Highgate, Birmingham
Highgate, Birmingham
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1596068

Highgate, Birmingham

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1596068

Highgate, Birmingham

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Highgate, Birmingham

Highgate is an area of Birmingham, England. Following the Big City Plan of February 2008, Highgate has become a district of Birmingham City Centre. The area is regarded as the site of the original Anglo-Saxon settlement which gave the city of Birmingham its name.

Birmingham Central Mosque is one of Highgate's most distinctive buildings. The area mainly consists of commercial premises and modern council-owned residential properties. Older buildings include Stratford House, the Church of St Alban the Martyr and large Victorian houses opposite Highgate Park.

Highgate is also home to the Birmingham Sports Centre and Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College. Birmingham Sports Centre is to be demolished and a new Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College is being constructed at Haden Circus.

Local amenities include an array of small shops, around Gooch Street.

Nearby areas include Lee Bank, Balsall Heath, Edgbaston and Sparkbrook.

Most of the area that came to be known as Highgate was built after 1850 and by 1900 had a population of about 15,000. The local community is now very mixed due to successive waves of immigration, primarily from the Commonwealth.

The area had a large Bangladeshi population prior to its redevelopment in the 1970s. Many were from the rural area of Sylhet and had arrived in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They settled in the area because its property, being of a very poor standard, was cheap. However, in 1971, a survey for the Race Relations Institute found that few of them wanted to move. One account of the time says:

Because of the overcrowding, my uncle and Abdul Jabbar bought the next door house. Soon the situation returned with a population of twenty or so in the two houses. Admittedly our houses were not always up to standard. We were all men, all working in heavy industry and all working overtime. When we came home we were already tired but had to do our cooking and cleaning. It was still "Home, Sweet Home" to us.

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