From hard workers to shirkers: How Benefits Street was home to tradesman and working class labourers before culture of dependency set in

• People living on James Turner Street worked for low wages
• Bricklayers, railway workers and prison warders all lived there
• Ninety per cent of residents living in the 137-house street claim benefits

By MAIL ON SUNDAY REPORTER

Published: 11:17 EST, 18 January 2014 | Updated: 09:50 EST, 19 January 2014

Viewers have been shocked by Channel 4’s Benefits Street, portraying the lives of welfare-dependent residents on a road  in Birmingham.

Turn back the clock 100 years or so, and the newly built James Turner Street was a very different place, full of poor but hard-working families living in cramped conditions. But as this 1915 picture shows, a spirit of community prevailed.

The first people to move in in 1891 included blacksmiths, bricklayers, toolmakers, railway workers, jewellers and even a 13-year-old boy, described as a boilermaker.

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Then: The history of James Turner Street, made famous by Channel 4's Benefits Street, revealed on a website

Now: James Turner Street in Birmingham whose residents are featured in the Channel 4 TV show

According to census information, the terrace house now occupied by Deirdre ‘White Dee’ Kelly, was lived in by labourer James Jones, his wife and their five children, and his brother-in-law and sister-in-law. The current home of mother-of-three Charlene Wilson was lived in by the Roberts family of five and two lodgers. Next door was another family of six, a lodger and his two daughters.

Historian Bill Dargue said many people in the street 100 years ago worked in the iron trade, which would have would have been ‘hard and physical’. In contrast, James Turner Street today is blighted with crime and unemployment. Residents include alcoholic James Clarke, known as Fungi, and Mark Thomas, who admitted fiddling his benefits.

The history of James Turner Street, made famous by Channel 4's Benefits Street program, is revealed on a local website which details the background of Winson Green, Birmingham.

Ex-residents of the street speak of its crime-free and community feel and say they don't recognise the street portrayed on the program.

Researchers say the area used to be full of tradesmen and labourers as families moved in for work.

A website devoted to the area and its history, www.winsongreentobrookfields.co.uk, collects memories and photographs of James Turner Street's bygone days.

One ex-resident, John Cahill, wrote he was 'horrified' to see James Turner Street on the Channel 4 program.

He said: 'I was brought up in that street and considering how it was 45 years ago, a genuine community. I am ashamed to tell any one I spent my childhood there.'

Another nostalgic contributor wrote: 'I have just come across your site whilst looking for something else, and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw James Turner Street. My grandfather Edwin Rogers lived there.

'Those were the days when you didnt lock your door in the day unless the siren from the prison went off.'

Residents: 'White Dee' (left) who is portrayed on the Channel 4, TV show 'Benefits Street' as the 'mother' figure on the street and Mark Thomas who admitted fiddling his benefits (right)

Bricklayers, railway workers and prison warders all made the street their home when it was first built

The way it was: Ninety per cent of residents living in the 137-house street claim one or more benefits

Nina Clayton (left) says this is a picture of herself on James Turner Street dressed for church procession and Martin Hanchett says this photo (right) was taken around 1912 in the back yard of 103 James Turner Street

Yvonne Mosquito, Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands, owns a house in the street