, which serves as the home of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Immigrants from Hong Kong moved into the area around Hurst Street in the decades following World War II, and by the 1980's the area was recognized as the city's Chinese Quarter. The area is also known as the Gay Village and the annual celebration of Birmingham Pride is centred around Hurst Street.

In May 2009, the Birmingham City Council approved a £530,000 environmental improvement scheme to enhance Hurst Street and its surroundings, including the extension of street trees to the full length of Hurst Street, widening pavements to create space for café bars to provide outdoor seating, and brighter street lighting with decorative lanterns.

See also

References

  1. ^ >BBC: David Parker, "Chinese People in Birmingham: A Brief History by Dr. David Parker," January 2003, accessed March 19, 2012
  2. National Trust: Birmingham Back to Backs, accessed March 17, 2012
  3. BBC: "Back to Backs - Hurst Street/Inge Street," September 2004, accessed March 17, 2012
  4. Andy Foster, Birmingham (Yale University Press/Pevsner Architectural Guides, 2005), 29, 201, 203, 205
  5. Birmingham Post & Mail: Malcolm Dick, "A Haven from Persecution," 2000, accessed March 17, 2012
  6. Jewish Year Book, 5668-9 (London: Greenberg & Co., 1907), 150, available online, accessed March 17, 2012
  7. Jeremy Reginald Buckley Taylor, The Architectural Medal: England in the Nineteenth Century (British Museum Publications, 1978), 117
  8. Joseph Priestley, An Illustrated Handbook of the Presbyterian, Unitarian, and Other Liberal Christians Churches in the Midlands (Birmingham, 1904), 21, available online, accessed March 17, 2012
  9. John Angell James, Protestant Nonconformity: A Sketch of its General History... (London, 1849), 90, available online, accessed March 17, 2012
  10. The Monthly Religious Magazine, vol. 4 (2nd series vol. 2) (Boston: Leonard C. Bowles, 1847), 95-6, available online, accessed March 17, 2012
  11. Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education, 1856-57 (London, 1857), 546, available online, accessed March 17, 2012
  12. BBC: "Walk through Time," October 2004, accessed March 19, 2012

Further reading

  • The Atlas and Guide of Birmingham (Collins Bartholomew Ltd, 1924), republished as A Guide to Birmingham 1924 (Mapseeker Archive Publishing, 2011)
Stub icon

This West Midlands location article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Stub icon

This England road or road transport-related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: