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Bull Ring 1930s - 1950s

williams

master brummie
This thread has been created from numerous posts and images scattered throughout the markets threads about the history of the Bull Ring between 1930 and 1950.



Am i right in thinking there used to be a man in the Bull ring about 1940s-50s who used to do a Houdini type of act with chains. I thought i remembered standing in the crowd with my Mum. Does anyone else recall him.
 
Hi
Yes I can still see the marks on his body as the chains were
removed. Either in one of Carl Chinns articles or in The Alton
Douglas collection there is a picture of him near Nelson's Statue.
Looked on web nothing.

Mike
Replacement image may vary from original.
image.jpeg
 
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Bull ring

Mike thats a super picture thank you and look at all of those wonderful street sellers, what a pity we don't have more of them. Catkin
Does any-one remember pimms the pet shop?
 
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Pimm's Pet Shop

I remember a Pimm's Pet Shop being in the Bull Ring and then it moved to Moor Street. My Dad used to work at a furniture shop (not the Times furniture shop) at the top of the Bull Ring in 50s and we used to go to meet him there on Saturdays and then went to Pimm's, I think it was for rabbit food/supplies. I have a photo of it somewhere in my collection of Birmingham books and postcards.
 
Am i right in thinking there used to be a man in the Bull ring about 1940s-50s who used to do a Houdini type of act with chains. I thought i remembered standing in the crowd with my Mum. Does anyone else recall him.

Williams

This might be the chap you mention, the photo looks to be about 1950'ish, he has chains at his feet.

Phil

City Bull Ring Street Entertainers.jpg
 
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i loved to go down the bullring with mom in the 50s.we would
watch the man in chains,and the one ones who stood on boxes shouting.
the barrows all in a row selling things,when it was dark the paraffin lamps come out.what a fantasic sight.on the way back to the bus,we would go in peacocks and mom would buy me a hand puppet,made of some kind of clay with a piece of cloth held on with a elastic band.Or a wagon and horses.depending on how much she had.a slow walk looking in shops and
then home on the 43 bus.what a great day out.we had together bless her.:cry:
 
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I remember the man in chains well in the 1940's. Whenever we went to the Bull Ring he seemed to be there with a crowd round him. There were all the flower sellers with their baskets full of colour standing in the gutters. I also remember being taken into the Woolworths nearby with its distinctive smell of wooden floors and having an ice cream wafer made for me in the little metal shape with the wafer put in first, then a scoop of ice cream and flattened out, and another wafer on top. I thought it was delicious. We also used to go into the market hall and see the animals, particularly the rabbits.
 
The "old" Bull Ring to me was the circular, bull ring shaped one up steps.

The "new" one was between Woolworths and St. Martins church and is in some photos I just looked at on this forum.

Is there another one? I can't recognise the photos in your link, Bernie, but interesting.
 
As I've said before my mom used to wate for the auction at the end of the day. They would auction the crabs off and mom used to tell me a tale of the auctioneer. Can't put it on here. It's a bit rude. The female crab I think is a hen and the male a cock. I will leave it there. Do you remember the parrott outside Pimms?. Bye Jean.
 
The second photo looks like its the 50s me and my two brother used to go to the bull ring,get some crab claws and have a good look about

To me and my brothers it was a magical place,all the market traders,spivs selling stuff out of suit cases,and when a copper was about the look out would give a whistle,if you was there you should remember what that sounded like,it is still used to day,for a laugh,when you hear it you know there's a brummie about

Do you also remember the man who used to get chained up in a big sack,his mate woul shout for people to put money into a cap on the floor,and when there was enough pennies in,he would chain him up a tie the sack at the top

And woolworths used to have these imitation momkeys hanging up out side.

Happy Days Mossy
 
My son and his wife went to the Bull Ring Market last week and were so pleasesd at the cost of the fruit and veg. They said it was much cheaper than the supermarket and the quality was far better!
 
the bull ring can anybody remember the strong men and the men that did the bed of nails on a wedensday in the bull ring and can any body remember the faggets and peas shop in jamacker row
 
The Bull Ring going back a decade from my last pic. Could be shortly after the war by the bomb damage showing. Note the poster on the left telling us to "Work or Want"
 
Most pics show us the Market Hall fronting on to the Bull Ring so for a change how about the other end in 1959.
 
Three more photos looking down Bull Ring, circa 1957/8? just before the re-construction, Nelson`s Statue has scaffolding round it.
 
I like those 3 shots, the last days of Spiceal Street, before it became pedestrianised.
 
Many a happy day out in Stratford on Avon srarted out by catching the Midland Red from outside St. Martins in the old Bull Ring. Sometimes you found it was a Stratford Blue bus instead which made a nice change. Heres one waiting to go in 1956.
 
Hi Christina why do you say there are no 'real' Brummies there any more? Whenever I go I see and hear loads of real Brummies all over the place and particularly in the open air fruit and veg market by the Rag.
 
Hi Bestfriend - I cycled into Brum one Saturday night and watched a strong man - claimed he was Maximilian the something or other, descended from the Austrian Emperor. Tore telephone directories and bent a steel bar by whacking it on his forearm and then straightened it the same way.
 
Cooo!!!!! Yeah....cockles in those little saucers......I think 3D if I remember right.......my gran used to take my cousin and me around there...on a 'Toosdee' as she used to call it as that was 'Market Day' and buy him and myself this little saucer of cockles......looked like a plate to us as we were only kids then........I often mail my cousin about that to make him jealous........as he's in Canada and can't get them too well........as for me....I'm on the south coast and they sell them in Selsey and send them to other areas here too...........that old Stratford Blue bus brings back memories too....my cousin and I in later years were there 'bus spotting'.....never mind being called 'Anoraks'....at least there wasn't the violence then that there is now ....and there was more respect from us for the Police......if there was a 'Big Copper' about.....no one would cheek him.....you'd have a clip around the ear.....
 
Found this in a scrap book mom kept. Loads of cuttings stuck in about the market. Is this the strong man you were on about. Also an old flower seller. Love to know where she got them from. Jean.
 
My uncle Jack worked as a slaughterman at the meat market after the war. He often told us of animals escaping. I used to say how do you do a job like that he said "someone has to"! He later went back to being a butcher at Dewhurst in Sutton he retired from Ken Terry butchers in Bownhills at the age of 80!
 
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