Corporation Street is a main shopping street in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 city centre, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.
It runs from the law courts at its northern end to the centre of New Street

New Street, Birmingham

New Street is a street in central Birmingham, England . It is one of the city's principal thoroughfares and shopping streets. Named after it is Birmingham New Street Station, although that does not have an entrance on New Street except through the Pallasades Shopping Centre.-History:New Street is...

 at its southern.

Planning

The creation of Corporation Street was enabled by the Artisan's and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875

Artisan's and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875

The Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom designed by Richard Cross, Home Secretary during Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli's second Conservative Government, which involved allowing local councils to buy up areas of slum dwelling...

, demolishing an area of slum

Slum

A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...

s - the first use of the Act in England. The concept of a "Parisian boulevard" was vigorously promoted by Joseph Chamberlain

Joseph Chamberlain

Joseph Chamberlain was an influential British politician and statesman. Unlike most major politicians of the time, he was a self-made businessman and had not attended Oxford or Cambridge University....

 when he was mayor. It would have led straight to New Street Station

Birmingham New Street Station

Birmingham New Street is the main railway station serving Birmingham, England, located in the city centre. It is an important hub for the British railway system, being served by a number of important long-distance and cross-country lines, including the Birmingham loop of the West Coast Main Line,...

 at the time. The upper part of the street incorporated Lower Litchfield Street. The street was the centrepiece of a grander scheme which also had a street cut to Colmore Row

Colmore Row

Colmore Row is a street in the centre of Birmingham, England, running from Victoria Square to just beyond Snow Hill station. It is traditionally the city's most prestigious business address....

 and another street to Dale End (then Martineau Street). However, the costs of such a project resulted in the abandonment of the plan for the street to Colmore Row and the street to Dale End was delayed until 1886.

Construction commences

The scheme covered 93 acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

s, the Corporation buying the freehold of some 45 acres (182,108.7 m²), at a cost of £1,300,000. Six hundred buildings were purchased and demolished for the work. The work was largely given to Martin & Chamberlain

Martin & Chamberlain

John Henry Chamberlain, William Martin, and Frederick Martin were architects in Victorian Birmingham, England. Their names are attributed singly or pairs to many red brick and terracotta buildings, particularly 41 of the forty-odd Birmingham board schools made necessary by the Elementary Education...

, and demolition began in August 1878, but after architect John Henry Chamberlain

John Henry Chamberlain

John Henry Chamberlain , generally known professionally as J H Chamberlain, was a nineteenth century English architect....

's death the contract for the Law Courts went to London architect Aston Webb

Aston Webb

Sir Aston Webb, RA, FRIBA was an English architect, active in the late 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century...

. Sites were let to builders on a 75 year lease which expired in the 1960s, a time of much architectural destruction in Birmingham, so many buildings have been lost. The bombing during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 also caused much destruction at the New Street railway station end of the road.

The first lease of land in January 1878 was a for a women's hospital in the Priory which would later include the Grand Theatre, Cobden's Hotel and the Winter Gardens.

Buildings on Corporation Street

It has several important Victorian listed buildings on it including the red brick and terracotta

Architectural terracotta

Terracotta, in its unglazed form, became fashionable as an architectural ceramic construction material in England in the 1860s, and in the United States in the 1870s. It was generally used to supplement brick and tiles of similar colour in late Victorian buildings.It had been used before this in...

 Victoria Law Courts

Victoria Law Courts, Birmingham

The Victoria Law Courts on Corporation Street, Birmingham 4, England is a Grade I listed, red brick and terracotta building that now houses Birmingham Magistrates' Court.-History:...

, Methodist Central Hall

Methodist Central Hall, Birmingham

The Methodist Central Hall, 196-224 Corporation Street, Birmingham, England, is a three storey red brick and terracotta Grade II* listed building with a distinctive tower at the northern end of Corporation Street, opposite the Victoria Law Courts...

, and the seven buildings nearest New Street. The County Court, at the junction with Newton Street, is Grade II listed. Built in 1882 to a design by James Williamson

James Williamson

James Robert Williamson is an American guitarist, songwriter, record producer and electronics engineer who is best known for his contribution to the protopunk rock band Iggy & The Stooges.-Early years:...

, the building is a late example of an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 palazzo

Palazzo

Palazzo, an Italian word meaning a large building , may refer to:-Buildings:*Palazzo, an Italian type of building**Palazzo style architecture, imitative of Italian palazzi...

.

The New Theatre, opened in November 1883, was located next to Old Central Hall (renamed to King's Hall) in Old Square. Both buildings witnessed numerous conversions and the New Theatre was renamed the Grand. The Grand was renamed "The Grand Casino Ballroom" before its demolition in 1960 for the construction of The Priory Queensway.

In the northern half of Corporation Street is Old Square which features a memorial to Tony Hancock

Tony Hancock

Anthony John "Tony" Hancock was an English actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in...

. The square, which was once a junction of the Birmingham tram network

Birmingham Corporation Tramways

Birmingham Corporation Tramways operated a network of tramways in Birmingham from 1904 until 1953. It was the largest narrow-gauge tramway network in the UK, built to a gauge of 3 ft 6 inches...

 became a major road junction and today is a major section of the Birmingham bus network.

The Minories Building, formerly Lewis's

Lewis's

Lewis's was a large department store in Liverpool city centre. It was formerly the flagship of a chain of department stores under the Lewis's name, that operated from 1856 to 1991, when the company went into administration. Several stores in the chain were bought by the company Owen Owen and...

 Department Store, was built above a road way, which still exists, also called The Minories. The road separated the buildings with Berlin House located to the east of it and was incorporated into the Corporation Street development as it was part of the slums. The Minories is now home to numerous small shops and the ground floor fronting Corporation Street is owned by The Square Peg, a popular bar.

Future developments on Corporation Street include Martineau Galleries

Martineau Galleries

Martineau Galleries is an important proposed mixed-use development for Birmingham, England as it will connect the Eastside to the city centre core and is also located on the High Street, a major retail area.- Pre-1960s development :...

 to replace Priory Square opposite The Minories. Priory Square is a two storey shopping precinct of concrete

Concrete

Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

 Brutalist architecture. It was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd

Frederick Gibberd

Sir Frederick Ernest Gibberd was an English architect and landscape designer.Gibberd was born in Coventry, the eldest of the five children of a local tailor, and was educated at the city's King Henry VIII School...

 and was opened in 1966 as Corporation Square. The Martineau Galleries scheme will see the relocation of the Oasis Market which is accessed from an entrance on the street.

Access to Corporation Street is now limited to buses and taxis; it acts as a terminus for many of the city's bus services.

C&A

C&A

C&A is an international chain of fashion retail clothing stores, with its European head offices in Vilvoorde , Belgium and Düsseldorf, Germany...

 and Beatties

Beatties

Beatties is a British department store group with 7 stores located primarily in the Midlands of England. In 2005 James Beattie was acquired by House of Fraser, then having 12 stores. On , the Birmingham store closed, due to the uneconomical aspects of having two similar House of Fraser owned stores...

 former store in Birmingham, is now a shopping centre with three stores; New Look, Mothercare

Mothercare

Mothercare plc is a British retailer which specialises in products for expectant mothers and in general merchandise for children up to 8 years old. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...

 and JJB Sports

JJB Sports

JJB Sports plc is a United Kingdom sports retailer. It currently operates 251 stores in the UK and Ireland.- History :The sportshop chain was founded in 1971, when ex-footballer Dave Whelan acquired a single sports shop in Wigan. The original store was established by JJ Broughton in the early...

. The former department store site has undergone a £5 million facelift. The Beatties

Beatties

Beatties is a British department store group with 7 stores located primarily in the Midlands of England. In 2005 James Beattie was acquired by House of Fraser, then having 12 stores. On , the Birmingham store closed, due to the uneconomical aspects of having two similar House of Fraser owned stores...

 store opened in Birmingham in 2001 but never managed to make a profit so closed down in 2006.

Fictional References

The address 126B Corporation Street, is referred to in the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk

The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk

"The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the fourth of the twelve collected in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in most British editions of the canon, and third of eleven in most American ones...

as the temporary headquarters of the Franco-Midland Hardware Company.

Sources

• A History of Birmingham, Chris Upton, 1997, ISBN 0-85033-870-0
• Pevsner Architectural Guides - Birmingham, Andy Foster, 2005, ISBN 0-300-10731-5
• Birmingham (City Building Series), Douglas Hickman, 1970, Studio Vista Limited
• A Guide to the Buildings of Birmingham, Peter Leather, ISBN 0-7524-2475-0
• The Victorian Society Birmingham Group - Three Trails, Trail 3, (Retail, Legal and Hospital Section)