The history of Birmingham Back to Backs

Expert curated

A view of 50-54 Inge Street and 55-63 Hurst Street, Birmingham Back to Backs — A view of 50-54 Inge Street and 55-63 Hurst Street, Birmingham. These buildings surround a courtyard and are Birmingham's last surviving example of such back to back housing. Shops or small businesses occupy the ground floors with living accomodation above. | © National Trust Images/Robert Morris

The Birmingham Back to Backs, originally known as Court 15, are the last surviving example of a type of working-class housing which defined the Midlands’ urban landscape in the 19th and 20th centuries. Both homes and places of work for people from all over the world who flocked to British cities, they are a unique social and architectural record, offering an invaluable glimpse into the lives of the people who helped make Birmingham the vibrant city it is today.

Early History

Evidence for human activity in Birmingham dates back around 10,000 years, but the city as we know it now began to take shape when Peter de Bermingham founded a market between the site of the present Bull Ring and the River Rae in 1166.

Birmingham expanded, becoming an important regional centre for trade and commerce specialising in the production of metal goods. By 1700, the town was the fifth largest in England and Wales and in the later 18th century was a major centre of both the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions.

It saw huge population growth during the 18th and 19th centuries, as people sought work and opportunities in the town. This population boom necessitated the building of quick and cheap housing, which eventually manifested as back to back houses, characterised by pairs of houses sharing a rear wall, the outer house facing onto the street and the inner house facing into a shared courtyard. Strictly speaking, the houses which survive on Hurst Street are ‘blind back’ rather than ‘back to back’ houses, as they comprise the outer houses only.

The history of Court 15

The plot of land at the corner of Inge Street and Hurst Street where Court 15 was eventually built was owned by several families, including the Inges and the Gooches (one of Birmingham’s largest landowning families), in the 18th century. In 1789, Sir Thomas Gooch of Benacre, Suffolk (d. 1826) leased the land to John Wilmore (d. c. 1800), a local toy (small metal goods) maker. A condition of the lease compelled Wilmore to build ‘two or more good substantial dwelling houses’ at a total cost, including outbuildings, of no less than £700, on the plot which measured 20 yards wide and 50 yards deep. Wilmore died before any houses were built, and the land was split between his sons John (dates unknown) and Joseph (d. 1855). The houses built by Joseph no longer survive, but those built by John Wilmore junior formed Court 15, now the site of Birmingham Back to Backs.

Court 15 was not originally built as a court of back to backs: it became one only in the 1830s. The first building on the site, begun around 1802, was a large house fronting onto Inge Street with a smaller house behind it. More houses followed in the 1820s, and by 1831 Court 15 was complete comprising three houses on Inge Street, five houses on Hurst Street and three back houses (Wilmore’s Court) in the yard behind. These 11 houses were home to up to 60 people, and shared privies (toilets) and brewhouses (wash houses). The communal courtyard also contained a workshop.

Toys and domestic items of day to day living on the courtyard of Court 15 at Birmingham Back to Backs, West Midlands | © National Trust Images/David Rowan

Residents

Over 500 families are said to have lived at Court 15 between its first construction and 1967, when the last resident left. Many of the people who lived there came from counties surrounding Birmingham, but some occupants were from further afield. For instance, Joseph Barnett (b. 1809) was from Poland and William Manton (b. 1855) was born in Newark in America. Since rents at Court 15 were slightly higher than the average, occupants tended to be skilled workers and tradespeople.

One of the first families to move into Court 15 after its first completion were the Mitchells, who worked as blacksmiths. They moved in in 1840 and left three generations later on the death of George Oldfield (d. 1935). As such, they would have witnessed the gradual improvement of the court: originally without a water supply, a standpipe was installed around 1870, and simple plumbing only in the early 20th century.

The family of Lawrence Levy (d. 1867) from London moved to Birmingham in 1851, joining a Jewish community in Birmingham of around 700 people. Court 15 was near both a synagogue (built in Hurst Street in 1791) and a Hebrew School, on Lower Hurst Street from 1843. Lawrence was a watchmaker, and it is likely that he used part of his house as a workshop.

In the same decade, Herbert Oldfield (d. 1897), a glassworker who made glass eyes for dolls and stuffed toys, and possibly also for people who had lost eyes in accidents, moved from one of the front houses of Court 15 into one of the more affordable back houses in the 1860s. Records suggest that he had ten children and after Herbert’s wife Ann (b. c. 1820) died in 1872, continued to live at the Court with five of their children and two lodgers.

By 1896, all of the houses fronting onto Hurst Street had become shops. Over the years these included a cycle shop, a hairdresser’s, a herbalist, a sweetshop, a baker’s, a newsagent’s and a fish and chip shop.

View of working people's bedrooms at Birmingham Back to Backs. Three beds are along one wall with a large workbench taking up another wall. — Interior view of working people's houses at Birmingham Back to Backs, West Midlands | © National Trust Images/David Rowan

Later history

At the end of the First World War, Birmingham still had more than 43,000 back to backs, housing over 200,000 people. By the 1930s, much back to back housing was condemned as unsanitary and unsafe, but people still lived in Court 15 until the 1960s and the last workshop on the premises did not close until 2002.

This was the tailoring business of George Saunders (b. c. 1932-2015), who was part of the Windrush generation of people who answered the British Government’s call to help fill labour shortages in Britain after the Second World War. George moved from Saint Kitts in the Caribbean to Birmingham in 1958. Like many who came to Britain from all over the Commonwealth, George was granted right of abode by the British Nationality Act of 1948. Many had already served Britain during the war and had come with the hopes of resuming their wartime positions or making a better life for themselves. However, since very little was done to prepare the new arrivals, or indeed the rest of the British population, for their arrival, prejudice and violence were rife, and George suffered first-hand. On arrival, he struggled to find work, despite being, like his father before him, a skilled tailor. So, he started working in a biscuit factory before eventually taking on a tailoring job at Philip Colliers. George eventually set up his own business in Balsall Heath, before moving into Court 15 in 1974, where he ran his tailor shop from 57 Hurst Street. He made clothes for Birmingham celebrities like Pat Roach, as well as Libyan school children, and was awarded a prestigious order from the Queen’s Guards for his work.

When he left the Court in 2002, George donated original garments, patterns, fabrics and equipment which now form the cornerstone of the Back to Back’s collection, revealing much about dress and costume in the 20th century, and in particular about Black British style and tailoring.

Inside George Saunders' tailor shop. A small space, tailor's dummies can be seen in the foreground and background, a table is between the tailor's dummies with an old dial telephone and a selection of documents. — Inside George Saunders' tailor shop at Birmingham Back to Backs, West Midlands | © National Trust Images/David Rowan

Recent history

Recognised as a rare survival, in 1988 Court 15 was listed as a Grade II building and, in 1995, Birmingham City Council commissioned a record survey of the site from the City of Hereford Archaeology Unit. Funding for this project was provided by the city council and English Heritage.

In need of urgent conservation, Birmingham Conservation Trust bought the freehold of the land from the Gooch Estate and in 2001 the National Trust reached an agreement with Birmingham Conservation Trust to take over the management of Court 15 once renovation was complete, and to guarantee its survival ‘in perpetuity’. The renovation was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund, as well as the British public, with whom the history and future of the back to backs touched a chord.

Court 15 opened to the public in July 2004. Since taking on the management of the site the Trust has undertaken further conservation and worked closely with the residents and students of Birmingham. In 2023, the site staged the exhibition ‘Home from Home’ exploring the culture and identity of the Windrush generation and the emergence of Black British youth culture, and in October 2025, another exploring the life of Mrs Anita Eutedra Bartley, fondly known as Mrs B, born in St Catherine, Jamaica, who started a new life in Handsworth, Birmingham in 1955.

Book your visit

Please note you need to book tickets to Birmingham Back to Backs. You can book for the following day up until 4pm. Every Thursday another week of time slots is added, so you can book up to four weeks in advance.

Check availability and book