History
Kings Heath came into being as a village in the 18th century with the improvements to the Alcester to Birmingham road acting as a catalyst for new houses and farms. Prior to this the area was largely uninhabited wasteland run by the Royal Borough of Kings Norton.
The streets running off High Street are dominated by pre-1919 terraced, owner occupied housing. Due to the desirability of the area and the quality of local schools Kings Heath is steadily becoming gentrified, with houses becoming increasingly unaffordable for local people.
A number of independent shops have taken advantage of relatively cheaper rents in the side roads off High Street and recently there has been an influx of boutiques and even the start of an (organic) cafe culture. In 2008 the businesses agreed to a Business Improvement District, which top-slices a proportion of their local business taxes to go directly into improvements and promotion of the area.
The locals still refer to Kings Heath as a 'village' even though it has been part of Birmingham for over a century. Its centre at the Vicarage Road junction has now been developed to form an attractive public square which is used as a venue for the monthly farmers' market and other events.
On 28 July 2005, Kings Heath was hit by a major (by European standards) tornado which damaged several shops on High Street and All Saints' Church. The tornado then went on to damage many houses in Balsall Heath. There were no fatalities.
High Street has also suffered from flash floods on occasions, sometimes up to a foot of water in depth, although recently installed underground reservoirs at the junction of Station Road and High Street aim to combat this problem.
Read more about this topic: Kings Heath
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)