Nechells in the 19th Century

Nechells Ward covers much of the centre of the City of Birmingham.
A highly diverse physical structure that is part industrial and part residential has always been a characteristic of Nechells ever since it was incorporated into the City in 1838.

In that year it was taken out of the large Warwickshire parish of Aston (as was the adjoining area of Duddeston) when Birmingham became a borough and formed part of a new district.

By 1841, the population in Duddeston and Nechells had increased to over 20,000 and continued to grow over the next sixty years as people were attracted to the area by higher wages that could be earned in the new industries. These included larger ones like brass foundries and smaller ones such as making screws, tools, nails, buttons, jewellery and many other items – all helping to make Birmingham the ‘city of a thousand trades.’

Huge numbers of people coming to work in Nechells needed accommodation. They were provided with cheap houses hurriedly built, close to their places of work. Few of the densely terraced, back-to-back houses had bathrooms, indoor lavatories, lighting or running water. Being hurriedly erected, these dwellings soon began to fall into disrepair so that by 1901, many of the 65,572 people living in Nechells and Duddeston suffered from some of the worst slum dwellings in the city.