Soho is an area split between the

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

and

Sandwell Sandwell is a metropolitan borough of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county in England. The borough is named after the Sandwell Priory, and spans a densely populated part of the West Midlands conurbation. Sandwell Metropolitan Borough ...

metropolitan boroughs of the West Midlands in England. The area is located on the

A41 road The A41 is a trunk road between London and Birkenhead, England. Now in parts replaced by motorways, it passes through or near Watford, Kings Langley, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Bicester, Solihull, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, New ...

. The name is an abbreviation of South House, denoting that it was located to the south of Handsworth. The section of the A41 separating Handsworth from

Winson Green Winson Green is a loosely defined inner-city area in the west of the city of Birmingham, England. It is part of the ward of Soho. It is the location of HM Prison Birmingham (known locally as Winson Green Prison or "the Green") and of City H ...

is known as Soho Road. Soho expanded dramatically during the 19th century with the construction of numerous houses and factories, and immigration from the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

was centred on these homes during the 1950s and 1960s. Most of the immigrants who settled in Soho were of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n origin. Further housebuilding took place by the local council during the 1960s and 1970s. Soho falls partly in the Soho ward of the City of Birmingham and partly in the Soho and Victoria ward of the Borough of

Soho ward, Birmingham

Until 1911 the part now within Birmingham formed part of Handsworth District, and is now a ward within the council constituency of Ladywood.

Demography

The 2001 Population Census found that 25,634 people were living in Soho with a population density of 5,369 people per km² compared with 3,649 people per km² for Birmingham. Soho covers an area of 4.8 km². The ward is a very ethnically diverse area with ethnic minorities making up 76.2% (19,522) of the ward's population, compared with 29.6% in Birmingham.

Ethnicity Population

*White British – 20.48% *White Irish – 2.20% *White Other – 1.17% *Mixed: White and Black Caribbean – 2.80% *Mixed: White and Black African – 0.22% *Mixed: White and Asian – 0.81% *Mixed: Other – 0.95% *Indian – 26.77% *Pakistani – 13.99% *Bangladeshi – 3.88% *Other Asian – 2.31% *Afro-Caribbean – 18.13% *African – 1.44% *Other Black – 2.42% *Chinese – 0.69%

Politics

Soho Ward is represented by three Labour councillors on Birmingham City Council; Sybil Spence, Chaman Lal and Dorothy Hargreaves. Soho Ward has adopted a Ward Support Officer with the current holder of the title being Tariq M. Khan. In 2014, James Turner Street, in the Winson Green area of the ward featured in the TV series ''

Benefits Street ''Benefits Street'' is a British documentary series broadcast on Channel 4. It followed the lives of Welfare state in the United Kingdom, benefit claimants and showed them committing crimes, including a demonstration of how to shoplift, and port ...

''.

Places of interest

Industrialist

Matthew Boulton Matthew Boulton ( ; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English businessman, inventor, mechanical engineer, and silversmith. He was a business partner of the Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the par ...

opened his "

Soho Manufactory The Soho Manufactory () was an early factory which pioneered mass production on the assembly line principle, in Soho, Birmingham, England, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. It operated from 1766–1848 and was demolished in 1853. B ...

" (an early

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

) there in 1761. Boulton himself resided at Soho House, now a community

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

of the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery run by Birmingham City Council. The parish church is dedicated to

St John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (; ; – 14 September 407) was an important Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and ...

. The area is served by Handsworth Library. Winson Green Prison and City Hospital are located within the

area of the ward. Soho is home to a Train Care Depot and the Soho Foundry, which was

and

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was f ...

’s famous factory. Most of the rest of the area is industrial with some housing. Soho-Pool-Handsworth

Transport

Soho had stations on the London & North Western Railway built Stour Valley Line between Smethwick Rolfe Street and the closed Winson Green railway station, and on the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

between Handsworth & Smethwick and Hockley (replaced by Jewellery Quarter). It is currently served by the West Midlands Metro on the former GWR line with a stop at Soho Benson Road.

References

External links

Birmingham City Council Soho WardSandwell Trends, Soho and Victoria Ward
{{Authority control Areas of Birmingham, West Midlands Former wards of Birmingham, West Midlands Smethwick Conservation areas in England