Gosta Green - History

History

Historically Gosta Green ('Gosty Green') was part of the parish of Aston.

Probably named from its holding by William de Gorsty in the early 14th century. It was known as Gostie Green by the mid 18th century, the name being a corruption of Gorsty to gorse (i.e. gorse bushes, locally called 'goss', which were common nearby).

The Green was actually two greens by the mid 18th century; Lower Gorsty Green being the larger, encircled by a road.

Methodist preacher John Wesley was roughly handled while preaching on Gosta Green. In 1849, the Chartists Lovett and Collins, directly on their release from prison, gave speeches to 30,000 people on Gosta Green.

Gosta Green was visited by Queen Victoria in 1858, when it was described as: "the centre of the locality in which the gun-trade in carried on", and the local gun-makers guild spent around £6,000 on street decorations.

During the 19th century, until the late 1880s, Gosta Green was the location of a regular market. The surrounding streets were filled with back-to-back houses, small workshops, and a dozen pubs. Only a few pubs now remain to remind visitors of its Victorian past.

Gosta Green's Birmingham Arts Lab was an important centre for alternative comic art in the late 1970s. The Lab building later became The Triangle Cinema, then the frontage became a Waterstones bookshop. The building has been empty since early 2003, and remained empty as of October 2010. The building will in 2012 become the new home of the European Bio-Energy Research Institute, part of Aston University.