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Corporation Street

Not entirely sure if Maple House has been completely re-built or refaced. Now looks very different to the 1970s predecessor. Viv.
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It's been reclad Viv. Home of Tesco Express. Forbidden Planet moved out last year.

Seen in 2010

 
Thanks Ell. Seems to have kept original name too. Think Maples was a furnishers. And quite classy too. Viv.
 
Earlier this year a coffee shop called Mango Bean opened to the left of Tesco Express, but it hasn't been open for the last few weeks.

Is always rough sleepers in the area near the cash machine.
 
Maples were, indeed, a high class retail furnisher which ceased trading in 1997. They were in business for almost 150 years starting in London. An ancestor of mine was moved, just after the end of WW1, from their main London establishment to take charge of the upholstery department of their Birmingham store.
 
I wonder what was the large basket on the handcart was used for? Laundry maybe for the nearby hotels, restaurants?
 
This is the street in 1928. Is this a tinted card? The bus to the right seems to be painted in unrecognisable colours. Is it realistic? Viv.

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I am sure it is tinted Vivienne - the buildings suggest that if nothing else. However the BCT bus, appearing to be on route 9 to Quinton, is not far off colour but the saloon bus on the left, which I believe to be a Midland Red, is way off as it looks blue on my pc.
 
Red would show as a very dark colour on orthochromatic film , as was usual in those days
 
Rare to find Corporation Street empty, but this was Saturday morning before most of the shops opened.

In the restaurant units of the Pitman Chambers is now Dixi Chicken and Pepe's Piri Piri.

The building was built as a Vegetarian restaurant in 1896-97!





Over at the retail units of the Central Methodist Hall, many remain empty, but the two below have now been let.

Get Stuffed is on Corporation Street



And The 50's Barber has taken a unit on Ryder Street.

 
This is the street in 1928. Is this a tinted card? The bus to the right seems to be painted in unrecognisable colours. Is it realistic? Viv.

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This is tinted, colour cards were still all hand painted, actual colour photography for postcards was just around the corner. Unfortunately if the colourists did not know the area, they were given a frèe hand on the colours to use in this one she was probably told the colour of the BCT bus or had even coloured one before, but did not know of Midland Red. The blue bus is BMMO and one of the experts on BHF will be able to identify it from the reg number HA 3353 or HA 3553 or somewhere near, interesting that the reg no is so clear and has not been painted out. What are the ghostly straight lines on top of the hazy building on the back left hand side. Note that all other vehicles are black as are the clothes of most of the men in the picture. The other incorrect colour is the roof of the Birmingham bus. I will look st my books and see what colour it should be. Somewhere else on the forum there is a Birmingham bus coloured green.
Bob
 
I was thinking along the same lines Tim but Lewis's opened in 1885 - nearly 40 years before the postcard. Although that doesn't rule out subsequent work being done on the building. I also wondered as the image has been tinted, could some of the lines have become obliterated in the process? That set me thinking whether they were tram wires or street light wires. Viv
 
First photo is Corporation street in 1925.

No date for the second one but love the "50 shilling tailor" who claims "rational tailoring". Maybe then it was around WW2 or just afterwards. There's no "rational tailoring" in the 1920s though ! Viv.
The rear view of the bus dates it as being from the post WWII purchases, all raised corners to the platform window
and the registration number in the middle of the cream band under the window, 1946/7 onwards, but I can guess no further.
Bob




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Lots of sandwich boards along Corporation Street. Maybe they were announcing the opening of a new shop ? I guess it's about 1920s, but not sure. Viv.

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