Tag: Slums of the Black Country
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“Slums” of the Black Country
We’ve come to the end of this series on some of the distinct areas of the Black Country that found themselves with a special stigma in the nineteenth century. Based on the Birmingham Daily Post‘s 1866 series on the sanitary condition I’ve had a look around some of the broader issues of housing,…
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“Slums” of the Black Country: Anvil Yard, Cradley Heath
Not far from the Lye Waste lies the ancient manor of Cradley. At the first talk I gave at Wolverhampton Art Gallery in the summer, somebody mentioned to me that I ought to check out Anvil Yard. It turns out, the history of this little yard has already been comprehensively written on the…
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“Slums” of the Black Country: Town End Bank, Walsall
Class distinction, democracy and proper drains. John Betjeman, In Westminster Abbey The protagonist of Betjeman’s satirical poem unwittingly summarised the approach of mid-Victorian society to many issues. As we’ve seen, poor drainage is one of the emblematic signifiers of a unsanitary area, and was the consistent complaint of the Post‘s correspondent. It almost goes without saying…
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“Slums” of the Black Country: Darlaston
I’ve ummed and aahed a bit about what to write about the Post‘s report on Darlaston. It’s really the same old story: surface drainage, evils, abomination, bubbling and seething, stagnant, over-flowing, the cholera, back courts, and so on; there’s not a lot to add compared to previous outrages at Oldbury or Bilston. Despite…
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“Slums” of the Black Country: a tour of Willenhall
It comes as no surprise that our loquacious correspondent was a fan of the eminent art critic, writer and proto-environmentalist John Ruskin, whose prose was classically Victorian (read, excessively wordy). In his Birmingham Daily Post article of 11th June 1866, we are introduced to Willenhall via quotes from Ruskin’s newly-released The Crown Of Wild…