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Soho House

I just posted this photo on the 1920 Car thread, as I didn't know what year this photo was taken. It is of my Dad in his car at the front of Soho when it was a hotel and my family were there. They moved there in 1925. I have been advised that the car is a Morris Flatnose, so I guess the date of the photo would be between 1927 and 1930.
Judy
Dad at Soho 30s.jpg
 
Hi Amanda. The corrugated building to the right of the photo was an extension that housed a billiard room and store room when my grandparents/parents were at Soho. There was also a large garage with inspection pit at the rear of this extension. The three windows you can see behind my Dad in his car were those of the Writing Room, as it was called when it was a hotel, and a door and small passage from this led to the billiard room. A large number of the guests were commercial travellers (reps) and regulars, names of whom I remember to this day as they were part of my growing up. The Writing Room had a number of desks for use mainly by these men to write up their daily reports/paperwork. As this was in the days before television the billiard room was very popular in the evenings.

I don't know who put the extension on to the house. Not sure if it was my grandparents or if it had been there when they bought Soho. The house had been a hotel before them, and previous to this it was a girls' school. My parents sold the hotel to the GEC in 1956, and the GEC in turn sold the house to the Police for cadet accommodation. I visited Soho in the mid to late 1970's (I think) when the police had it, and by that time the extension that you see had been replaced by a brick built accommodation block which was very ugly, and extended right into the old tennis court. This extension was in turn removed when the house was renovated by the Museums Dept. I was shocked at the state of the house when I visited at this time.

Judy
 
Thanks Lyn. It is a lovely photo that I treasure. I should have mentioned in my previous post to Amanda that the Writing Room (which my Dad's car is standing in front of) revealed an interesting surprise when the house was being renovated by the Museums & Art Gallery. There was a fireplace in this room which had been filled in and when it was opened up a besom (broomstick) was found in the fireplace opening - it had been put there to ward off evil spirits! I wonder how many years that had been there?

Judy
 
Jayell said:
Thanks Lyn. It is a lovely photo that I treasure. I should have mentioned in my previous post to Amanda that the Writing Room (which my Dad's car is standing in front of) revealed an interesting surprise when the house was being renovated by the Museums & Art Gallery. There was a fireplace in this room which had been filled in and when it was opened up a besom (broomstick) was found in the fireplace opening - it had been put there to ward off evil spirits! I wonder how many years that had been there?

Judy
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wow judy how amazing...you may have already done this but have you thought about offering soho house copies of some of photos for their archives..they have a lovely display just inside...

lyn
 
Lyn, back in 1993 on a visit to Birmingham I saw that Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery were involved in the renovation of Soho, so I wrote to them and told them of my connection with the house. I was in correspondence with Rita Maclean and Val Loggie who was the Project Development Assistant at the time, and gave them a lot of information from my family's time at the house. I was invited to visit when the house had been gutted, and provided them with letters and bits and pieces which may have been relevant, such as photos of Soho, hotel tariff's and the layout of the house at the time. I don't think I gave them any family photos though.

When the house was complete but before it was opened to the public, I was invited to a lecture and a visit to see over the finished building which was interesting, but the house was now a museum and not the home I remembered! But I am pleased that the building has been returned to its former glory.

Judy
 
It was mainly about Joseph Wright of Derby. They found a picture that was of a bridge from near Rome in Italy that they had restored.

Nice for once to have a historical documentary about someone from the Midlands!
 
A glimpse of some of the contents of the house and garden following the two separate occupancies of reverends in the mid-1800s. Had several conservatories. Viv.
 

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Thank you Viv for those very interesting articles. I've not been on the forum lately so have just caught up! I know when my family had Soho, the two houses in Vicarage Road (Nos. 5 and 7) were accessed from the rear of the house. One was used as an annexe for hotel guests and the other was used for staff accommodation. My Dad sold Soho to the GEC in 1956.
Judy
 
Rosary_Boy said:
got see this place in the end very nice to vist but very small as in the photos
but still was good to find out few things I didn't know about
handsworths history !
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I used to play in all those rooms when I grew up at Soho in the 40s/50s when it was a hotel! My sister and I used to slide across the polished entrance hall floor (which was a lot different to the photo!) and there were stuffed stags heads on the walls! The door at the back of the entrance hall first photo led into a cloakroom/toilet. It does look very clean and smart, but doesn't look like my home anymore! I visited when they were doing the restoration and it was so interesting to see. Here's my Dad in the garden in the 50s, and another of me in pink top about to go inside when it was in the middle of renovations. Thought you might also like to see the lovely driveway to the front door, which has now long gone!
 

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I was taken aback by that entrance hall floor Judy. I thought even if this was a restored floor, could it really have been like that originally ? Viv.
 
Jayell said:
I used to play in all those rooms when I grew up at Soho in the 40s/50s when it was a hotel! My sister and I used to slide across the polished entrance hall floor (which was a lot different to the photo!) and there were stuffed stags heads on the walls! The door at the back of the entrance hall first photo led into a cloakroom/toilet. It does look very clean and smart, but doesn't look like my home anymore! I visited when they were doing the restoration and it was so interesting to see. Here's my Dad in the garden in the 50s, and another of me in pink top about to go inside when it was in the middle of renovations. Thought you might also like to see the lovely driveway to the front door, which has now long gone!
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didn't know it was a hotel the last photo u put up what year was that do u know?
thanks
 
Rosary_Boy said:
didn't know it was a hotel the last photo u put up what year was that do u know?
thanks
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It was already operating as a hotel when my grandparents bought it in the late 1920s Rosary Boy. Prior to that it had been a girls' school. Here's a price list from 1945! As to what year I was shown round by Val Loggie of Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, I can't really remember but it would have been around 1990/1992ish.
Soho 1945-50001.jpg
 
Vivienne14 said:
I was taken aback by that entrance hall floor Judy. I thought even if this was a restored floor, could it really have been like that originally ? Viv.
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It does seem a bit bright Viv! But it must have been thoroughly research by Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery I guess! When I lived there it was a dark lino or lino tiled floor. I remember my sister used to get into trouble for roller skating on it!
 
Jayell said:
It was already operating as a hotel when my grandparents bought it in the late 1920s Rosary Boy. Prior to that it had been a girls' school. Here's a price list from 1945! As to what year I was shown round by Val Loggie of Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, I can't really remember but it would have been around 1990/1992ish.
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thanks for the information Jayell
 
Interesting to see the photos again of my old home. Alex at Soho.jpgI can tell you that the top two photos in Viv's post #115 were taken in September 1927 when the house was a hotel run by Clifford Thomas. My grandparents had bought the house and were running it as a hotel by 1929, and later my parents took it over and it is where I grew up. The Birmingham Post article is also very interesting and I can tell you that my grandfather sold the two Shereton tables to Henry Ford - I have the letter from Henry Ford confirming the payment to him. Here is my Dad in the garden in the 50s which I might have posted before.
 
I should also have mentioned that the original Ionic pillars at the entrance door were sadly knocked down by a delivery van reversing into them during the First World War, and you can see the remains of them either side of the cherry tree at the front of the lawn.
 
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