Please view our Covid 19 policy via this link
Black Heritage Walks Network have teamed up with China Plate, Birmingham Hippodrome and Birmingham 2022 Festival have launched Soho Settlers, a Creative City Project featuring a new heritage walk and a series of audio stories and poems inspired by residents of the Soho Road and Handsworth.
Black Heritage Walks Network are the proud winner of the Community Legacy Award 2022!
The Spirit of the Caribbean Annual Ball incorporating the Black Honour Awards will bring together like-minded people who uphold and share similar values. The Awards acknowledges what has gone before and laying the foundations for what is yet to come. It aims to show recognition and pay tribute to the outstanding contribution and excellent work carried out by member of our community daily. Black Heritage Walks Network was nominated for the Community Legacy Award.
We collaborated with China Plate “On Our Way” to develop a bus stop gallery on your way to Soho Road, as well as a reflection of its original inspiration – the 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott. This boycott was a key moment in pushing towards the first ever legislation that explicitly outlawed racial discrimination, the Race Relations Act. Given recent discussions on racism, we are still “On Our Way” to fighting for justice.
Bus Stops to Town
On the number 74 route on Soho Road which goes into the city centre, you’ll find four bus stop galleries:
Black Heritage Walks Network CIC has been commissioned by Stronger Communities Commonwealth Games Legacy Fund, to deliver three heritage tours:
- An E-scooter tour
- A Black sporting heroes tour
- A tour showcasing Equiano and the Enlightenment
Black Heritage Walks Network team members Garry Stewart, Dr Basiru Gai, Angela Kumah and Dawn Carr trained as Prostate Cancer champions for national partner, Orchid Cancer. Orchid exists to save men's lives from testicular, prostate and penile cancers through pioneering research and promoting awareness.
Exploring the history of Birmingham, in particular the industrial revolution and its relationship to transatlantic slave trade. Like many major cities, there is clear evidence that Birmingham developed and profited, directly and indirectly, from an economic and industrial system of human degradation and displacement. The local significance of the gun industry in Birmingham and throughout the Black Country can be controversial.
A new project featuring a stories of Commonwealth communities affected by the Transatlantic Trade Triangle and its link to the industrial and economic development of Birmingham.
The project initially focused on ‘The Golden Boys’ Statue - Boulton, Murdoch & Watt by William Bloye, as a result of uprisings due to the 2020 Black Lives Matter campaign, which questions the impact of colonial heroes on people of colour and their validity in 21st Century Britain.
Exploring the Lunar Society and their connections to slavery during the eighteenth century.
This tour starts at Soho House Museum, which was once the home of Mathew Boulton, a revolutionary member of the Lunar Society and founder of the Soho Factory. Matthew Boulton’s most successful business was selling steam engines. These engines were sold to support the slave trade, but not until after 1800 when Boulton and Watt had retired from the business and their son’s had taken over.
A tour captured by Youtube content creator Joseline G - The World Through My Lens.
This virtual walk showcases Black heritage of Handsworth.
Black Heritage Walks Network has researched and created a series of black heritage trails across the West Midlands, aimed at documenting the migration stories and achievements of the black community, in particular, the post-war African Caribbean community. Handsworth is historically rich with an African Caribbean presence, preceding post-war migration.
