The first wave
In the late 1600s, Birmingham was a minor market town, smaller than the likes of Worcester, Shrewsbury and Rochester. By 1800, it was established as one of the largest settlements in the country and a key global centre of the Industrial Revolution, with engineers and scientists such as Matthew Boulton and James Watt (the fathers of the steam engine), delivering the technological advances that allowed industry in Birmingham to flourish.
This economic and demographic expansion was only made possible by the creation of new transport links. Birmingham is rare in being a major city without a large navigable river running through it. The development of the canals in the late 1700s provided the link the city needed, allowing coal to enter the city cheaply from the mines of the Black Country and manufactured goods to be transported to markets across the country.
The original termini for the Birmingham Canal were at Great Charles Street and Paradise Street – now in the heart of the city centre but, at the time, on the edge of the settlement. The first canal link famously halved the price of coal overnight, creating the conditions for an expanding industrial base. The transformation of Digbeth from a hub for metalworking into a heavily industrialised area of factories, warehouses and markets was enabled by the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, which provided a link to the Grand Union Canal leading to the capital, while routes beyond Wolverhampton led to the important trading hub of Liverpool.
This improved connectivity led to a rapidly diversifying economy, and the burgeoning manufacturing industry drew in an ever growing population. The development of the railways in the 1800s made the movement of people, as well as goods, all the easier. The city of Birmingham grew enormously, from c.74,000 in 1801 to 840,000 at the 1911 Census. But growth wasn’t just concentrated in the centre – areas such as Dudley and Walsall acted as satellites, providing the raw materials for Birmingham’s workshops, and saw their populations more than triple over the 19th century.