Gosta Green

Location map
West Midlands
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caption="Gosta Green shown within the West Midlands"
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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. A map of the area is available at this link: [http://www.multimap.com/maps/?hloc=GB|b4%207es#t=l&
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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 is presently a pub called 'Gosta Green' on Great Lister Street near a crossroads with the A4540, and a pub called 'The Sacks of Potatoes' adjacent to Aston Students Guild - which has a student-only bar - near Great Lister and Aston Street. Both pubs are popular with students and staff from Aston University, BIAD, and the Science Park. The pubs in this area generally closed around 11pm before the change to the licensing laws in Britain in November 2005. Following the change in opening hours the Gosta Green and the Sack of Potatoes now close at 2am during the university terms.

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 1300s. It was known as Gostie Green by the mid 1700s, 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 1700s; 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 £6000 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 bookshop. The building has been empty since around 2002, and remains empty in 2008.

External links

* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/52067454@N00/2507869916/ A panorama of Gosta Green in 2008]

* The Pot of Beer Pub