Chris Upton: Why memory lane is an essential throughfare

Jun 19 2008 By Chris Upton

Last week I took a group of secondary teachers on a kind of history/geography walk around central Birmingham. Newman runs an inset course for teachers on citizenship, an element of which is how (and by and for whom) cities are run, and the role of the citizen in that process.

The obvious route would have been "some of the nice old bits" such as Digbeth, around the cathedral or in the Jewellery Quarter, but I doubt such areas - unique to Birmingham in many ways - would have been much use to teachers from as far a field as West Bromwich and Wem in Shropshire. So it was much more of a "warts and all" tour.

We began at the Mailbox (the role of the shopping centre, the challenge of Merry Hill and online shopping, and the arrival of "private space" in public areas). Then to the canals (growth and decline of industry, new uses for old buildings and amenities) and Singer's Hill (ethnic communities, diversity and fragmentation of religions).

Then we headed down Suffolk Street Queensway. Always a mistake, this, since you can't be heard above the noise of the traffic. This took us into the murky hinter-land of modern urban planning: the growth of city centre living, use of public art, and the age-old battle between the car and the pedestrian.

And so to Smallbrook Queensway, Hurst Street and the Birmingham Back to Backs, followed by a visit to the sweet-shop. I left them to visit the dentist separately.

I ended up by telling them the heartbreaking story of the mother and her daughter who were trapped by fire in the bedroom of one of the houses in Court 15 back in 1939. It was a story I collected from a descendant just in time for my book on back to backs. It's a familiar tale of poor conditions, inadequate heating (undressing in front of the fire and leaving one's clothes too close to it) and a dramatic rescue. The daughter managed to escape through the bedroom window; her mother did not.

What makes the story far more vivid is that you can stand directly under the window at which the events happened. This is not something I can often do on Birmingham guided walks. More often than not I'm saying "Imagine, if you will..." or "Before this office was built there stood..."

It struck me at this very moment why the default position of our planners should be preservation, rather than demolition. This doesn't just relate to architectural merit or historical association, the sort that justifies listing abuilding or ablue plaque. The buildings around us are our physical memory, however humble. It could be the place where we brought our first record, had our first haircut, or drank our first beer. Erase those associations, and the buildings which embody them, and you erase a little of each of us.

It may well be that one of the reasons for our rootlessness in the modern city and perhaps the vandalism and indifference that follows from it (all issues my teachers will have to deal with in their citizenship courses) is the systematic and regular deletion of this physical memory, and with it the ways we connect to our personal past and our sense of place.

I can do my best with "Imagine if you can..." but "It was here that..." is a far better option. How many of you can indeed go back to the place where you first had a haircut or bought a 45rpm?

* Dr Chris Upton is Senior Lecturer in History at Newman University College in Birmingham.