This film from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) investigates Suburban Birmingham; a collaborative research project which has succeeded in exposing the remarkable depth and richness of an 80-year period in the history of Birmingham’s south-western suburbs.

One of the main outputs of the project was the development of the new Birmingham History Galleries at Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (BMAG) which, like the new Library of Birmingham and the University of Birmingham research library, will include a multi-user ‘Suburban Birmingham app’ running on 50-inch screens, similar to massive iPhones.

The short film was made at the launch and opening of the Suburban Birmingham app at the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. It was a chance for researchers, museums, libraries and galleries professionals, and local residents to come together to share information on, and to celebrate n the rich local history of the suburbs where they live and work.

The legacy of the project, Suburban Birmingham: spaces and places, 1880-1960, is most visible in an interactive project website (opens in a new window) that brings the heritage of the area to life through a multimedia array of digitised documents, objects, interpretive texts, video and essays written by the research team.