The Influence of the Indian Subcontinent on the City of a Thousand Trades
India’s connections with Birmingham date back hundreds of years. In 1757 Captain Robert Clive captured the city of Bengal, and soon after, the British East India Company appointed a governor to the area. In the following 100 years, the British conquered the remaining regions of India, taking Delhi in 1803, and finally, the Sikh held Punjab in 1849. This bloody conquest of the Indian subcontinent heralded an age of opportunity for the industrialist of British cities such as Birmingham but also brought brutality to the local population, such as the 1919 Amritsar Massacre when a non-violent crowd was fired on by British soldiers near the Sikh Golden Temple of Amritsar.
Boulton and Watt’s Birmingham Foundry profited greatly from business in India. Their engines were used to pump water out of the mines and in the Mints of Calcutta and Bombay that produced coins from copper and silver. In 1814 they even provided a local Prince Nabob Vizier of Oude with an Engine, two boilers and several pumps for his palace in Lucknow.
Probably the most lasting contribution the Indian sub-continent has made to the city is its food. Down in London in 1810, Sake Dean Mohammed, a Bengali surgeon, opened Britain’s first Curry house. The Hindoostane catered for returning colonial officers, Indian professionals and students. They were also frequented by Indian lascars who had worked on trading vessels as cooks and had now started to settle in British port towns. Eventually, they, too, began to open restaurants. One such man was Abdul Aziz, who had been working as a labourer on a British Navy ship. He jumped ship when it arrived at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and made his way to Birmingham, becoming one of the first Bangladeshi settlers in the city. He met and married Violet, an Irish waitress who worked at a cafe on Coleshill Street, and she taught him English and the ways of British culture. He worked in factories to save enough money to eventually set up John’s Restaurant at 122 Steelhouse Lane in 1945. It was a traditional English cafe which became the first place in the city to have curry and rice on its menu amongst the more traditional dishes. In 1954, this became a dedicated curry house, the Darjeeling. Many of his customers were police officers who worked at the Steelhouse Lock Up.
Like The Darjeeling, most Indian restaurants in the UK are owned by Bangladeshis and their staff, who were often working far from home, would also live on the premises. Many of Birmingham’s curry restaurateurs got their training at the Darjeeling. Like The Darjeeling, their restaurants started as a traditional British greasy spoon with a few spicier dishes on the menu. However, as local tastes became more accustomed to the spices and flavours, they soon became dedicated curry houses.
When John’s restaurant opened in 1945 on Steelhouse Lane, only about 1000 people from India lived in Birmingham. However, following the British Nationality Act of 1948, which gave British citizenship to citizens of former colonies, the number of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent skyrocketed as they arrived to fill the gaps in the labour market left following the second world war.
In reality, it was hard for migrants to find good jobs since they were seen only as factory fodder. In addition, many Landlords had the sign outside their homes which read, ‘No Blacks, No Irish and No Dogs’ which made it difficult even to find a place to live, so many lived with other migrants in shared houses. The partition of India on August 15th 1947, had left India in chaos as civil unrest swept the county. The country was divided into Muslim Pakistan and the Hindu and Sikh-dominated India. Sikhs watched their ancient agricultural lands in the Punjab carved up by the new boundaries, and Hindus and Sikhs were attacked by Muslim gangs in West Punjab, and Muslims were attacked by Sikhs in East Punjab. The Indians who arrived in Birmingham to find work were mainly from these areas, Sikhs from the farmland in the Punjab and Muslims from East Pakistan and Bangladesh. Many headed to the industrial hubs of Britain to the cotton and steel mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire and to the manufacturing sector of Birmingham and the Midlands, particularly its car and engineering sectors. Many worked hard and saved to open their own businesses, adding to the economy of Birmingham. The most popular businesses were shops and restaurants, and one of those restaurants led to a Birmingham favourite. Some had Punjabi cuisine, the home of tandoori, where food is cooked in a clay oven called a tandoor. Others specialised in Goan cuisine with dishes containing coconut milk, coconut paste, and fish or the spicy Vindaloo.
The Pakistani community developed the distinctive Brummie curry known as the balti. The Pakistani cafes that sprung up on the Stratford Road in Sparkhill were serving traditional curry and rice dishes to industrial workers and their families.
Several restaurants claim to be the inventors of the balti. One is Adils on Stoney Lane, where chef Mohammed Arif claims to have been trying to invent a curry that would appeal to both native Brummies and Indian immigrants. He spoke to a local Sikh Engineer who created a special lightweight wok for him which could be placed over a high flame and would also act as a serving dish as well as a cooking pot. The dish contained all the usual tomatoes, onions, turmeric, cumin, garam masala and so on but was lighter because of the quicker cooking process. Nobody is sure if the name balti comes from the Hindu word balti, which means bucket or the area of Baltistan in Northern Pakistan where one-pot cooking is popular, but wherever it got its name, the balti is now a favourite countrywide.
After you have enjoyed one of the city’s wonderful curries or baltis, you may be tempted to finish your meal with a cup of tea, but did you know one of Birmingham’s favourite brands started right here in Birmingham?
In 1903 when the Peaky Blinders were at the top of their game, a small grocery shop sat at the end of the High Street. It was founded in 1820 by William Sumner and was now run by his grandson John. The business was doing pretty well, but it was nothing particularly special. John’s sister Mary suffered from terrible indigestion, and a friend gave her a small packet of medicinal tea made of tiny particles, not the larger leaves that were more common back then. The tea was miraculous and cured her indigestion, so she passed some on to her gardener and other sufferers.
She spoke to her brother and suggested he sell it in his store. Not a bad business idea! Now John had been looking for a speciality product to expand his business, so he bought thirty chests of the tea and splashed out £200 on advertising marketing his tea as an aid to nervousness and a cure for indigestion. A friend warned him that this tea dust was the sweepings off the floor, just the remnants of the sorting and crushing process, but John had the courage of his convictions.
Next, he needed a name. I wanted something that sounded oriental and exotic but also let you know of the medicinal properties of his product. In the end, he chose to name his tea after the traditional Chinese Pinyin word for doctor dàifū, which he pronounced Typhoo. Typhoo was the first brand of tea to be sold pre-packaged rather than loose over the counter, and within a year, John had sold his grocery business and moved around the corner to Castle Street to concentrate on his tea business. All he had was a typewriter, a duplicating machine and ten employees working as tea packers, but it was not long before he found an agency to buy and blend his tea in Ceylon. The tea would be purchased directly from tea auctions, reducing his costs dramatically. It was not long before he moved into a larger factory at 90 Bordesley Street, which used the Digbeth Branch canal to transport the raw materials and finished product.
We now know that while the higher levels of tannin in whole leaf stalks may cause indigestion, low levels of tannin, like those in particles from the leaf’s edge that John used, may actually soothe an upset stomach, and this was the secret of Typhoo’s success.
We really would suggest that you visit one of Birmingham’s many curry houses while you are in the city or even take our food tour to learn more about the wonderful food this diverse city offers. Below are some of the places we would recommend.
THINGS TO DO IN BIRMINGHAM CONNECTED TO THE INDIAN SUB CONTINENT
Aurora's Collection Jewellery
Address: 87 Vyse St, Birmingham B18 6JZ
Telephone: 07967 161745
Website: https://aurorascollection.co.uk
Aurora’s Collection is situated in the heart of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter and sell handcrafted pieces based on the traditional practices of Kundan. They use ethically sourced materials from Indian artisans to produce both traditional and contemporary jewellery. If you take our Self guided tour of the Jewellery Quarter outlined in a previous blog post you will pass close by to Aurora’s collection so why not make an afternoon of it and explore the wider area of the Jewellery Quarter.
Lasan
Address:3-4 Dakota Buildings, James Street, St Paul's Square, Birmingham B3 1SD
Telephone: 0121 212 3664
Website: https://lasan.co.uk
If you are looking for a place to celebrate a special occasion you cannot go wrong with Lasan in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. This high end restaurant offers a superb tasting menu or al a carte options. Its owner and chef, Aktar Islam, was a winner of the fish course in the Great British menu as well as ‘Best local restaurant’ on Gordon Ramsay’s F Word
Indian Streatery
Address: 21A Bennetts Hill Birmingham B2 5QP
Telephone: 0121 643 5334
Website: https://www.theindianstreatery.co.uk
The Indian Streatery is a restaurant with all women chefs who began as street food traders in Birmingham and around the UK. hey became a firm favourite at the city's Digbeth Dining Club under their street food name The Indian Rasoi. They serve a traditional, authentic, menu which reflects their street food roots and is some of the best food in the city.
Mowgli
Address: Unit 30, Grand Central, Stephenson Place, Birmingham, B2 4BF
Telephone: 0121 643 7094
Website: https://www.mowglistreetfood.com/restaurants/birmingham/
This well known chain is situated inside Grand Central Station. The glass fronted restaurant has a welcoming interior lined with fairy lights and swinging seats. It serves a modern take on Indian street food with tiffin boxes and “Indian Tapas”.
The Balti Triangle and Shabab
Address: 163-165 Ladypool Road, B12 8LQ
Telephone:0121 440 2893
Website: https://www.shababs.co.uk
The Balti Triangle is an area of Balti houses clustered along Ladypool Road, Stoney Lane and Stratford Road and the home of the original Balti. There are many wonderful restaurants to choose from but one of the most renowned is Shabab a 30 year old restaurant on Ladypool Road where their Balti Chicken with Spinach comes highly recommended.
