The canal is extremely important in Birmingham's history -
without it, our city would not be anywhere near as important as
it is today. Gas Street was the first street in the city have
gas lighting, hence the rather unsexy name. In 1800, Birmingham
was the hub of the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the
centre of England's canal network which stretched from Liverpool
to London. There are few raw materials in Birmingham so they
were shipped in on the canal and used in factories here. Coal
from the Black Country was used in the furnaces of the metal
industry. Just above the tunnel, on Broad Street, there was a
factory making brass items. The building is still there now -
it's now a pub called The Brasshouse. Gas Street Basin would
have been buzzing with constant activity, day and night, as
cargoes were loaded and unloaded. In the 1830s, railways opened
and competed for business with the canals. By 1960s, road
transport and rail was quicker (and therefore cheaper) than the
canals and they stopped being used