Merlin Close Birmingham

11 addresses across 1 postcode (B35), about 70 m long, classed as a local road. USRN 2744729.

  • Energy: 10 homes have an energy certificate (C: 10).
  • Flood: 7 addresses on its postcodes are in areas at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers, the sea or surface water.
  • Council tax: Most homes around it are in council tax band A; Band D in Birmingham costs £2,363 a year in 2026-27.
  • Broadband: Gigabit broadband is available to 100% of premises.
  • Transport: The nearest railway station is Water Orton, about 3.2 km (2 miles) away in a straight line.
  • Green space: The nearest park or garden is about 110 m away.
  • Air: Background air pollution in 2024 was 15.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 8.1 of PM2.5, within UK legal limits.
  • Height: It is about 82 m above sea level.
  • Noise: 9 of its 11 addresses are modelled at 55 dB or more from road traffic.
  • Doctors: The nearest GP surgery is Eden Court Medical Practice, about 290 m away, with 5 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile).
  • People: About 320 people lived in the census areas around it in 2021; 38% of households owned their home and 14% of adults held a degree or other higher qualification.
  • Crime: 137 crimes were recorded within 250 m between September 2025 and August 2026, most often violence and sexual offences.

Sales on this street

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, sales registered up to 28 August 2026, loaded 28 October 2026. Sales reach the register two weeks to two months after completion, so the last two months are incomplete. Matched by postcode and street name.

No sales recorded on this street since January 1995 under this street name.

Energy performance certificates

Source: Energy Performance of Buildings Register (MHCLG), register as at 1 November 2026. Latest certificate per address; certificates last ten years, so the oldest here dates from March 2009 and some homes have none. Address data © Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail, shown for understanding the energy efficiency of buildings only.

10 homes with a current certificate; median floor area 82 m². Most common: House, semi-detached (9); House, end-terrace (1). Built: 1996-2002 (9); 1983-1990 (1). Tenure at assessment: rented (social) (6).

Each home's certificates and sales (6 addresses)

Council tax

What each band costs in Birmingham in 2026-27: Band D £2,363 a year on average, including the police, fire and any county and parish charges.

ABCDEFGH
£1,575£1,838£2,100£2,363£2,888£3,413£3,938£4,726

Homes by band in the neighbourhood around this street: most are in band A (58% of about 810 homes).

Sources: Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties, homes at 31 March 2026 (counts rounded to the nearest 10; some small counts withheld), for the neighbourhood (census area of about 700 homes) around it, not just this street; Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, council tax levels 2026-27. Bands are charged as fixed shares of Band D; the actual bill depends on the parish and on discounts such as the single-person discount. Check a home's own band with the official council tax band checker.

Planning and heritage

  • Conservation area: no postcode centre in this street's postcodes is in one.
  • Listed buildings on or by this street: none.
  • Article 4 direction (removing permitted development rights): CITY WIDE HMO.
  • Tree preservation orders: none recorded, though not every council has published theirs.
  • Green belt: no.

Brownfield land registered for housing within 1 km (0.6 miles)

Source: planning.data.gov.uk (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), compiled from councils and, for listed buildings, Historic England's National Heritage List. Conservation areas, Article 4 directions, tree preservation areas and the green belt are checked at each postcode's centre. Listed buildings and protected trees are counted on or by this street. Councils publish Article 4 directions, tree preservation orders and brownfield registers to different standards, and some not yet. Planning applications are not here: there is no national open record of them yet.

Roadworks

Planned, as of 31 October 2026

  • 4 November 2026: BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL, Highway improvement works, some carriageway incursion, on the footway (minor works, permit applied for)

Source: Department for Transport, Street Manager open data, permits and works up to 31 October 2026. It is published once a month, so works arranged or started since then are not shown, and dates are the ones planned unless the works have started or finished. Emergency works are often permitted after they begin.

Flood risk

Rivers, the sea or surface water: in this street's postcodes, 0 addresses are in areas at high risk, 7 at medium risk and 3 at low risk. Each address counts once, at the higher of its rivers-and-sea and surface-water risk.

Rivers and the sea alone: of the 10 homes the Environment Agency counts, 0 are in areas at high risk, 7 medium, 3 low and 0 very low.

High: 3.3% (1 in 30) or more chance of flooding a year. Medium: 1% to 3.3%. Low: 0.1% to 1%. Very low: under 0.1%. The rivers and sea figures allow for flood defences. Counts cover whole postcodes, which can include other streets.

Flood zone for planning: the postcode centre is in flood zone 2. Zone 2 is between 0.1% and 1% a year from rivers (0.1% and 0.5% from the sea), ignoring defences.

Sources: Environment Agency Flood risk: postcode search tool data (loaded 29 October 2026), Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea: postcodes in areas at risk (loaded 29 October 2026) and Flood Map for Planning (loaded 28 October 2026). Flood zones are checked at each postcode's centre point. These are models of areas, which their publishers say are not suitable for showing whether an individual property is at risk, and they do not cover flooding from sewers or drains. Check an address on the official long-term flood risk service.

© Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2026. All rights reserved. Some features are based on digital spatial data from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, © NERC (CEH); the postcode data is produced in part from PAF® and Multiple Residence Data, © Royal Mail Group Limited.

Height above sea level

The street's addresses are about 82 m above sea level.

Source: Ordnance Survey, OS Terrain 50, July 2026: the height of the ground on a 50 m grid, read at each address, in metres above Ordnance Datum (mean sea level at Newlyn). It is the lie of the land, not floor or threshold levels, and is accurate to a few metres. Being low-lying is not in itself a flood risk; the flood section above says what the flood maps show.

Broadband

Source: Ofcom Connected Nations, data as at January 2026. Percentages are of premises in each postcode that can get the service, not take-up or speed achieved.

Availability by postcode (% of premises)
PostcodeSuperfast (30 Mbit/s+)Ultrafast (300 Mbit/s+)GigabitBelow 10 Mbit/s
B35 7JW100%100%100%0%

Getting around

Sources: Department for Transport, NaPTAN (every public transport stop), as at 31 October 2026; Office of Rail and Road, Estimates of station usage 2024–25 (which stations are on the National Rail network, and their journeys: entries and exits in the year to March); OurAirports (public domain, kept by volunteers); car parks and charging points from Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-10-21.0, which gathers business listings from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and others: not an official register, so some will be missing, private or out of date. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street, not routes, and say nothing about how often anything runs. Stations opened since the end of ORR's year appear when ORR publishes the next one, each December; heritage railways are left out.

NearestDistance
Railway stationsWater Orton 47,000 journeys in 2024–253.2 km (2 miles)
Chester Road 659,000 journeys in 2024–253.5 km (2.1 miles)
Erdington 481,000 journeys in 2024–253.5 km (2.2 miles)
Bus stops9 stops within 400 m (0.2 miles), 34 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Watton Green Castle Vale40 m
Bus or coach stationBirmingham Coach Station Digbeth8.3 km (5.1 miles)
Car parksM Castle Bromwich Car Park2.3 km (1.4 miles)
EV charging points4 within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest PoGo Charge780 m (0.5 miles)
Airport with scheduled flightsBirmingham Airport BHX7.7 km (4.8 miles)

Local services

Sources: NHS Organisation Data Service, as at 31 October 2026: GP practices, community pharmacies and dental practices with an NHS contract, open now, each placed at the centre of its postcode; hospitals are NHS trust and Welsh health board sites named as hospitals, and may not have an emergency department. Police stations and cash machines from Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-10-21.0, which gathers business listings: not an official register, so some will be missing or out of date. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street. Nothing here says whether a practice is taking new patients or a dentist new NHS patients.

NearestDistance
GP surgeries5 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Eden Court Medical Practice290 m
Pharmacies6 pharmacies within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Castle Vale Pharmacy390 m
NHS dentists1 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Castle Dental Care390 m
HospitalNorthcroft Hospital4.5 km (2.8 miles)
Police stationShard End Police Station3 km (1.9 miles)
Cash machines2 machines within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Payzone230 m

Parks and green space

Source: Ordnance Survey, OS Open Greenspace, April 2026: public parks and gardens, play spaces, playing fields and allotments, with their entrances. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street to a site's nearest entrance (or its edge where none is recorded), not walking routes; sizes are the area OS maps for each site. Some sites, such as school playing fields, may not be open to the public.

NearestDistance
Park or garden5 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Unnamed 2.1 ha110 m
Play area6 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Unnamed 650 m²150 m
Playing fieldUnnamed 7.0 ha1.6 km (1 mile)
AllotmentsCastle Vale Allotments 2.1 ha830 m (0.5 miles)

Within 800 m (0.5 miles): 5 parks and gardens, 4.8 hectares in all.

Landmarks

The nearest historic landmark is Bromwich Castle, a scheduled monument, 1.2 km (0.7 miles) south. 1 listed building is within 1 km (0.6 miles).

Historic places
NameWhat it isFrom the middle of the street
Bromwich CastleScheduled monument1.2 km (0.7 miles) south
Castle Bromwich HallRegistered park or garden, Grade II*1.6 km (1 mile) south
Natural landmarks within 5 km (3.1 miles)
NameWhat it isFrom the middle of the street
Dragonfly PoolLake or reservoir950 m (0.6 miles) north
Langley Hill WoodWood1 km (0.6 miles) south-east
Grey LakeLake or reservoir1 km (0.6 miles) north
Plants Brook ReservoirsLake or reservoir1 km (0.6 miles) north
Black PoolLake or reservoir1.1 km (0.7 miles) north
Chattle HillHill4.9 km (3.1 miles) east

Sources: Historic England's registers through planning.data.gov.uk (MHCLG), and Cadw through DataMapWales (Welsh Government): World Heritage Sites within 10 km (6.2 miles), battlefields within 5 km (3.1 miles), registered parks and gardens within 3 km (1.9 miles), scheduled monuments within 2 km (1.2 miles), and Grade I and II* listed buildings within 1 km (0.6 miles). Ordnance Survey, OS Open Names, October 2026: named hills, valleys, lakes, woods, wetlands and coast (it has no rivers). Distances are in a straight line to the middle of each site, and being on a register does not mean there is public access.

Air quality

Source: Defra, modelled background air pollution, annual means for 2024, for the 1 km square that holds the middle of the street. These are background levels, away from the kerb: beside a busy road nitrogen dioxide in particular can be several times higher. UK limits are the legal annual limits for England and Wales; the World Health Organization's 2021 guidelines are much stricter, and most towns and cities are above them.

Annual means in µg/m³ (micrograms per cubic metre of air)
PollutantHereUK limitWHO guideline
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)15.24010
Fine particles (PM2.5)8.1205
Particles (PM10)13.44015

All three are within the UK legal limits; nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5 are above the WHO guideline, as in most towns and cities.

Road, rail and aircraft noise

Source: Defra, strategic noise mapping Round 4 (England), modelled for 2021 and published in December 2023, and its airport maps of the same round for the fifteen largest English airports, published in April 2026: Lden, the average sound level over a whole day with extra weight for the evening and night, on a 10 m grid, read at each address. These are models of traffic, not measurements; they leave out smaller airports and airfields, industry and neighbours, and a room at the back of a house is often much quieter than the front. The World Health Organization's guidelines are 53 dB for road traffic, 54 dB for railways and 45 dB for aircraft (below the lowest level shown here).

Addresses by modelled noise level (Lden, dB)
LevelRoad trafficRailwaysAircraft
55 to 59900
Under 5521111

9 of the street's 11 addresses are modelled at 55 dB or more from road traffic, above the WHO guidelines.

Climate, daylight and earthquakes

Monthly temperatures and rainfall, sunrise and sunset through the year, and earthquakes recorded nearby since 1970 are much the same across the area, so they are worked out once for Birmingham: see them on the Birmingham page.

Nearest schools

Source: Get Information About Schools (Department for Education), 3 November 2026; Ofsted monthly management information as at September 2026. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street to the school; catchments and admissions are not shown. Since November 2025 Ofsted gives report-card grades by area, not one overall grade; older grades stand until a school is re-inspected.

SchoolPhaseAgesDistanceInspection
Topcliffe Primary SchoolPrimary4–11350 m No overall grade (Apr 2025, graded inspection without an overall judgement): Quality of education: Good; Behaviour and attitudes: Good; Personal development: Outstanding; Leadership and management: Good
Castle Vale Nursery SchoolNursery2–5370 m No published inspection
Chivenor Primary SchoolPrimary2–11370 m No overall grade (Feb 2025, graded inspection without an overall judgement): Quality of education: Good; Behaviour and attitudes: Outstanding; Personal development: Outstanding; Leadership and management: Good
St Gerard's Catholic Primary School Roman CatholicPrimary3–11490 m (0.3 miles) No published inspection
Pegasus Primary SchoolPrimary2–11510 m (0.3 miles) Report card (Dec 2025): Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard; Achievement: Expected standard; Attendance and behaviour: Expected standard; Personal development and wellbeing: Expected standard; Inclusion: Expected standard; Leadership and governance: Expected standard; Early years: Expected standard; Safeguarding standards: Met
Lift GreenwoodSecondary11–18540 m (0.3 miles) Report card (Jan 2026): Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard; Achievement: Needs attention; Attendance and behaviour: Needs attention; Personal development and wellbeing: Expected standard; Inclusion: Expected standard; Leadership and governance: Expected standard; Safeguarding standards: Met
Gunter Primary SchoolPrimary4–111.3 km (0.8 miles) No overall grade (Oct 2024, graded inspection without an overall judgement): Quality of education: Good; Behaviour and attitudes: Good; Personal development: Outstanding; Leadership and management: Good
St Mary and St Margaret's Church of England Aided Primary SchoolPrimary3–111.6 km (1 mile) Good (Jun 2024, overall grade under the previous framework)
St Wilfrid's Catholic Junior and Infant School Roman CatholicPrimary3–111.7 km (1.1 miles) Good (Mar 2024, overall grade under the previous framework)
Minworth Junior and Infant SchoolPrimary4–111.8 km (1.1 miles) Good (Dec 2019, overall grade under the previous framework)
Firs Primary SchoolPrimary3–111.8 km (1.1 miles) Report card (Feb 2026): Curriculum and teaching: Needs attention; Achievement: Needs attention; Attendance and behaviour: Needs attention; Personal development and wellbeing: Expected standard; Inclusion: Needs attention; Leadership and governance: Needs attention; Early years: Needs attention; Safeguarding standards: Met
Walmley Junior SchoolPrimary7–111.9 km (1.2 miles) No overall grade (Nov 2024, graded inspection without an overall judgement): Quality of education: Good; Behaviour and attitudes: Good; Personal development: Outstanding; Leadership and management: Good

Food hygiene ratings nearby

Source: Food Standards Agency, Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, extract of 3 November 2026. Each rating is shown with the date it was given; a business may have been re-inspected since the extract. Within 500 m (0.3 miles) of the middle of the street.

BusinessTypeDistanceRatingRated
Pizza Ko B35 7JGMobile caterer280 mAwaiting inspection
Premier was Costcutter B35 7JGRetailers - other300 m2 Improvement necessary25 Nov 2025
VMV food and wine B35 7JGRetailers - other300 m5 Very good25 Sep 2024
Topcliffe Primary Academy B35 6BSSchool/college/university350 m5 Very good19 Jul 2018
Slimming World B35 7LQRetailers - other360 m5 Very good7 Dec 2017
Castle Vale Food Pantry B35 7HYTakeaway/sandwich shop360 m5 Very good3 Oct 2024
Slimming World Castle Vale B35 7PLOther catering premises360 m5 Very good3 May 2024
Castle Vale Residents Association B35 6QPOther catering premises390 m3 Generally satisfactory20 Jun 2024
Bengal 30Five B35 6DLRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen390 m3 Generally satisfactory7 Jul 2026
Lloyds Pharmacy B35 6DLRetailers - other390 mExempt
Castle Vale Post Office B35 6DLRetailers - other390 mExempt
CastleVale News B35 6BBRetailers - other400 m (0.2 miles)5 Very good13 Dec 2016
St Cuthberts Church Hall B35 7PLOther catering premises410 m (0.3 miles)5 Very good22 Mar 2012
Apple Tree Nursery (Castle Vale) B35 7PLHospitals/Childcare/Caring Premises410 m (0.3 miles)5 Very good17 Dec 2024
Castle Vale Swimming Pool B35 7EHRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen420 m (0.3 miles)5 Very good17 Jan 2012

Crime within 250 m

Source: data.police.uk street-level crime, September 2025 to August 2026. Police forces move every crime to the nearest of about 760,000 anonymised map points before publishing, so these are crimes near this street, not on it, and a busy point can collect crimes from a wider area. Counts are of records, not convictions.

137 recorded crimes by category
CategoryCrimes
Violence and sexual offences85
Criminal damage and arson14
Public order8
Anti-social behaviour7
Vehicle crime6
Other theft4
Drugs3
Possession of weapons3
Other crime3
Burglary2
Theft from the person1
Robbery1

Most of these are attached to: On or near Oakington Drive (22); On or near Chigwell Close (21); On or near Cosford Crescent (20); On or near Cranwell Way (14); On or near Long Close Walk (13).

People and work

Source: ONS Census 2021, taken on 21 March 2021, for the Output Area (a small census area of about 125 households) that this street's postcodes are in: 324 residents in 104 households. The census was taken during a lockdown, so working from home is high and travel to work low compared with now. ONS swaps a few records between neighbouring areas and adds small amounts of noise to counts to protect privacy, so small differences mean little. Industry is not published for areas this small.

Who lives here

Around this streetEngland
Median age3140
Children under 1526%17%
Aged 65 and over11%18%

Homes

Around this streetEngland
Owned (outright or with a mortgage)38%61%
Owned outright18%33%
Shared ownership0%1%
Social rented48%17%
Private rented14%21%

Work and commuting

Around this streetEngland
Adults (16 and over) in work54%57%
Unemployment (of those working or looking for work)11%6%
Retired (of adults)11%22%
Long-term sick or disabled (of adults)9%4%
Work mainly from home (of those in work)12%32%
Travel to work by car or van61%48%
By train, Underground, metro or tram0%4%
By any public transport, including bus12%8%
On foot or by bicycle12%10%
Work within 10 km (6 miles) of home (of those who travel to work)70%65%
Work 30 km (19 miles) or more away5%8%

Education and languages

Around this streetEngland
Degree or other higher qualification, Level 4+ (of adults)14%34%
No qualifications36%18%
Apprenticeship as highest qualification5%5%
Main language English (aged 3 and over)92%91%
Cannot speak English well or at all1%2%

Deprivation

The neighbourhood around this street is in decile 1 of 10 on the English Indices of Deprivation 2025, where 1 is the most deprived tenth of England's 33,755 neighbourhoods and 10 the least.

Source: English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), by LSOA (about 1,500 people), through the ONS Postcode Directory. The index combines income, employment, health, education, crime, housing and living environment; it ranks areas against each other and does not describe any one household. Ranks in England and Wales are worked out separately and cannot be compared.

What has changed

  • Roadworks Street works permit: BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL: Highway improvement works, 4 November 2026 (some carriageway incursion) found 3 November 2026

Everything that has changed on and near this street

Postcodes on this street

Source: ONS Postcode Directory August 2026, ONS UPRN Directory September 2026, OS Open Linked Identifiers September 2026. A postcode can cover more than one street; the share shows how many of its addresses are on this one.

Nearby streets

Tangmere Drive · Watton Green · Sheridan Walk · Cosford Crescent · Long Close Walk · Chigwell Close · Oakington Drive · Rye Grass Walk · Chigwell Close · Yatesbury Avenue · Cranwell Way · Abingdon Way

All the streets in B35 and across Birmingham.

What this page cannot tell you

  • Whether a particular house is at risk of flooding, subsiding or anything else: the flood map is a model of areas and there is no property-level data here.
  • What a home is worth now: sales are historic prices for the homes that happened to sell.
  • How safe the street is: crime points are moved to anonymised locations and many crimes are never reported.
  • Whether you would get a place at a school: distances are straight lines, not catchments.
  • Who lives on the street now: census figures describe the small areas around it in March 2021, during a lockdown.
  • How long a journey takes or how often anything runs: transport distances are straight lines to the nearest stops.
  • Whether a GP practice is taking new patients, or a dentist new NHS patients.
  • How loud a home is inside, or noise from industry, neighbours or smaller airfields: noise figures are models of road, rail and air traffic outside.

How each figure on this page is matched to the street and worked out: methodology.