Soho is an area that is in Central

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

and

Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire. In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider b ...

, approximately 2 miles north west of Birmingham city centre on the A41. The name is an abbreviation of South House, denoting that it was located to the south of Handsworth. The section of the A41 separating Handsworth from

Winson Green Winson Green is a loosely defined inner-city area in the west of the city of Birmingham, England. It is part of the ward of Soho. It is the location of HM Prison Birmingham (known locally as Winson Green Prison or "the Green") and of City Hospi ...

is known as Soho Road. Soho expanded dramatically during the 19th century with the construction of numerous houses and factories, and immigration from the Commonwealth was centred in these homes during the 1950s and 1960s. Most of the immigrants who settled in Soho were of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

n origin. Further housebuilding took place by the local council during the 1960s and 1970s. Soho falls partly in the Soho ward of the City of Birmingham and partly in the Soho and Victoria ward of the Borough of Sandwell.

Soho ward, Birmingham

Until 1911 the part now within Birmingham formed part of Handsworth District, and is now a ward within the council constituency of Ladywood.

Demography

The 2001 Population Census found that 25,634 people were living in Soho with a population density of 5,369 people per km² compared with 3,649 people per km² for Birmingham. Soho covers an area of 4.8 km². The ward is a very ethnically diverse area with ethnic minorities making up 76.2% (19,522) of the ward's population, compared with 29.6% for Birmingham.

Ethnicity Population

*White British – 20.48% *White Irish – 2.20% *White Other – 1.17% *Mixed: White and Black Caribbean – 2.80% *Mixed: White and Black African – 0.22% *Mixed: White and Asian – 0.81% *Mixed: Other – 0.95% *Indian – 26.77% *Pakistani – 13.99% *Bangladeshi – 3.88% *Other Asian – 2.31% *Afro-Caribbean – 18.13% *African – 1.44% *Other Black – 2.42% *Chinese – 0.69%

Politics

Soho Ward is represented by three Labour councillors on Birmingham City Council; Sybil Spence, Chaman Lal and Dorothy Hargreaves. Soho Ward has adopted a Ward Support Officer with the current holder of the title being Tariq M. Khan. In 2014, James Turner Street, in the Winson Green area of the ward featured in the TV series '' Benefits Street''.

Places of interest

Industrialist

Matthew Boulton Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engin ...

opened his "

Soho Manufactory The Soho Manufactory () was an early factory which pioneered mass production on the assembly line principle, in Soho, Birmingham, England, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. It operated from 1766–1848 and was demolished in 1853. B ...

" (an early

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...

) there in 1761. Boulton himself resided at Soho House, now a community

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

of the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery run by Birmingham City Council. The parish

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

is dedicated to St John Chrysostom. The area is served b
Handsworth Library

Winson Green Prison HM Prison Birmingham is a Category B men's prison, located in the Winson Green area of Birmingham, England. The prison was operated by G4S from 2011, before it was returned to HM Prison and Probation Service in August 2018. The government take ...

and City Hospital are located within the

area of the ward. Soho is home to a Train Care Depot and the Soho Foundry, which was

and

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was ...

’s famous factory. Most of the rest of the area is industrial with some housing. Soho-Pool-Handsworth

Transport

Soho had stations on the London & North Western Railway built Stour Valley Line between Smethwick Rolfe Street and the closed

Winson Green railway station Winson Green railway station was a railway station in Birmingham, England, built by the London and North Western Railway on their Stour Valley Line in 1876. It served the Winson Green area of Birmingham. ''Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham ...

, and on the Great Western Railway between Handsworth & Smethwick and Hockley (replaced by Jewellery Quarter). It is currently served by the West Midlands Metro on the former GWR line with a stop at Soho Benson Road.

References

External links

Birmingham City Council Soho WardSandwell Trends, Soho and Victoria Ward
{{Authority control Areas of Birmingham, West Midlands Former wards of Birmingham, West Midlands Smethwick Conservation areas in England