Alum Rock includes the connecting streets of the 3 km Alum Rock Road beginning at Saltley Gate and ending at Railway Bridge. Once through the main shopping area, Alum Rock Road continues towards Stechford, passing through Pelham, before joining Washwood Heath Road at the Fox & Goose the eastern part of the main road is in Ward End. The area locally known as "The Rock" starts at Saltley Gate and ends at the junction with Highfield Road and Bowyer Road. Singer-songwriter and founding member of Duran Duran, Stephen Duffy, was born and brought up in Alum Rock. Alum Rock covers most of Saltley and so runs into many of Saltley's neighbouring areas, Bordesley Green to the south, Ward End to the north and east and Nechells to the west. Washwood Heath Road, which also begins at Saltley Gate, runs loosely parallel to Alum Rock Road for a mile, before both main roads join up in front of the Fox & Goose.
Brummie rhyming slang
According to the historian, Carl Chinn, Alum Rock is the only place name in Birmingham that features in Brummie rhyming slang and refers to 'socks', e.g. "Pull your Alum Rocks up! This is actually all false and if it is real, very outdated.".
Until 2018 Alum Rock was part of the Washwood Heath ward. Following boundary changes in 2018 the area is now included in eponymous Alum Rock ward. Census Data from the 2001 Census identifies the ward as having a higher population density, lower average age and a significantly higher ethnic minority population against the Birmingham average.
Community organisations
The Saltley Gate Peace Group is an organisation based in Alum Rock, taking its name from the local roundabout which leads to the areas main shopping area, Alum Rock road.
Alum Rock is a crime hot spot, "marred by shootings and gangland turf war." Alum Rock is also notorious for numerous arrests for terror-related offences. In 2019 homophobic protests in both Sparkhill and Alum Rock were further supported by groups such as Hibz ut-Tahrir, outside primary schools. In these protests teachers reported to have "received threats and branded the protests as "aggressive". Many articles were also written about an incident involving racist graffiti which depicted the slogan "no whites allowed after 8pm". Washwood Heath's Labour Councillor Ansar Ali Khan had stated in response to this that similar vandalism took place three years prior in neighboring district Saltley on lampposts.
Sports
One step taken towards community cohesion comes in the form of sport. The Alum rock area has its own football club. Set up in the 90s by the late Farid Raja, Alum Rock FC takes part in the South Birmingham Football League every season. The club is now looking to expand and include youth teams along with its senior First XI.
