3. Handsworth 1945 - 1970

Description:Text: Malcolm Dick

In the first decades after 1945 Birmingham’s geography contained several “zones of transition”. The central commercial core was surrounded by an inner-city ring which the City Council was demolishing and rebuilding. Housing efforts were concentrated on the perceived needs of the largely white working-class inhabitants who were rehoused in council houses and tower blocks in areas such as Ladywood, Lee Bank and Nechells.

Outside this inner core was a middle ring of which Handsworth was a part. Meanwhile Birmingham’s population was declining. Between 1960 and 1966 it fell by 50,000, but the local Black and South Asian population grew by the same amount. Handsworth was changing. In the late 19th and early 20th century Handsworth had become a prosperous middle and upper-working class suburb. Between the 1950s and 1970s its population declined as many inhabitants moved to the outer suburbs or nearby towns, including Hall Green, Sutton Coldfield, Halesowen and Solihull. 19th century houses were seen as too large and inconvenient. These homes lacked garages and were expensive to heat and maintain. Difficult to sell, many of them became multi-occupational rented dwellings and the natural homes of migrants to the city who came without capital and were prevented from securing council accommodation.

By the late 1960s, 20-25% of Handsworth’s population was made up of Black or South Asian households. Increasingly Handsworth became home to people of West Indian and Punjabi origin, whereas other parts of Birmingham’s middle-ring such as Balsall Heath, Small Heath and Sparkhill displayed different demographic characteristics with large minorities of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

See Sources and Further Reading:

Murphy, Tale for Two Cities…