It was derided as the dingy heartland of British industry and later as a famous example of how not to rebuild a city centre, but Birmingham is now a gleaming example to the rest of Britain. So says the British Cleaning Council, which has decided that the city is the cleanest place the country.

Not only did Birmingham win the cleanest city category, judges thought it the cleanest place in the country overall: it triumphed over relatively untarnished towns such as Chester, Durham and Ipswich.

For Mike Whitby, the council leader, it was vindication of Birmingham’s latest and most celebrated regeneration schemes, its street cleaning regime and recycling policy.

Birmingham was still a tiny hamlet in a thickly wooded region of England when it was evaluated by the Normans in the Domesday Book.

It was, however, well-suited for the industry that would later make it the centre of Britain’s industrial revolution. The land was dry, but with a good supply of water, and easy access to coal, iron and timber.

When a traveller named John Leland visited the settlement during the reign of Henry VIII he noted a proliferation of small forges and workshops producing knives and nails. He did not remark on the cleanliness of the place, although Elihu Burritt, the American Consul to Birmingham in 1862, did. “Black by day and red by night,” he wrote. Birmingham had become a metal working centre during the Civil War, mills had sprung up, then steel factories, manufacturing wares for foreign markets at basement prices. Many of the workers lived in crowded, back-to-back housing that degenerated into slums.

The city was a target for the Luftwaffe during the Second World War, though many maintained that the town planners of the 1950s’ and 1960s’ did more damage than the bombers ever could.

The stark concrete designs the architects dreamt up were implemented with rigour, and while the manufacturing industry declined and unemployment rose, the city was described by critics as a grey and dismal place, a decaying industrial town made uglier by its new buildings.

Since then regeneration projects have gone some way to moving Birmingham back on the tourist map. The National Exhibition Centre was built in the 1970s and an International Convention Centre was built in the early 1990s. The Bullring shopping complex has been cited as a model of imaginative and successful regeneration.

Mr Whitby said: “We have poured millions of pounds into ensuring we improve our street cleaning services and launch the most comprehensive recycling programme ever in the city. Being named the cleanest place in Britain is testament to our hard work and investment.”

Paul Pearce, a judge, said: “Birmingham city centre is a shining example to the rest of the UK on exactly how to keep the streets sparkling.”

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