| In 1830 Public Offices were opened in Baker Street just off the
turnpike. Four years later the Poor Law Union for West Bromwich and
Handsworth was set up and the Workhouse was built in Hallam Street,
West Bromwich. In 1869 a Local Board of Health was set up, still under
the control of the West Bromwich Guardians and this acquired extra
powers later. The ghastly Board Offices, including a lecture hall
and library, were built on Soho Road in 1877, and other buildings
thereabouts combined to make an undistinguished civic centre. In l894
Handsworth became an Urban District. In 1876 gas had joined water
as a service acquired from Birmingham, but in '78 and '79 Handsworth
began its own fire brigade and refuse disposal services. In '76 it
joined with Aston, and in '83 with Smethwick, in the laying of sewers
along Hockley Brook. The U.D.C. started a technical school (1920?),
and built an electricity generating station on the site of Soho Pool
in l905. Victoria (Handsworth) Park had been acquired by the Local
Board in 1888. When the District became part of Greater Birmingham
in 1911 it had a population of 85,000. |
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