Edgbaston, one of the oldest areas of Birmingham. It used to be called Celboldestone according to the Domesday book and was originally a gift from William the Conqueuror to a William Fitz-Ansculf.
For centuries Edgbaston was a rural manor owned by the powerful Gough-Calthorpe family. While Birmingham to the east was becoming a crowded, smoky manufacturing town, the Calthorpes deliberately kept Edgbaston as an estate of fields, parkland and large houses. They controlled what could be built and where, preventing heavy industry and dense working-class housing from spreading into the area. This careful management laid the foundations for Edgbaston’s reputation as a more refined and spacious part of the city.
With it’s close proximity to the city centre you could be forgiven for thinking that Edgbaston is a typical urban area with high rise blocks of flats and busy shops. In actual fact, though it does have an urban feel as you near Broad Street, the Edgbaston area is one of the most expensive and desirable locations in Birmingham, reflected in it’s
property prices with some of it’s houses in the leafy glades of it’s side roads
fetching 1-2 million pounds.
Surprisingly enough it does have its run down areas and its close proximity to the city centre has encouraged prostitution along the busy Hagley Road area. Street crime around Edgbaston Five Ways has also historically been a problem although CCTV which has now been installed may go some way towards solving the problem.
Edgbaston also became a centre of education, medicine and culture. The University of Birmingham was established here in 1900, moving to its iconic red-brick campus with the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, known as “Old Joe”. This brought students, academics and international visitors to the area and firmly established Edgbaston as a place of learning and innovation. Alongside this, some of Birmingham’s most important hospitals, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, were built in Edgbaston, making it the city’s main medical district.
Edgbaston is internationally known in sporting circles for the Warwickshire County Cricket club and it retains close ties to it’s historic educational heritage through links with The University of Birmingham. Many of the private schools are still to be found in
this area of the city.
The Edgbaston Reservoir is a prominent landmark on the map of Birmingham and the Botanical Gardens a favourite tourist destination. More recently Edgbaston benefits from the renewal of nearby Broad Street and the Canals and is due to have it’s own brand new shopping complex.
For more photographs of Edgbaston click here
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