The Birmingham Street Commissioners were created in Birmingham, England by the Birmingham Improvement Act 1769. Subsequent Improvement Acts of 1773, 1801, and 1812 gave increased powers to the Street Commissioners. In 1812, they became responsible for the repair and drainage of roads.
The Street Commissioners (elsewhere also called Improvement Commissioners or Pavement Commissioners) were given the power to ensure clean streets and to provide lighting by oil lamps. Roads could also be widened by the demolition of buildings and removal of cellar entrances.
Read more about Birmingham Street Commissioners: Members, Markets, Policing, Building Works, Demise
Famous quotes containing the word street:
“If you would learn to write, ‘t is in the street you must learn it. Both for the vehicle and for the aims of fine arts you must frequent the public square. The people, and not the college, is the writer’s home.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)