Did you know...That Balsall Heath was once part of King's Norton Parish? That there was an open-air swimming pool in George Street in the 1840s? That there was a typhoid epidemic in 1873? That Balsall Heath once had its own zoo? That Balsall Heath flourished as an independent area from 1862-1891? All this and more can be found within this book. Originally published in 1992, this fully revised and updated edition traces the development of Balsall Heath from sparsely populated heathland in the 18th century, to the "genteel neighbourhood" of the 1840s, the populous quarter of 1891, to the busy and crowded suburb of the 1920s and 30s. A story of change spanning two centuries!