![Farmers Bridge Lock 9](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Farmers_Bridge_Lock_9.jpg)
Newhall Street is a
street
A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, ...
located in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
Newhall Street stretches from
Colmore Row
Colmore Row is a street in Birmingham City Centre in the centre of Birmingham, England, running from Victoria Square to just beyond Snow Hill station. It is traditionally the city's most prestigious business address.
Colmore Row and its envir ...
in the city centre by
St Phillip's Cathedral in a north-westerly direction towards the
Jewellery Quarter
The Jewellery Quarter is an area of central Birmingham, UK, in the north-western area of Birmingham City Centre, with a population of around 19,000 people in a area.
The Jewellery Quarter is Europe's largest concentration of businesses invol ...
. Originally the road was the driveway to New Hall occupied by the Colmore family. New Hall was demolished in 1787 after being vacated by the Colmores and used as a warehouse by
Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engin ...
. Newhall Street was so named in 1766, after opening as a public street in 1746 called Newport Street and then New Hall Walk.
[''A History of the Birmingham Telephone Area'', Tupling, R. E., 1978] The streets on the estate were named after the children of the family.
A number of telephone exchanges have existed on the street: the 1896 Bell Edison Telephone building, Telephone House (still an exchange), the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
Anchor Exchange
Anchor Exchange was an underground, hardened telephone exchange built in Birmingham, England. Construction commenced in 1953 under the guise of building an underground railway. It opened in September 1957 at a cost of £4 million. It was loc ...
underneath it, and Brindley House (now renovated into an apartment block).
Notable buildings
Newhall Street lies in the ''Jewellery Quarter'' and ''Colmore Row and Environs''
Conservation Areas and has many
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
s.
*
17 & 19 Newhall Street, Birmingham popularly known as the Bell Edison Telephone Building. This building is on the corner of Newhall Street and
Edmund Street
__notoc__
Edmund Street is a street located in Birmingham, England.
Edmund Street is one of a series of roads on the old Colmore Estate which originally stretched from Temple Row in the city centre, around St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham, St ...
*The old
Birmingham Assay Office
The Birmingham Assay Office, one of the four assay offices in the United Kingdom, is located in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. The development of a silver industry in 18th century Birmingham was hampered by t ...
(1877-2015)
*Part of
University College Birmingham
University College Birmingham is a university in Birmingham, England. It was awarded full university status in 2012 along with Newman University. It is not a member of Universities UK. The university was awarded 'University of the Year' in the 2 ...
*The old
Science Museum
A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...
, formerly the
Elkington Silver Electroplating Works
The Elkington Silver Electroplating Works was a building on Newhall Street in Birmingham, England. It later housed the Birmingham science museum Museum of Science and Industry until the creation of Thinktank.
Standing opposite the Birmingham ...
, where
blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...
s commemorate George Elkington and also
Alexander Parkes
Alexander Parkes (29 December 1813 29 June 1890) was a metallurgist and inventor from Birmingham, England. He created Parkesine, the first man-made plastic.
Biography
The son of a manufacturer of brass locks, Parkes was apprenticed to Messenge ...
, inventor of the first plastic
*
The Queens Arms, a public house
* Numbers 17 & 19, 27 & 29, 43-51, 44,46 & 48, 50 & 52, 54, 56, 58 & 60, 61, 144, 199, 204 & 206, the Assay Office, and the Queens Arms Public House are listed buildings.
*Lock number 9 of the Farmer's Bridge flight of the
Birmingham and Fazeley Canal
The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal is a canal of the Birmingham Canal Navigations in the West Midlands of England. Its purpose was to provide a link between the Coventry Canal and Birmingham and thereby connect Birmingham to London via the Oxford ...
stands under Newhall Street, with a lock gate on either side of the bridge.
Gallery
Image:Bell Edison Telephone Building.jpg, Bell Edison Telephone Building
Image:Birmingham Assay Office - Newhall Street - Birmingham - 2005-10-13.jpg, Birmingham Assay Office
Image:Old Science Museum, Birmingham.jpg, Decommissioned Museum of Science and Industry
Image:The Queens Arms pub - Charlotte Street - Birmingham - 2005-10-14.jpg, The Queens Arms pub
Sources
*Ordnance Survey 1st Edition Map, 1890
Birmingham City Council - Conservation Areas (Colmore Row and Environs, Jewellery Quarter)
References
{{Streets in Birmingham
Streets in Birmingham, West Midlands