- Resident George Drummond used to be proud of the street where he lives
- Not any more - the street features thieves, benefit cheats and child brides
PUBLISHED: 22:32, 10 January 2014 | UPDATED: 06:44, 11 January 2014
George Drummond’s mid-terrace has what estate agents call ‘kerb appeal’. Neighbouring properties could do with a good lick of paint (and a lot more besides), but Mr Drummond’s home in James Turner Street, a brisk stroll from Birmingham city centre, is as neat as a pin, inside and out.
The windows are spotless, the black and gold railings glisten in the winter sun, and his front garden, resplendent with potted plants and hanging baskets, could grace the Britain in Bloom contest.
‘I’m 83 and I have spent 53 years on this street,’ he said. ‘Always in this house.’ George Drummond is proud of his home, where he and his wife, a nurse, raised their three children. He is proud of his adopted country, having arrived here from Jamaica in the Fifties and spending the next 30-odd years as a bus driver, barely missing a day at the wheel. Once upon a time, he also used to be proud of the street where he has lived all his adult life.
Stole £13,000: 'White Dee' (Deirdre Kelly) presents herself as a leader of the local community
Anyone who tuned in to Channel 4 at 9pm on Monday will understand why that last sentence is in the past tense. For the row of Victorian terraces is now the subject of a controversial five-part series, called Benefits Street, which began this week.
By the time the first instalment had finished (it was repeated on Wednesday), James Turner Street in the heart of Winson Green had become possibly the most infamous residential street in the country.
The ‘majority’ of residents in the 99 addresses are living off the state, the programme-makers told us, before introducing a motley cast of characters who could have walked straight off the set of The Jeremy Kyle Show.
Recidivist ‘Danny’ (Danny Smith) admitted being too lazy to work and was filmed demonstrating the tricks of his trade as a shoplifter. Mark and Becky (Mark Thomas and Becky Howe) brazenly told how they had all their benefits stopped because of fraudulent claims.
‘White Dee’ (Deidre Kelly) and ‘Black Dee’ (Dee Roberts), nicknamed by their neighbours on account of their colour, presented themselves as leaders of the local community.
But we now know the former is a convicted criminal who, when employed by the city council, stole cash set aside for vulnerable tenants; and the latter is on bail in connection with a racially aggravated incident in James Turner Street last August and a drugs bust last June.
Some 4.2 million viewers saw the opening episode of Benefits Street, making it the most popular show on Channel 4 for more than a year.
But there was instant controversy. Channel 4 itself could now face a police probe following complaints from members of the public and local politicians that the broadcaster ‘aided and abetted shoplifting in Birmingham’ by letting Danny brag about his methods.
And there were howls of protest from those who took part in the programme. Residents claimed TV bosses bribed them with cigarettes, beer and McDonalds meals.
Recidivist 'Danny' (Danny Smith) admits he is too lazy to work and was filmed demonstrating shoplifting
They said they were made to look like ‘complete scum’ because the way they were portrayed was ‘unfair and unrepresentative’.
The MP Dame Anne Begg complained that the show was a ‘misrepresentation’ of life for people on social security, as it focuses almost exclusively on people receiving unemployment benefits, which make up only a small proportion of the overall social security bill.
More than 3,000 people signed an online petition calling on Channel 4 not to screen the rest of the series. But would those same people feel the same way if they saw James Turner Street through the eyes of George Drummond and the many other decent residents we spoke to this week, many of whom were too frightened to be identified?
On Thursday morning, for example, a typical sight greeted Mr Drummond when he opened his curtains. Just a few yards from his front door, an old mattress and other rubbish had appeared in the middle of the road, surrounded by broken glass, empty cans of super-strength lager and discarded vodka bottles. Nearby gardens resembled Steptoe’s yard, with chairs, beds and junk piled high.
Lead has been stolen from the chapel roof four times in recent months. The stained glass windows, one couldn’t help but notice, were covered by metal security grilles.
Home Office figures reveal police were contacted about some form of crime in James Turner Street every month last year, including drug abuse, criminal damage, arson and anti-social behaviour.
One elderly couple told how, not so long ago, someone poured acid over the plants in their front garden.
Why would anyone do such a thing? Simply because they had politely refused to allow some young children from the street to play in their back garden unsupervised.
‘We could never prove it but we knew it was to do with that,’ said the husband. ‘That what we’re up against here.’
Insurance companies demand prohibitive premiums for vehicle cover in B18 — the Winson Green postcode.
‘When I lived in Edgbaston, my insurance on one car was £500 a year and £400 on the other,’ said a young father, who ran a takeaway business in another part of Birmingham before being re-housed here by the council.
‘When I called to renew my policy last month, they told me it would now be £3,000 a year for one car and £4,000 for the other. All because we live in B18.’
Benefit cheats: Parents Mark Thomas and Becky Howe were picking up £1,500 a month in benefits
His 12-year-old son, he said, is being singled out at school because of his address.
‘After the show went out, he got a text from a friend. It said: “Why didn’t you tell us you live on a bad street. You live on a thieves street, you are a thief. We won’t be your friend anymore. [sic]’’’
Indeed, James Turner Street has become a bizarre local attraction. Drivers have been spotted lowering their car windows to photograph the street sign on their mobile phones, just as they might with a famous landmark.
Yet perhaps the more depressing thing about the street is that in the Britain of today it is not especially unusual.
Figures for benefit claimants are not broken down street by street, so it is impossible to get an exact figure for the number of people receiving handouts in the road.
It is worth stressing that it was ‘White Dee’, not the documentary-makers, who said: ‘Probably, five per cent of people on this road are working.’ And it was ‘Black Dee’ who was seen walking along, pointing at house after house, declaring almost triumphantly: ‘Unemployed, unemployed, unemployed.’ The narrator was more circumspect, saying only that the ‘majority’ of residents were on benefits of between £500 and £900 a month.
James Turner Street was chosen because it falls within Soho ward, part of the Ladywood parliamentary constituency. In Soho, 9.8 per cent of all residents of working age claim Jobseeker’s Allowance alone, which is more than three times the national average according to the most recent data.
But in other wards the jobless figure is even higher: Aston (12.1 per cent), Sparkbrook (11), Handsworth (10.5), Washwood Heath (10.2). Comparable areas can be found across the country.
In other words, James Turner Street is just one of many where the ‘something for nothing culture’ — to use Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s words — has transformed the fundamental character of a once-respectable neighbourhood. Take the house where Mark Thomas and Becky Howe live. The couple, both 23, have two children and were picking up £1,500 a month in benefits from this address at one point. By their own admission, all their payments stopped after they were caught fiddling claims — but they still see themselves as victims.
‘They [the producers] just tried to make us look like slums — everyone on the street is fuming about it,’ Miss Howe told the Birmingham Mail. ‘Half of my family and friends have already disowned me because of it. Some want me to change my name by deed poll.’
Romanian immigrants - including a child bride and one English speaker - who clash with other residents
Controversial: The series has been attacked for its portrayal of claimants
Yet isn’t there a telling contrast when you see who once lived here?
The 1911 census tells us that Mark and Becky’s house was once home to Edwin Toole, 69, and his wife Elizabeth, 59. Edwin was a blacksmith and Elizabeth a shop manager. Their daughter Sophie, 21, was a sewing machinist and her sister, 19, worked in a warehouse.
Hard work, not fraudulent benefit claims, paid the family’s bills.
Or take the case of 32-year-old Dee Roberts, aka ‘Black Dee’, who has not worked for six years.
Back when the street was first built, her house was occupied by Frederick Hodges, 48, his wife Laura, 47, Mabel, 18, and Howard, 16.
Every member of the family was in employment — Frederick as a house painter, Laura as a nurse, Mabel as a typesetter and Howard as a sewing machine mechanic.
Today, a few doors along the road, we find Deirdre Kelly, 42. Viewers were told that ‘White Dee’ was struggling to bring up two children on benefits, and there was no sign of a partner. Yet her Facebook page, until a few days ago at least, was full of photos of family holidays and pop concerts.
‘I will always look out for my friends because that is the sort of person I am,’ declared the woman who boasts of being the ‘mother of the street’ but who once stole £13,000 from the vulnerable to fund her lover’s crack habit.
In 1911, Deirdre Kelly’s residence was home to Ellen Ashforth, 41, who was a full-time mum to five children, four aged under ten. Her husband Jesse, 38, and one son, 20, were both silversmith polishers.
The traditional values espoused by working-class families like the Ashforths, Hodges and Tooles, and passed down from father to son, mother to daughter, continued down the generations until George Drummond arrived on James Turner Street in the Sixties.
Proof decent people still live there: Long-suffering resident George Drummond
By then he was married and employed on the buses. His three children attended the school at the top of the road. Many of their neighbours worked at firms such as General Electrics and IMI.
‘We all left in the morning and came back in the evening,’ he recalled in the lounge of his three-bedroom terrace, which is covered in family photos.
‘You knew everybody. Many owned their own homes and people took pride in them. In summer, everyone would be out the back. Maybe you might have a beer, but there was never any trouble.’
Over the years, like most industrial cities, Birmingham slid into economic decline and ‘working class’ was replaced by ‘underclass.’
The most dramatic change in James Turner Street occurred around seven years ago, coinciding with the closure of General Electrics, which provided thousands of local jobs. Owner-occupiers began to move out, and people in temporary housing began to move in.
It was around this time that Deidre Kelly surfaced in the road.
Mr Drummond stresses that he has nothing against any of the residents on his street but adds: ‘You don’t know now who your neighbours are. You’re not able to get to know them. They might be there one day and then they’re gone. The nextdoor house has been empty for a month, and so has the one with all the rubbish out the front.’
The school at the end of the street where Mr Drummond’s children went, and where pupils now speak 20 different languages, was placed in ‘special measures’ by Ofsted in July. Inspectors found attendance and standards of reading, writing and maths to be ‘below average’.
Back on the street, we finally caught up with ‘Black Dee’, in a manner of speaking. She ‘spoke’ to us through the letter box of ‘White Dee’s’ house: ‘You lot have been harassing me and I don’t want to talk to you. If you print anything that is wrong, I will sue for libel.’
No doubt, we will be seeing more of the two Dees in future episodes of Benefits Street. Apparently, we will also be introduced to a family of Romanian immigrants — including a child bride and one solitary English speaker — who clash with other residents.
‘I cried when I saw the documentary,’ admitted one elderly women, who has lived on the street for 40 years. ‘It broke my heart. It used to be a beautiful street. It was full of families and hard-working people. It was a lovely community.’
But isn’t the story of James Turner Road also the story of the way so much of Britain is now going?
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