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.   

Future possibilites

The growth of the city has since slowed, particularly since the process of de-industrialisation began. Converting Birmingham’s manufacturing-dominated economy of the past into a diverse, high-skilled modern one is not an easy feat, and again transport infrastructure must play a key role. Limited recent investment in transport within the city means most people now commute by car and public transport use is dominated by buses, which are often unreliable. Tom Forth, a leading analyst in industrial strategy and transport, has described how this reduces the effective size of the city, limiting the positive impact of agglomeration and harming Birmingham’s productivity.

But a new generation of transport improvements are seeking to change that. The city centre will soon benefit from HS2 and better connections to London, but also from growth in the tram network and better connections within the city. Funding has been allocated to a new tram line to serve the east of the city, and there are further plans for increased suburban tram and rail services. 

The Industrial Revolution in Birmingham relied on the bright ideas of inventors and entrepreneurs, and the easy movement of people and goods via the canals and trains allowed them to maximise the benefits of those ideas. The future growth of Birmingham will be no different. Improved connections to London and within Birmingham will make the city a more attractive location for people and firms to locate, to benefit from the agglomeration effect. 

But to maximise the productivity gains from this investment, the city must deliver high-quality homes and high-quality commercial space alongside the transport in which those people and firms can thrive.

The future placemaking possibilities around Birmingham and the West Midlands’ historic and future transport lines will be explored further in a forthcoming cross sector report by Savills Research.

Further information

Contact Dan Hill or Emily Williams