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:
“The sturdy Irish arms that do the work are of more worth than oak or maple. Methinks I could look with equanimity upon a long street of Irish cabins, and pigs and children reveling in the genial Concord dirt; and I should still find my Walden Wood and Fair Haven in their tanned and happy faces.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)