Yesterday, Joanna Geary bought a copy of The Times from 15 April 1876. There’s an article on page 10 called ‘Birmingham Improvements’ which refers to the Artisans’ Dwellings Act:
In case it’s tricky to read, the second paragraph says:
The scheme in respect to which the inquiry was held has already been described in The Times, and it is enough here to say that it involves the sweeping away of nearly a hundred acres of dirty, dilapidated, ill-ventilated, and unhealthy dwellings, chiefly occupied by artisans and the poorer class of tradespeople, to the number of 16,000, and the opening up of a new and more direct communication between the east and centre of Birmingham by carrying a new and spacious thoroughfare through the condemned districts.
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I believe the reference to ‘thoroughfare’ is to what would become Corporation st.
Do you know that there are some photos of this scheme in the Birmingham Seen exhibit at the Gas Hall? James Burgoyne was commissioned to do a series. I believe they are in the city archive.