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Back-to-back: A snapshot of Irish history in Birmingham
By Brendan Farrell
FOR the many Irish who emigrated to Britain in the 1950s and 60s the Hurst
Street area of Birmingham evokes happy memories.
The Shamrock Club sited behind Birmingham Hippodrome featured the cream
of Irish showbands and Irish entertainers for almost three decades.
The Shamrock Club is no more but there is another area of Hurst Street
which has an Irish connection — dating back to 1840.
Situated on the corner of Hurst Street and Inge Street are a series of
wonderfully preserved Birmingham back-to-back houses now in the care of
the National Trust which give visitors a chance to experience four periods
of history and to see how families lived and worked in them during the
1840s, 1870s, 1930s and 1970s.
The back-to-back houses are the last surviving examples of their kind
in Birmingham — a striking reminder of the thousands of similar
homes built in Britain to try to ease the huge housing shortage in cities.
In and around Hurst Street and Inge Street there are records of many Irish
who lived in those houses.
The 1891 census lists Irish widow Elizabeth Tedecker and her sons Michael
and Edward and her daughter Nellie.
Elizabeth had moved from Ireland first to Croydon and then to London
before settling in Birmingham.
Michael and Edward went on to work in the brass fitting and metal stamping
trade. Nellie is listed as being a scholar born in Paris.
Many areas nearby acquired Irish names such as one group of back-to-backs
being referred to as Little Roscommon.
In the 1861 census more than 11,000 Irish were listed as living and working
in Birmingham.
But by the early to mid-1970s almost all the back-to-back houses in Birmingham
were demolished and the occupants rehoused.
Nobody knows for sure how the now-National Trust properties known as Court
15 were spared but they make-up a fascinating snapshot of days gone by.
It is a time capsule of life in a different era.
Take the example of George who came from St. Kitts in the West Indies
to make a new life among Irish emigrants in Birmingham.
He established a tailor’s shop at 61-63 Hurst Street which became
an Aladdin’s Cave of suits, trousers and jackets.
During the 1970s his great friend was Anne Murphy from Ballina in Co.
Mayo — whose daughter Patricia is now a key member of the Birmingham
Irish Community Forum.
George Saunders was the last person to work in Court 15 before its closure
in 2002.
But by then the little group of houses and shops had been declared listed
buildings.
The Birmingham Conservation Trust then stepped in to use their expertise
to preserve the houses and turn the back-to-backs into a unique museum.
It’s a museum that today takes visitors back to a fascinating age
— and a time when the Irish were helping to forge and shape the
city of Birmingham
Further Information from The National Trust, 50-54 Inge Street/55-63
Hurst Street Birmingham B5 4TE.
Booking line 0121 666 7671.
E-mail: backtobacks@nationaltrust.org.uk |
