[5] In the Middle English period, following the process of language change known as metanalysis, only the "n" in "atten" remained in oral usage and became assimilated to "Eccheles".

On Tomlinson's 1758 map the area was indeed shown as a village green surrounded by a few lanes and fields,[8] and a sparse population consisting of a handful of widely-spread homesteads.

[10] Nechells became a densely populated area during the 19th century, with mass development of houses and factories taking place.

;[17] a board school situated in Hutton (later Eliot) Street in 1879;[15] the building of almshouses adjacent to St. Clement's church to accommodate "31 inmates, widows, single women, and married couples - whose age is above 60"[18] and Bloomsbury Library of 1892 on Nechells Parkway, described as "a typical vigorous example of the red brick and terracotta school for municipal building at the end of the 19th century.".

[27] The face of Nechells changed dramatically during the 1960s, with the decaying Victorian terraces being cleared and the area redeveloped with new houses and tower blocks.

[29] However, many of the tower blocks in the Nechells area were demolished in the 1990s to make way for new low rise private and rented housing.

According to the Birmingham Post, several hundred people had watched the police try to arrest the man who had effectively laid siege to the street.

Evans, who served in Nechells from 1952 to 1964,[31] told reporters that had been taking a bath when the police arrived at his vicarage on Stanley Road.

On Ordnance Survey 1:2500 maps of 1902 and 1904 there is much evidence of industry in the early 20th century: Nechells Chemical Works and Birmingham Paper Mill were located adjacent to the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal at the eastern end of Cattells Grove; a Tube Works, Stove Works and Varnish Works were situated in an area bounded by the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, Holborn Hill and Long Acre; and a building shown as "Park Mills (Edge Tool)" is shown on Wharton Street, again adjoining the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal, which runs parallel at some points to the River Rea, both forming an eastern boundary of Nechells.

The power stations closed in 1982, but a steam locomotive used at the site, "Nechells No.4", has been preserved and is operating on the Chasewater Railway in Staffordshire[34][35] See main article: Nechells power stations The second of the two gasworks was the setting - in an "obscure suburb on the eastern side of Birmingham", according to one historian,[36] - for the so-called Battle of Saltley Gate in February 1972, a confrontation between striking mineworkers, the police and the West Midlands Gas Board over the picketing mineworkers' attempt to prevent the transport of coke from the gasworks.

The company had been created by two German Jewish refugees, Eric Weiss and Kossi Strauss, and specialized in the manufacture of fluxes and compounds used in the iron foundry industry.

[48] This site opened in 1992, was expanded considerably in 1996 and now includes a business centre serving the Chinese community and a food superstore.

[49] Also on Thimble Mill Lane, the Aston Manor Brewery started production in 1993 and produces beer, cider and perry.

[50] On 7 July 2016, five workers, Almamo Jammeh, Ousman Diaby, Bangally Dikoureh, Salibo Sillah and Muhamdou Jagana lost their lives when a concrete wall collapsed at the plant of Hawkeswood Metal Recycling on Trevor Street.

[51] Following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court in 2022, two directors of the firm that ran the plant were convicted of health and safety offences which lead to the men's deaths.

The largest ethnic groups are: White British (12%); Pakistani (9%); African (60%) mainly Somali, Sudanese and Eritrean; Caribbean (8%) and Bangladeshi (11%).

However, a report published in 2010 by the Birmingham Public Health Information Team concluded that: Two primary schools in Nechells have acquired academy status.

[63] Osborne's railway timetable for January 1858 lists an omnibus service from the Town Hall to Nechells Green and Bloomsbury consisting of eight return journeys per day and operated by Lamyman and Monk.

[66][67] The trolleybuses had been substituted for the Nechells tram route, the first time in the UK that a trolleybus-for-tram conversion had occurred and the first in the world to use double deck covered vehicles.

[69] When the planned High Speed 2 rail line from London to Birmingham is constructed, it will skirt the south-eastern edge of Nechells, running alongside the Birmingham-Derby and under the Aston-Stechford railways and Aston Church Road before continuing to Saltley and a new Curzon Street station.

[72] Nechells is home to Star City – a vast entertainment complex that houses shops, restaurants, a 22-lane bowling centre (Tenpin, formerly Megabowl), a casino, a hotel and Vue Cinema which, with thirty screens, is one of the largest multiplexes in Europe.

Star City has been described as a "palace of pleasure...feeding and entertaining groups from families to young couples to children's parties".

The Villa Tavern pub at the junction of Nechells Park Road and Holborn Hill displays the date "1897" as the year in which it was built.