JANUARY 27TH, 2010
By ADMIN

Solihull

Solihull West Midlands UK Hub

Approximate Population: 94,753

Solihull is a large town in the West Midlands of England, with a population of 94,753. It is a part of the West Midlands conurbation and is located 9 miles (14.5 km) southeast of Birmingham city centre. It is the largest town in, and administrative centre of, the larger Metropolitan Borough of Solihull which itself has a population of 200,400.

Residential development in Solihull comprises a variety of housing types, but features a notable preponderance of semi-detached, detached and town houses, with little or no true terraces. Many of the larger developments were constructed between 1950 and 1970. One of the earlier large scale developments centred around Beechwood Park Road and Stonor Park Road with new detached houses selling for £4,000 in 1952. Chelmsley Wood to the north of Solihull town centre is a large 1960s overspill estate for Birmingham, and is currently marketed under the name of “North Solihull”. In the early to mid-1980s, the new Monkspath district constructed east of Shirley (and close to the M42 motorway) was the UK’s single largest housing development of that decade.

Solihull offers a variety of shopping facilities. It has an open-air 1960s-style shopping centre called Mell Square. In recent years, the town has undergone much development, and the High Street has been pedestrianised since 1994. On July 2, 2002, a large new shopping centre, Touchwood, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II.

Solihull is the home of the four wheel drive car manufacturer Land Rover and a range of other major companies. The National Exhibition Centre, commonly thought to be in Birmingham, is in fact within the borough of Solihull, as is almost all of Birmingham International Airport and the ever-expanding Birmingham Business Park.