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a reputation for producing small arms. Arms manufacture in Birmingham became a staple trade and was concentrated in the area known as the Gun Quarter. During the Industrial Revolution (from the mid-18th century onwards), Birmingham grew rapidly into a major industrial centre and the town prospered. Birmingham’s population grew from 15,000 in the late 17th century to 70,000 a century later.[19] During the 18th century, Birmingham was home to the Lunar Society, an important gathering of local thinkers and industrialists.[20]Thomas Attwood addressing the Birmingham Political Union during the Days of May, 1832。irmingham rose to national political prominence in the campaign for political reform in the early nineteenth century, with Thomas Attwood's Birmingham Political Union bringing the country to the brink of civil war and back during the Days of May that preceded the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832.[21] The Union's meetings on Newhall Hill in 1831 and 1832 were the largest political assemblies Britain had ever seen.[22] Lord Durham, who drafted the act, wrote that \its salvation from revolution\[23]By the 1820s, an extensive canal system had been constructed, giving greater access to natural resources to fuel to industries. Railways arrived in Birmingham in 1837 with the arrival of the Grand Junction Railway, and a year later, the London and Birmingham Railway. During the Victorian era, the population of Birmingham grew rapidly to well over half a million[24] and Birmingham became the second largest population centre in England. Birmingham was granted city status in 1889 by Queen Victoria.[25] The city established its own university in 1900.[26] Birmingham in 1886 Birmingham suffered heavy bomb damage during World War II's \Birmingham Blitz\redeveloped during the 1950s and 1960s.[27] This included the construction of large tower block estates, such as Castle Vale. The Bull Ring reconstructed and New Street station was redeveloped. In recent years, Birmingham has been transformed, with the construction of new squares like Centenary Square and Millennium Place. Old streets, buildings and canals have been restored, the pedestrian subways have been removed, and the Bull Ring shopping centre[28] has been completely redeveloped. These were the first steps in the ambitious plans of Birmingham City Council for the redevelopment of Birmingham, which has become known as the Big City Plan.[29].In the decades following the Second World War, the ethnic makeup of Birmingham changed significantly, as it received waves of immigration from the Commonwealth of Nations and beyond.[30] The city's population peaked in 1951 at 1,113,000 residents.[24] Governance The Council House, home of Birmingham City Council。Birmingham City Council is the largest local authority in the UK and the largest council in Europe[31] with 120 councillors representing 40 wards.[32] Its headquarters are at the Council House in Victoria Square. No single party is in overall control and the council is run by a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition.The city is also the seat of regional government for the West Midlands region of England as the home of the region's Government Office,[33] the regional development agency Advantage West Midlands,[34] and the West Midlands Regional Assembly.[35]Birmingham's eleven parliamentary constituencies are represented in the House of Commons by one Conservative, one Liberal Democrat, one Independent Labour and eight Labour MPs.[36] In the European Parliament the city forms part of the West Midlands European Parliament constituency, which elects seven Members of the European Parliament.[34]Birmingham was originally part of Warwickshire, but expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, absorbing parts of Worcestershire to the south and Staffordshire to the north and west. The city absorbed Sutton Coldfield in 1974 and became a metropolitan borough in the new West Midlands county. Up until 1986, the West Midlands County Council was based in Birmingham City Centre.Law enforcement in Birmingham is carried out by West Midlands Police, fire and rescue by West Midlands Fire Service and emergency medical care by West Midlands Ambulance Service. Geography Birmingham is located in the centre of the West Midlands region of England on the Birmingham Plateau – an area of relatively high ground, ranging around 500 to 1,000 feet (150–300 m) above sea level and crossed by Britain's main north-south watershed between the basins of the Rivers Severn and Trent. To the south and west of the city lie the Lickey Hills,[37] Clent Hills and Walton Hill, which reach 1,033 feet (315 m) and have extensive views over the city.The City of Birmingham forms a conurbation with the largely residential borough of Solihull to the south east, and with the city of Wolverhampton and the industrial towns of the Black Country to the north west. Together these make up the West Midlands Urban Area, which covers 59,972 ha (600 km2; 232 sq mi) and has a population of 2,284,093 (2001 Census).[3]Much of the area now occupied by the city was originally a northern reach of the ancient Forest of Arden, whose former presence can still be felt in the city's dense oak tree-cover and in the large number of districts such as Moseley, Saltley, Yardley, Stirchley and Hockley with names ending in \Old English -lēah meaning \was called until around 200 years ago.[38]View across the city from the Lickey Hills, with Longbridge in the foreground. Geology Geologically, Birmingham is dominated by the Birmingham Fault which runs diagonally through the city from the Lickey Hills in the south west, passing through Edgbaston, the Bull Ring to Erdington and Sutton Coldfield in the north east.[39] To the south and east of the fault the ground is largely softer Mercia Mudstone Group (formerly known as Keuper Marl), interspersed with beds of Bunter pebbles and crossed by the valleys of the Rivers Tame, Rea and Cole along with their tributaries.[40] Much of this would have been laid down during the Permian and Triassic eras.[39] To the north and west of the fault, varying from 150 to 600 feet (45–180 m) higher than the surrounding area and underlying much of the city centre, lies a long ridge of harder Keuper Sandstone.[41][42] Climate The climate in Birmingham is classified as a temperate maritime climate, like much of the British Isles, with average maximum temperatures in summer (July) being around 20 °C (68 °F); and in winter (January) is around 4.5 °C (40.1 °F). Extreme weather is rare but the city has been known to experience tornados – the most recent being in July 2005 in the south of the city, damaging homes and businesses in the area.[43] Occasional summer heatwaves, such as the one experienced in July 2006 have become more common in recent years, and winters have become milder since the 1990s with snow becoming much less frequent. Similar to most other large cities, Birmingham has a considerable 'urban heat island' effect.[44] During the coldest night recorded in Birmingham (14 January 1982), for example, the temperature fell to ?20.8 °C (?5 °F) at Birmingham International Airport on the city's eastern edge, but just ?12.9 °C (9 °F) at Edgbaston, near the city centre.[45] Relative to other large UK conurbations, Birmingham is a snowy city, due to its inland location and comparatively high elevation.[45] Snow showers often pass through the city via the Cheshire gap on North Westerly airstreams, but can also come off the North Sea from North Easterly airstreams. Demography Religion Percentage of pulation
Buddhist0.3%、Christian59%、Hindu2%、Jewish0.2%、Muslim14.3%Sikh2.9%、No religion12.4% Birmingham is an ethnically and culturally diverse city. In 2007 the ONS estimated that 66.7% of the population was White (including 2.4% Irish & 2.2% Other White), 21% Asian, 6.7% or Black, 1.2% Chinese, 3.2% of mixed race and 1.2% of other ethnic heritage.[47] 57% of primary and 52% of secondary pupils are from non-white British families.[48] 16.5% of the population was born outside the United Kingdom. Canalside apartments in Birmingham City Centre。The population density is 9,451 inhabitants per square mile (3,649/km2) compared to the 976.9 inhabitants per square mile (377.2/km2) for England. Females represented 51.6% of the population whilst men represented 48.4%. More women were 70 or over.[49] 60.4% of the population was aged between 16 and 74, compared to 66.7% in England as a whole.[50] 60.3% of households were found to be owner occupied and 27.7% were rented from either the city council, housing association or other registered social landlord. The remaining 11.8% of households were rented privately or lived rent free.[50]The Bimingham Larger Urban Zone, a Eurostat measure of the functional city-region approximated to local government districts, has a population of 2,357,100 in 2004.[51] In addition to Birmingham itself, the LUZ includes the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Walsall, along with the districts of Lichfield, Tamworth, North Warwickshire and Bromsgrove.[52] Places of interest Barber Institute of Fine Arts。The Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is the main art gallery and museum in Birmingham. It has renowned displays of artwork that include a leading collection of work by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the world's largest collection of works by Edward Burne-Jones. The council also owns other museums in the city such as Aston Hall, Blakesley Hall, the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Soho House, and Sarehole Mill, a popular attraction for fans of J. R. R. Tolkien. Thinktank in the Eastside is one of the newest museums in the city, replacing the former Science & Industry Museum in Newhall Street. The Birmingham Back to Backs are the last surviving court of back-to-back houses in the city.[54]The BCN Main Line canal of the Birmingham Canal Navigations at Brindleyplace。The Barber Institute of Fine Arts is both an art gallery and concert hall. It also has one of the world's most detailed and largest coin collections.[55] Cadbury World is a museum showing visitors the stages and steps of chocolate production and the history of chocolate and the company.There are over 8,000 acres (3,237 ha) of parkland open spaces in Birmingham.[56] The largest of the parks is Sutton Park covering 2,400 acres (971 ha) making it the largest urban nature reserve in Europe.[57] Birmingham Botanical Gardens are a Victorian creation, with a conservatory and bandstand, close to the city centre. The Winterbourne Botanic Garden, maintained by the University of Birmingham, is also located close to the city centre. Woodgate Valley Country Park is in Bartley Green and Quinton. The city centre consists of numerous public squares including Centenary Square, Chamberlain Square and Victoria Square. The historic Old Square is located on Corporation Street. Rotunda Square and St Martin's Square are two of the newest squares in Birmingham, being located within the Bullring Shopping Centre. Brindleyplace also consists of three squares and the National Sea Life Centre. Places of worship St. Philip's Cathedral Birmingham's diverse population uses a wide variety of religious buildings in the city. St Philip's was upgraded from church to cathedral status in 1905. There are two other cathedrals, St Chad's, seat of the Roman Catholic Province of Birmingham, and the Greek Orthodox Dormition of the Mother of God and St Andrew. The original parish church of Birmingham, St Martin in the Bull Ring, is Grade II* listed. The Soho Road, Guru Nanak Naam Sewak Jatha, was built in the late 1970s under spiritual guidance of Pujey Sant Baba Puran Singh Ji Kericho Wale and under the leadership of Pujey Bhai Sahib ji Bhai Norang Singh Ji. The Spiritual leadership of the Jatha is now under the control of Bhai Sahib Ji Bhai Mohinder Singh Ji. The oldest surviving synagogue in Birmingham is the 1825 Greek Revival Severn Street Synagogue, now a Freemason's Lodge hall. It was replaced in 1856 by the Grade II* listed Singers Hill Synagogue. Birmingham Central Mosque, one of the largest in Europe, was constructed in the 1960s.[58] However, during the late 1990s a mosque in the Sparkbrook area was re-developed in partnership with the City Council, to supersede the Central Mosque as the largest in the city. Economy Colmore Row in Birmingham's Business District. Although Birmingham grew to prominence as a manufacturing and engineering centre, its economy today is dominated by the service sector, which in 2003 accounted for 78% of the city's economic output and 97% of its economic growth.[59]Two of Britain's largest banks were founded in Birmingham – Lloyds Bank (now Lloyds Banking Group) in 1765[60] and the Midland Bank (now HSBC Bank plc) in 1836[61] – and as of 2007 the city employed 108,300 in banking, finance and insurance.[62] In 2009, Cushman & Wakefield stated that Birmingham was the second best place in the United Kingdom to locate a business, and the 14th best in Europe.[6]Tourism is also an increasingly important part of the local economy. With major facilities such as the International Convention Centre and National Exhibition Centre the Birmingham area accounts for 42% of the UK conference and exhibition trade.[63] The city's sporting and cultural venues attract large numbers of visitors.The city's three Universities, (Aston University, University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University) and two University colleges have over 65,000 students and employ around 15,000 staff, making a significant contribution to the city's economy as well as its research and innovation base. The Jaguar XF, made by Jaguar Cars at Castle Bromwich AssemblyWith an annual turnover of ￡2.2bn, Birmingham city centre is the UK's second largest retail centre,[64] with the country's busiest shopping centre – the Bullring[65] – and the largest department store outside London – House of Fraser on Corporation Street.[66] The City also has one of only four Selfridges department stores, and the second largest branch of Debenhams in the country.[65] In 2004 the city was ranked as the third best place to shop in the United Kingdom, behind the West End of London and Glasgow, being described as a \[67]Despite the decline of manufacturing in the city several significant industrial plants remain, including Jaguar Cars in Castle Bromwich and Cadbury Trebor Bassett in Bournville.Although the city has seen economic growth greater than the national average in the 21st century[68] the benefits have been uneven, with commuters from the surrounding area obtaining many of the more skilled jobs. The two parliamentary constituencies with the highest unemployment rates in the UK – Ladywood and Sparkbrook and Small Heath – are both in inner-city Birmingham.[69] Growth has also added to stresses on the city's transport. Many major roads and the central New Street railway station operate over capacity at peak times. Transport Birmingham International Airport。Partly because of its inland central location, Birmingham is a major transport hub on the motorway, rail, and canal networks.[70] The city is served by a number of major motorways and probably the best known motorway junction in the UK: Spaghetti Junction.[71]The National Express UK headquarters are located on Birmingham's Eastside, alongside the newly developed Birmingham Coach Station, which forms the national hub of the company's coach network.The nearest airport is Birmingham International Airport, located in the Borough of Solihull to the east of the city. As of 2008, the airport is the sixth busiest by passenger traffic in the United Kingdom.Birmingham-built Pendolino at New Street railway station Local public transport is by bus, local train and tram. The number 11A and 11C ('A' denotes anti-clockwise and 'C' denotes clockwise in relation to the journey's direction around the city) outer circle bus routes are the longest urban bus routes in Europe, being 26 miles (42 km) long[72] with 272 bus stops.[73] Bus routes are mainly operated by National Express West Midlands, which accounts for over 80% of all bus journeys in Birmingham, however, there are around 50 other, smaller registered bus companies.[74] The extensive bus network allows passengers to travel to and from various districts of the city, while there are longer bus routes which take passengers to areas further afield such as Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Halesowen, Stourbridge and the Merry Hill Shopping Centre. The only towns in the West Midlands conurbation that currently lack a direct public transport link with Birmingham are Sedgley, Kingswinford, Wednesfield and Willenhall.The city's main railway station, Birmingham New Street, is at the