Description:BIRMINGHAM in the Year 1819, surveyor unknown, appears in A Description of Modern Birmingham by Charles Pye, published in 1820. It appears to be a simplified version of Kempson’s 1818 Town of Birmingham, with the same alignment, showing only the streets and principal buildings. The Panorama (New Street), Meeting House (Steelhouse Lane), National School (Pinfold Street) and Gun Barrel Proof House are shown. The Brittania brewery is now a nail factory, the moat is now Smithfield The lower part of Cherry street is now Union Street and Miss Colmores canal arm now turns to run parallel with George Street. As in Kempson’s first three town maps Sheep Street is not shown.
BIRMINGHAM in the Year 1819 surveyor unknown MAP/174792
This map first appears in A Description of Modern Birmingham published by Charles Pye in 1820, the first guide book of the town. It appears to derive from the 3rd issue of John Kempson’s Town of Birmingham printed in Wrightson’s Triennial Directory of Birminghamin 1818 but has been simplified. Although there is no shading for housing infill many of the housing limits have been transferred. Like the first three issue’s of Kempson’s town plan it omits Sheep Street.
On the same scale as Kempson’s town plans it has 58o west of north at the top and covers a slightly larger area [3.24km wide by 3.8 km high] centred in roughly the same place [between the north-east corner of St Philip’s and Colmore Row] but having no border the concept of area covered and centre are less distinct.
Miss Colmores [later Whitmore’s] canal arm is shown following the same route from the Birmingham Fazeley canal as shown on Kempson’s parish plan but then turning through a right angle and extending parallel with George Street and crossing under New Hall Hill. The street pattern between George Street and Graham Street is altered from Kempson’s but still appears to be conjectural. New Hall Hill (the extension of Frederick Street) is in the correct position but another unidentified street is shown crossing Gibsons canal arm to George Street.
The three buildings first shown on issue 4 of Kempson’s town plan: the Union Brewery, the Gas Works and the New Union Mill, are present but Mill Street is not shown. The Manor moat and buildings are replaced with the new market, Smithfield.
Cherry Street has been renamed Union Street [only the lower end below Crooked Lane should have changed to Union Street whilst the top end up to Temple Row remained Cherry Street). The Charity School by St Philip’s Church is now called the Blue Coat School.
The Panorama in New Street is shown for the first time, built to house canvases that were painted in the round and carefully arranged and illuminated to give a total immersive experience. It’s date of construction is still to be determined but by 1822 it appears to have been incorporated into the home of the Birmingham Society of Artists, later to become the R.B.S.A.
Many of the public buildings first shown on Birmingham in the Year 1819 were built many years before that date: the Lancastrian School in Gough Street [1807]; the Synagogue in Severn Street [1809]; the National School in Pinfold Street [1812]; the Gun Barrel Proof House in Banbury Street [1813] and the conversion of the Britannia Brewery to a Nail Manufactory [1813], shows how much out of date Kempson’s town plans had become. No new streets are shown. The only truly new building shown is the Methodist Meeting on Steelhouse Lane which opened in 1818. The Unitarian Meeting on Paradise Street which appears to have closed after 1813 is no longer labelled.
Catalogue of British Town Maps –23317