B4133

Great Lister Street

The B4133 is a short link road in north central Birmingham, whose existence is disputed. The road came into existence in 1922 and may or may not have been downgraded in the 1980s with the growth of Aston University. At present the B4133 appears on some mapping coverage, and not on others, and it should be noted that it does not currently appear on Birmingham City Council's own list of classified roads, the itinerary below being described as "Un-numbered classified", i.e. Class III.

Its current, highly truncated route, is from A4540 Dartmouth Middleway along Great Lister Street out of the city, then turning right along the end of Rupert Street to meet the modern A47 Nechells Parkway, where it ends.

It formerly ran between between the Birmingham Inner Ring Road and the A47 along Aston Street, Lister Street and Great Lister Street in the Nechells Green area of the city, finally meeting A47 on Saltley Road. The main features of this route are pubs, tower blocks, industrial works and Aston University. En route it crossed the Digbeth Branch of the Grand Union Canal.

It was reduced in length in pieces. Firstly, the new A47 Nechells Parkway was partly built on the original route taking away its eastern section. Great Lister Street still linked into the Nechells Parkway at this stage, with a traffic-light controlled junction to the north-east of the present terminus. Secondly, developments around the Aston University campus resulted in Aston Street being both diverted and restricted to non-through traffic (it has now been severed completely). Finally, a nursery school and housing were built over the eastern end from the junction with Rupert Street through to the Parkway. Rupert Street was duly extended southwards and a new junction with the Parkway replaced the original terminus. It is not known when the section within the Middleway was declassified, but it seems likely to have been in the 1990's.

Despite its apparent insignificance on the map, what remains of B4133 is a busy little route, as it serves as a corner-cut between the Middleway and the Nechells Parkway, avoiding the traffic light junction at Ashted Circus, which can be very busy at peak periods. It also serves as access to an industrial estate, and is signed as such from the Middleway, though its number is omitted from the signs, and in fact there are no signs anywhere indicating its number. One notable piece of street furniture is the traffic signal still attached to a sawn-off lamp standard at the junction with the Middleway, one of very few such fixtures remaining in Birmingham.