Selly Oak

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Selly Oak constituency shown within Birmingham

Selly Oak is an area in south Birmingham, England. It is also a ward and formal district, managed by its own district committee.

Birmingham Selly Oak is a constituency; its member of Parliament is Dr Lynne Jones.

The Birmingham and Worcester Canal forms the northern boundary of the area.

A number of colleges, mainly theological, collectively called the Selly Oak Colleges are now part of the University of Birmingham. These include the College of the Ascension, originally founded to train women missionaries. After the College of Ascension being closed down the USPG and the Methodist Churches in UK have started a new centre for Mission Studies at the Queens College, Somerset Road, Birmingham. This centre is known as Selly Oak Centre for Mission Studies (SOCMS). Rev Val is the Director for this centre and Rev Dr Joshva Raja is the tutor for the world Mission Studies.

The famous Cadbury chocolate factory is nearby in Bournville.

[edit] Population and services

Selly Oak is the principal area of private housing for students at the University of Birmingham, with over 1500 houses occupied. Due to the high number of students, there is a multitude of pubs such as the Gun Barrels, the Bristol Pear, TC's, the Soak and the Goose at the OVT. There are also numerous eateries on Bristol Road, such as Woodstock, Mud Cafe, Adam's Place and the Selly Sausage. Adam's Place was awarded "Best Takeway Service in Selly Oak" in a recent student poll in Redbrick (The University of Birmingham Student Newspaper). Second only to Moseley, Selly Oak also has a high concentration of curry houses. There are also four supermarkets in the area: Tesco Express, Aldi, Budgens and Sainsbury's.

Selly Oak was blighted for a large part of the Twentieth Century by a road-widening scheme for the Bristol Road (A38). In the latter half of that century, many historic buildings were demolished, leaving a degraded urban environment around the Bristol Road.

Plans for significant regeneration of the area were confirmed in 2005. A new 10m wide, 1.5km stretch of road will alleviate the heavily congested Bristol Road, with improvements to public transport and other facilities in the area. A major Sainsbury's superstore will be built, replacing the existing Selly Oak store. Work will be completed by 2009.

Selly Oak has a gym called the Tiverton Pool and Fitness Centre. This health centre includes a swimming pool, a smaller instruction pool, Pulse Point gym, sunbed, sauna and seating for spectators.

The redevelopment of the area also involves the local hospitals Selly Oak Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital which together form the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. Construction work has started on a new hospital on the current Queen Elizabeth site, and is due to be completed in 2009. [1] On completion it is thought that Selly Oak Hospital will close.

Selly Oak is served by Selly Oak railway station on the Birmingham Cross-City Line, providing services to Birmingham New Street, Lichfield Trent valley and Redditch stations.