Dr Chris Upton
16 Sept 2013
Europe’s first ring road was Vienna’s Ringstrasse which was constructed in 1857 when the city’s old walls were demolished. In 1911 the City Surveyor, H.E.Stilgo, proposed an outer ring road around Birmingham to lessen the number of vehicles in the centre. By 1926 the No 11 bus serviced this circuit, taking two hours to cover the 25 miles with a ticket costing 15d. Some roads along the route, eg Lordswood Road in Harborne were widened, but the plan was not carried through. The number of car licences in Birmingham grew from 6,000 in 1921 to 70,000 in 1936.
Various measures were taken to deal with the continuing growth of traffic. The first traffic island appeared at Six Ways, Erdington in 1926. Traffic lights at Pershore
Road/Priory Road date from 1929. The first one way system was introduced along Colmore Row in 1933. [The Triennial Music Festival in the late 19th century had led to carriages going anti-clockwise around St Philip’s Church awaiting the concerts’ conclusion]. The driving test was introduced nationally in 1937 (although it was suspended 1939-45). In 1950 there were over 97,000 cars licensed in Birmingham; by 1972 this had grown to 253,000. Pedestrians also needed to be educated: many posters and leaflets were produced and children were taught to ‘look right, look left’, etc.
Plans for an inner ring road were published in 1943. A dual carriageway 110ft wide was envisaged – even along Colmore Row – at a cost of £15m (including £12m for buying property). Herbert Manzoni, Chief Engineer & Surveyor from 1935, was the driving force in planning the regeneration of the city after WWII: ‘handsome and sweeping’ buildings and roads would replace ‘the shabby’. Unlike Joseph Chamberlain’s plans in the 1870s, including the new Corporation Street, there was no opposition to the proposals. An Act of Parliament was passed to authorise the Inner Ring Road which involved the demolition of over 1,000 properties (including 320 factories and 400 commercial premises, many of which relocated away from Birmingham). The House of Lords insisted that land be paid for at 1939 prices, which greatly added to the overall cost. It would have been cheaper to build a middle ring road further away from the centre. The planners visited USA (not Europe, which was normal) in 1956 to gather ideas. They devised a master plan involving Inner, Middle and Outer Ring Roads, but the last was never built. The No 6 bus went around the middle ring road.
The first section of the inner ring – Smallbrook Queensway (‘Birmingham’s Regent Street’ according to James Roberts, its architect) – opened in 1960. The whole of the circular was completed in 1971 after 14 years at a cost of £33m – double the original estimate. It was opened by the Queen who, by mistake, named the whole 8 miles ‘The Queensway’ rather than simply the Smallbrook section as had originally been intended. By the early 1980s the road was considered to be a ‘concrete collar’ around the centre restricting development. Most of its pedestrian subways were therefore replaced by walkways over the traffic.