Post by John Chanin on Apr 22, 2020 15:41:16 GMT
Edgbaston has a reputation of being the least deprived and most middle-class of constituencies in Birmingham proper. This is not entirely undeserved, but there is rather more to the seat than that. Certainly Harborne and Edgbaston are very middle-class with high levels of managerial jobs and educational qualifications . Along with neighbouring Moseley these areas on the top of the range of low hills south of the city centre have even higher proportions of managerial workers than Sutton Coldfield. But there is quite a lot of social housing here, and lots of private renting, in Edgbaston particularly by students. Quinton is much more mixed, and Bartley Green on the far side of the Woodgate Country Park is a different world entirely. Noticeably this part of the city has a very low Muslim population with those of Indian descent more than double those of Pakistani descent.
Edgbaston forms the east end of the seat, running from the city centre at Five Ways down to the Bourn Brook. The south is entirely taken up with the enormous campus of Birmingham University, including its art gallery (the Barber Institute), a geology museum, and the mansion of Winterbourne House with its botanic garden. The campus includes some student housing, but most of the students live outside the seat in Bournbrook, or north of the main Hagley Road. Edgbaston also includes the main Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and the famous cricket ground on the banks of the river Rea, which traditionally formed the eastern boundary (although a segment by the river has been hived off into Hall Green). It has many fine large Victorian houses, as well as up market flats on the Calthorpe estate, favoured by professionals working in the city centre. Birmingham’s 2 blocks of mansion flats are in the ward, and there are a number of private schools. Rather counter-intuitively it also includes Birmingham’s red light district along the Hagley Road. There are also a number of ex-council blocks of flats close to the city centre, now run by a co-operative. Despite tiny majorities the Conservatives still consistently win the ward locally. North of the Hagley Road there is much multi-occupation, and on the border with Smethwick there is Bearwood - an area with a large Sikh population.
To the west of Edgbaston and south of Bearwood is Harborne. This is traditionally the most Conservative ward in Birmingham proper, the home of managers, business people, and professionals. It is also full of fine Victorian housing, particularly in the Beech Lanes area which sits opposite Warley Woods, with a smart high street which serves this part of Birmingham. Harborne is a favoured destination for Sikh families made good, and this section of the population is rising. However with private renting also rising, Harborne has turned has turned increasingly Labour in local elections, and they won both seats here in 2022. This is the sort of middle class territory that used to be safely Conservative but is now the subject of close contest between Labour and Conservative as alignments change. Middle class people that choose to live in the inner city suburbs, although well off, and able to buy expensive houses, are increasingly Labour inclined, and those that aren’t tend to choose to live in suburbs on the edge of the city and commuter villages outside. Further west is Quinton, stretching out to the M5, which is a more ordinary slice of Birmingham, mostly inter-war, with higher owner-occupation, a smaller asian population, and a more traditional form of political marginality. There is a significant amount of council housing, mostly quite pleasant, but also the recently improved Welsh House Farm estate, which appalled the consultants brought in to recommend a future for Birmingham’s council housing after the rejection of stock transfer.
Bartley Green is one of Birmingham’s council estate wards, still over a third social housing despite decades of right to buy, with less than half the managerial workers of Harborne. It has been one of the safest Conservative wards in Birmingham, demonstrating how politics have changed over the last 20 years, but also reflecting hard campaigning over a long period by the Lines family. Appropriately under the Conservative-Liberal coalition that ran the council between 2004 and 2012, John Lines was Chair of Housing. His retirement in 2022 led to a sharp swing to Labour, returning the ward to marginality, and demonstrating that there has always been a sizeable Labour vote here at general elections. There is also recent private housing here in Woodgate, jammed up against the M5, and the ward has more in common with Northfield, socially and geographically, which it formed part of prior to 1997, when it was added to the undersized Edgbaston seat. Like the Northfield wards it is over 80% white. To the south is Bartley reservoir, and open country between here and Frankley.
Overall despite Bartley Green this is a predominantly middle-class seat which has been swinging Labour forever. It was never Labour prior to 1997, and as recently as 1983 the Conservatives polled more than twice the votes of Labour. Even in 1966 they won comfortably. Bartley Green may have helped Labour nationally in 1997, despite its local vote for Conservatives, and German born Gisela Stuart won the seat for Labour. She continued to hold on at all subsequent elections, the Conservative hopes being ever dashed, but as perhaps the most prominent anti-EU campaigner on the Labour benches decided to stand down in 2017 before she was pushed. The new MP is former social worker Preet Gill, a Sikh, recently appointed as shadow spokesperson for International Development. The seat now looks unlikely to return to the Conservatives.
The boundary review will see changes. The seat is slightly undersized and loses a few more voters to the south as a result of new ward boundaries. The Boundary Commission has therefore added the whole of the North Edgbaston ward, north of the Hagley Road. The ward name is rather misleading, as although the Edgbaston reservoir sits in the middle of it, the Rotton Park and Winson Green areas added are part of the inner city, and very solidly working class and Labour voting. To be fair half of this new ward was already in the Edgbaston seat (Birmingham’s part of Bearwood, and the area between Hagley Road and the reservoir). These additions will further strengthen the Labour position here.
Census data: owner-occupied 53% (503/573 in England & Wales), private rented 20% (113th), social rented 25% (82nd).
:White 69%, Black 8%, Sth Asian 11%, Mixed 5%, Other 7%
: Managerial & professional 43% (106th), Routine & Semi-routine 27% (349th)
: Degree 32% (116th), Minimal qualifications 32% (402nd)
: Students 14% (37th), Over 65: 14% (455th)
Edgbaston forms the east end of the seat, running from the city centre at Five Ways down to the Bourn Brook. The south is entirely taken up with the enormous campus of Birmingham University, including its art gallery (the Barber Institute), a geology museum, and the mansion of Winterbourne House with its botanic garden. The campus includes some student housing, but most of the students live outside the seat in Bournbrook, or north of the main Hagley Road. Edgbaston also includes the main Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and the famous cricket ground on the banks of the river Rea, which traditionally formed the eastern boundary (although a segment by the river has been hived off into Hall Green). It has many fine large Victorian houses, as well as up market flats on the Calthorpe estate, favoured by professionals working in the city centre. Birmingham’s 2 blocks of mansion flats are in the ward, and there are a number of private schools. Rather counter-intuitively it also includes Birmingham’s red light district along the Hagley Road. There are also a number of ex-council blocks of flats close to the city centre, now run by a co-operative. Despite tiny majorities the Conservatives still consistently win the ward locally. North of the Hagley Road there is much multi-occupation, and on the border with Smethwick there is Bearwood - an area with a large Sikh population.
To the west of Edgbaston and south of Bearwood is Harborne. This is traditionally the most Conservative ward in Birmingham proper, the home of managers, business people, and professionals. It is also full of fine Victorian housing, particularly in the Beech Lanes area which sits opposite Warley Woods, with a smart high street which serves this part of Birmingham. Harborne is a favoured destination for Sikh families made good, and this section of the population is rising. However with private renting also rising, Harborne has turned has turned increasingly Labour in local elections, and they won both seats here in 2022. This is the sort of middle class territory that used to be safely Conservative but is now the subject of close contest between Labour and Conservative as alignments change. Middle class people that choose to live in the inner city suburbs, although well off, and able to buy expensive houses, are increasingly Labour inclined, and those that aren’t tend to choose to live in suburbs on the edge of the city and commuter villages outside. Further west is Quinton, stretching out to the M5, which is a more ordinary slice of Birmingham, mostly inter-war, with higher owner-occupation, a smaller asian population, and a more traditional form of political marginality. There is a significant amount of council housing, mostly quite pleasant, but also the recently improved Welsh House Farm estate, which appalled the consultants brought in to recommend a future for Birmingham’s council housing after the rejection of stock transfer.
Bartley Green is one of Birmingham’s council estate wards, still over a third social housing despite decades of right to buy, with less than half the managerial workers of Harborne. It has been one of the safest Conservative wards in Birmingham, demonstrating how politics have changed over the last 20 years, but also reflecting hard campaigning over a long period by the Lines family. Appropriately under the Conservative-Liberal coalition that ran the council between 2004 and 2012, John Lines was Chair of Housing. His retirement in 2022 led to a sharp swing to Labour, returning the ward to marginality, and demonstrating that there has always been a sizeable Labour vote here at general elections. There is also recent private housing here in Woodgate, jammed up against the M5, and the ward has more in common with Northfield, socially and geographically, which it formed part of prior to 1997, when it was added to the undersized Edgbaston seat. Like the Northfield wards it is over 80% white. To the south is Bartley reservoir, and open country between here and Frankley.
Overall despite Bartley Green this is a predominantly middle-class seat which has been swinging Labour forever. It was never Labour prior to 1997, and as recently as 1983 the Conservatives polled more than twice the votes of Labour. Even in 1966 they won comfortably. Bartley Green may have helped Labour nationally in 1997, despite its local vote for Conservatives, and German born Gisela Stuart won the seat for Labour. She continued to hold on at all subsequent elections, the Conservative hopes being ever dashed, but as perhaps the most prominent anti-EU campaigner on the Labour benches decided to stand down in 2017 before she was pushed. The new MP is former social worker Preet Gill, a Sikh, recently appointed as shadow spokesperson for International Development. The seat now looks unlikely to return to the Conservatives.
The boundary review will see changes. The seat is slightly undersized and loses a few more voters to the south as a result of new ward boundaries. The Boundary Commission has therefore added the whole of the North Edgbaston ward, north of the Hagley Road. The ward name is rather misleading, as although the Edgbaston reservoir sits in the middle of it, the Rotton Park and Winson Green areas added are part of the inner city, and very solidly working class and Labour voting. To be fair half of this new ward was already in the Edgbaston seat (Birmingham’s part of Bearwood, and the area between Hagley Road and the reservoir). These additions will further strengthen the Labour position here.
Census data: owner-occupied 53% (503/573 in England & Wales), private rented 20% (113th), social rented 25% (82nd).
:White 69%, Black 8%, Sth Asian 11%, Mixed 5%, Other 7%
: Managerial & professional 43% (106th), Routine & Semi-routine 27% (349th)
: Degree 32% (116th), Minimal qualifications 32% (402nd)
: Students 14% (37th), Over 65: 14% (455th)
2010 | % | 2015 | % | 2017 | % | 2019 | % | |
Labour | 16,894 | 40.6% | 18,518 | 44.8% | 24,124 | 55.3% | 21,217 | 50.1% |
Conservative | 15,620 | 37.6% | 15,812 | 38.3% | 17,207 | 39.5% | 15,603 | 36.9% |
Liberal Democrat | 6,387 | 15.4% | 1,184 | 2.9% | 1,564 | 3.6% | 3,349 | 7.9% |
UKIP/Brexit | 732 | 1.8% | 4,154 | 10.1% | 1,047 | 2.5% | ||
Green | 469 | 1.1% | 1,371 | 3.3% | 562 | 1.3% | 1,112 | 2.6% |
| BNP | 1,196 | 2.9% | ||||||
Others | 273 | 0.7% | 254 | 0.6% | 155 | 0.4% | ||
Majority | 1,274 | 3.1% | 2,706 | 6.6% | 6,917 | 15.9% | 5,614 | 13.3% |
Yes, it is a viola, and it's actually Lionel Tertis, who lived to a great age (98, I think) and continued performing for most of it. I think the viola was his favourite Montagnana instrument, which was one of the larger instruments, though he himself was not a big man. A remarkable life - he was born in West Hartlepool, the son of a rabbi, though they left the town soon after, and there is little in his autobiography to suggest that he was in any way devout, or possibly very observant at all. But a great musician who inspired many composers to write for him and enriched the repertoire of the viola, which is indeed my own instrument.
