The Centre of Birmingham

'The Bull Ring' is the name now applied to the ancient green of the 'Borough' of Birmingham. But this, though old enough to be acceptable, is still a misnomer. The 'ring' was a hoop of iron to which bulls were tied for baiting before slaughter, set in the cobbles of Corn Cheaping above the parish church. It is shown in an early C19th sketch of the green by Sam. Lines. A similar ring survives at Much Wenlock.

Originally the green was an isosceles triangle of about 1½acres pointing west up the slope of the Rea valley side. Villeins' cottages bordered it, backed by long narrow crofts. A small sandstone church was built at the base of the triangle, above the manor house. St. Martin's was rebuilt, enlarged, encased in brick, and rebuilt again: the great besooted church of today is little more than a century old, though built in antique style. Sermons used to be preached from the outside pulpit which faces the open market: earlier this century the area above the churchyard was much used by haranguers spiritual and political, who were often unheard amid the noise of trams, 'buses, barkers and buskers. Effigies of members of the de Birmingham family, who did well for themselves and the town by obtaining market and fair charters, may be seen within the church. Even with periodic clearance of bones, the graveyard became over-full especially in the plague years: loads of earth were dumped upon the surface, so that the level rose steadily. 'The dead are raised up' Hutton quipped: by late Georgian times access to the brick-clad church was by steps down, and the retaining wall in Edgbaston Street had become a 25-foot cliff.

The once-clear green, where a market may have been held before the Conquest, but was first licensed in 1166, became cluttered with buildings, half-timbered, stone, and later brick. Cottage rows at the churchyard edges were called the Roundabout Houses: similar ones may be seen at Alcester. A line of butchers' shops, the Shambles, was stepped up the green beside the highway from the river: after baiting the bulls were slaughtered there. Grain was bought and sold in Corn Cheaping, its site now partly covered by the city-bound carriageway of Digbeth, which was the only clear space. There stood the parish pump. It was replaced in 1807 by 'the Egyptian Conduit', a pyramidal object of derision called 'Pratchett's Folly' after its donor the then Bailiff. In Mercer Street luxury goods, silks, sugar, spices (hence the later name, Spiceal Street) were sold.

Near the crest of the slope stood the Old, High, or Butter Cross-Old to distinguish it from the later Welch Cross, High because it stood in High Street, and Butter because farmwives sat beneath its arches with baskets of dairy produce for sale. A first floor was added to this square building in 1703 for public business: the Debtors' Court was held there until the Cross was demolished in 1784. The town's pillory stood beside it.

At the entrance to New Street stood the Tollbooth. Wheeled traffic had to go through an arch beneath the building, where market tolls were paid and leather from Reaside tanneries was inspected. Prisoners were incarcerated in the cellar. New Street had not been new since the C14th. Upon it stood the timbered hall of the Gild of the Holy Cross with almshouses beside: at Stratford are a range of buildings of like function and probably of appearance, save that Birmingham's hall boasted a bell and clock tower. The Gild's property about the town was seized by Henry VIII, but his son returned some plots whose income (which has risen astronomically) was thenceforward devoted to the King Edward VI School held in the Gild Hall. After two rebuildings the school moved to Edgbaston in 1936: King Edward House stands on its site.

For centuries sheep and cattle were sold from pens in upper High Street. English Market was at the south end, and Welch Market (Welch for the drovers from the Marches who passed through Birmingham) towards Dale End. Welch Cross, 1723, stood at the foot of Bull Street, complete with guard room above and whipping post outside. The Bull Inn gave its name to Bull Street, as the Castle Inn to Castle Street. Entrances to these and other side-streets were narrow if not through archways, because they had originally been access paths to yards and outbuildings.

Through traffic up and down High Street suffered great delay: encroachments on both sides, stalls, piles of produce and refuse, unloading and loading, always prevented easy passage. Market and fair days were only worse than usual. All roads led to Birmingham and its two stone bridges across Rea. From 1769 the Streets Commissioners and several Improvement Acts gradually removed all the obstructions, widened and cleaned the streets. By 1806 bull-baiting had been outlawed, both Crosses, Roundabout Houses, the Shambles, and other buildings on the green and at the junctions had been removed. Cattle sales were moved to Dale End, horses to New Street, fruit and flowers to Worcester Street, and all other market traders to the cleared Bull Ring. Thenceforward Birmingham's rioters always had a large open space in which to gather and begin their orgies of destruction.

Public Offices were opened in Moor Street in 1807, with a prison in the basement, The Nelson Monument was unveiled two years later. Smithfield Market opened on the cleared Moat House site in 1815. Edge's fine Doric Market Hall was successful from its opening in 1835. Apart from some rebuilding on old sites, the Bull Ring changed little until World War Two, when the Hall was burnt out and buildings on the east side were destroyed. Moor Street Station yard had replaced the Public Offices before World War One.

From the widening of Digbeth in 1955 the Bull Ring was transformed until only the church, too fragile to be cleaned, remained. A multi-storey carpark on the north and the Shopping Centre on the south side, Spiceal Street a walkway, the Inner Ring Road sweeping over the open market, the Rotunda looming over all on the site of the Tollbooth-all were products of the Golden Age now past, the booming Sixties. Manzoni Gardens have replaced the shell of the Market Hall. Buildings on High Street still look surprised by the exposure of their rear elevations in the making of Moor Street Queensway. Everywhere stained concrete has been substituted for grimy brick. But still the open market stalls flourish as they have done for a thousand years, and the dimensions of the ancient green are unchanged.