Gosta Green

Gosta Green shown within the West Midlands
(grid reference SP077878)

Gosta Green is an area in the city of Birmingham, England. It lies at the edge of the city centre, about three-quarters of a mile (or roughly 10–15 minutes' walk) to the north-east of Birmingham New Street station via Corporation St or the High St.

Universities

It is the home of both the University of Aston and Birmingham City University's Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD), the latter being the largest Art and Design university faculty in the UK outside London. The two purpose-built and landscaped campuses, of universities otherwise entirely separate from each other, run into one another. The campuses are adjacent to the Aston Science Park.

Pubs

There are two pubs - the "Gosta Green" on Great Lister Street, and "The Sacks of Potatoes" near Aston Street. The "Gosta Green" pub was originally called the "Pot of Beer". During the 1980s and early 1990s, it was a venue for indie music. Bands who performed at the pub include Pop Will Eat Itself and Blur. It later became a Scream pub; part of the Firkin chain, known as the "Faculty and Firkin" in the late 1990s.

History

Historically Gosta Green ('Gosty Green') was part of the parish of Aston.

Probably named from its holding by William de Gorsty in the early 14th century. It was known as Gostie Green by the mid 18th century, the name being a corruption of Gorsty to gorse (i.e. gorse bushes, locally called 'goss', which were common nearby).

The Green was actually two greens by the mid 18th century; Lower Gorsty Green being the larger, encircled by a road.

Methodist preacher John Wesley was roughly handled while preaching on Gosta Green. In 1849, the Chartists Lovett and Collins, directly on their release from prison, gave speeches to 30,000 people on Gosta Green.

Gosta Green was visited by Queen Victoria in 1858, when it was described as: "the centre of the locality in which the gun-trade in carried on", and the local gun-makers guild spent around £6,000 on street decorations.

During the 19th century, until the late 1880s, Gosta Green was the location of a regular market. The surrounding streets were filled with back-to-back houses, small workshops, and a dozen pubs. Only a few pubs now remain to remind visitors of its Victorian past.

Gosta Green's Birmingham Arts Lab was an important centre for alternative comic art in the late 1970s. The Lab building later became The Triangle Cinema, then the frontage became a Waterstones bookshop. The building has been empty since early 2003, and remained empty as of October 2010. The building will in 2012 become the new home of the European Bio-Energy Research Institute, part of Aston University.

External links

• A panorama of Gosta Green in 2008
• www.fcgosta.com Local Gosta Green Football Team : F.C Gosta