| Description | There are separate indexes volumes for some of the minutes (see BCC/1/AX/1/2). The minutes are handwritten and signed by the committee Chairman. The committee minutes chart the purchase of single properties to larger schemes, covering wide areas of both domestic and commercial property, most notably the redevelopment of Corporation Street. It is possible to chart the redevelopment of specific sectors of Birmingham using the indexes (street names), charting the progress of the officials who visited the areas, the recommendations they made and the works carried out on each area over time.
For visual evidence of the state of the central areas at this time, the former Local Studies collection of Improvement Scheme Photographs are a useful resource (Ref: LS 2); for visual evidence of the areas during and after redevelopment the card indexes of deposited building plans 1875 - 1899 (ref: BBP) and the records of the Warwickshire Photographic Survey (ref: MS 2724) ought to be of interest.
The minutes include printed versions of parliamentary legislation as it related to the Birmingham Improvement Scheme, financial information and accounts, schedules of works, leases, property and rentals, and progress reports (including the observations of municipal officials as to the state of the area around what would become Corporation Street). There is also statistical information relating to houses built and demolished under the provisions of the act, and reports into the condition and use of the fledgling developments of Corporation housing stock. The minutes relating to the surveys of John Street undertaken during January 1879 by Councillor William Cook contain interesting details on the condition of many of the back to back houses and courts in central Birmingham during the late nineteenth century. They also shed light on the processes the Corporation took to buy up insanitary or dilapidated properties identified during these inspections, the subsequent inspection or demolition of these houses, and the impact these activities may have had on tenants, property owners and the local economy.
There are also tables of costs incurred as a result of the continuation of Corporation Street past Newton Street (see meeting of 26 January 1881, minute 1947), the transfer of licenses of pubs and food stores in the Improvement Area to be transferred (see minutes 2011 - 2012), and a printed report commenting on the development of Corporation Street Minute 2026 (3 April 1881). |