• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Passages, Alleyways Gulletts and Snickets of Old Brum

Thanks Phil. I just diddled Brueton Street on the Gosta Green thread and got your fab photo of the Castle Inn - corner of Prospect Row, Brueton St. Brilliant. Hope you don't mind giving it another airing?

Castle Inn Brueton Street.jpg
 
Last edited:
Just noticed something The street sign on the side of the building I think says A.B.Row but is not actually in A.B.Row. Dek
 
Dennis fantastic photo. At the top of Fox st ran Buck st , i have been trying to locate a photo of Buck st for a few years your picture is the nearest ive seen so far.
 
Dek

It is AB Row in the photo, it ran from Belmont Row to Coleshill St. As can be seen on this map.

Phil

map nechells SW.jpg
 
Last edited:
Phil I,m nit picking I was on about the road sign in #473 by Dennis. the sign is on the side of Saville Gordons building to be in A.B. Row it should be on the front

Dennis I can,t really remember going up Fox St I always walked straight past it on the way into Town. I think those houses had gone by the 50s as I can,t remember them either. Dek
 
Another blast from the Market Hall past. It ran between Bromsgrove Street and Upper Dean Street, and was an unadopted Road. MARKET STREET.

Market Street 2 .jpg
 
Last edited:
And a rose by any other name, but nowhere near the Market this one. New Market Street, a short narrow roadway between Great Charles Street and Cornwall Street.


New Market Street 1950.jpg
 
Last edited:
And another City Centre entrant, making its first solo appearance here, the well known, very short. FORE STREET. Running from Corporation Street to Cannon Street and the entrance to the City Plaza complex. Was named Little Cannon Street in the past. These photos have appeared before on Lyn's 'Brum Mag' site, and my grateful thanks as always to her for posting them.


Fore Street .jpg Cannon Street 1995.jpgFore Street Little Cannon Street.jpg
 
Last edited:
There was another Market Street in Duddeston, coming off Coleshill Street and running into Hicks Square, itself lying between Prince's Street and Nova Scotia Street. It took its name from the New Market Hall in Prospect Row, featured a few Posts ago. The Market Hall was erected in 1837 by Messrs E and C Robins of Prospect Row to try and tap into the increasing population expansion around that side of the City.


Hicks Square, Market St Duddeston 1963.jpg
 
Last edited:
In 1799 Richard Ford, an engineer of the day, rented a plot of waste land by Hockley Pool. As an employer of men, he noted that they often 'wasted' money on beer and tobacco, and in an effort to encourage a more prudent lifestyle, he formed a 'float' of money from his own pocket, and in harder times, instead of laying them off, he paid them to go to nearby Aston Furnace iron smelting works and collect barrow loads of slag and rubble. With this he erected a faux ruined building with thick walls which he named Hockley Abbey. He even made a sign with cement and small pebbles saying 1473 and added this to the building to give it a false antiquity look. Long since swept away, ABBEY STREET was roughly where it stood. Richard Ford is also remembered by another by another narrow back street FORD STREET, also in Hockley.

Ford Street Hockley.jpg Abbey Street.jpg
 
Last edited:
Dennis you,ve excelled yourself today you,ve been working flat out it,s taken me all my time to keep up well done mate a first class job. Dek
 
Why thank you for those kind words folks. We had a great night, and more fun today with family is on the menu.

Moving swiftly on....and whilst we are round the Fox Street and AB Row area a few posts back, here are two nice old pics featuring PENN STREET, HOWE STREET, GOPSALL STREET, and CURZON STREET. All narrow back streets that look very sad today, but are just about hanging on in there....Followers of my 'Jennens family' Thread will recognise the significance of these names in the story of that great family.

Howe Street Curzon Street.jpg Penn Street Eagle & Bull Gopsall Street.jpg
 
Last edited:
I was just in that area yesterday. Mostly all flattened sites due to demolition in the past.

Not many old buildings left there, other than the ruins of the Belmont Row Works, the Moby Dick pub. Also found a Lockkeeper's Cottage near the Digbeth Branch Canal.
 
HI Dennis hope you enjoyed a good night out great photo of the old Eagle & Tun (I think)alias the Moby Dick in Pen St. Dek
 
Yes dek, thanks for the kind words. The old Eagle and Tun certainly looks different to its present state, as depicted on Page 27 Pic 404. Wonder if it will survive and get a new lease of life when the area is finally 'developed'?
 
Oooops. Yes, we meant to say the Eagle and Bull (which was Moby's first name) in the Penn Street photo. Thanks for the photos anyway Elliot.
 
Ok. How long had it been the Moby Dick's and when was the name changed from Eagle and Bull? No problem.
 
I think Lower Priory also deserves a mention on here too. I seem to remember a wine seller or a nice restaurant somewhere down it's narrow way.


Lower Prory 1960 Airial.jpgLower Priory 1955.jpg
 
Last edited:
ellbrown said:
Ok. How long had it been the Moby Dick's and when was the name changed from Eagle and Bull? No problem.
Click to expand...

Mc Kenna states that it was the Eagle & Bull since 1850 when it was first built, and quote: 'recently changed to Moby Dick's' when his book was published in 2006.
 
Sorry my fault for misleading everybody don,t know me Bulls from me Tuns any more it was always the Eagle and Bull in my time I don.t think it,s been the Moby Dick that long. Dek
 
A couple more photos of Lower Priory showing two restaurants, I remember the wine shop down there where you took your bottles in and had them filled with whatever spirits you wanted. Compared to the bottled branded stuff it was quite cheap and it wasn't too bad either.

Phil

City Lower Priory - Dalton St 1955.jpg City Taj Mahal Lower Priory St.jpg
 
Last edited:
Phil said:
A couple more photos of Lower Priory showing two restaurants, I remember the wine shop down there where you took your bottles in and had them filled with whatever spirits you wanted. Compared to the bottled branded stuff it was quite cheap and it wasn't too bad either.

Phil
Click to expand...

THAT'S why I remembered it Phil!
 
Robert said:
Dennis fantastic photo. At the top of Fox st ran Buck st , i have been trying to locate a photo of Buck st for a few years your picture is the nearest ive seen so far.
Click to expand...

Well it's your lucky day Robert. Voila. BUCK STREET, featuring one of Brums most fascinating pubs the Sea Horse. This photo refers to its life way after 1891 when it was closed down with only a few years left on the lease, until it reopened with the same name but paradoxically now, as a religeous institution, The Birmingham Central Mission, and then a coffee house as in this great photo.

In the olden days, around 1878 it 'forsook its respectability', according to the Bham Weekly Post 9 March 1912, 'and decking out its ground floor front in garish fashion, it blossomed forth a gin palace. Lamps were made to project from a heavy and elaborate cornice, and on their glass sides were painted representations of some wierd and monstrous creature popularly supposed to be devilish sea horses'. It had four enormous 1000 gallon barrels with taps in the centre, so when it got half empty it was refilled with a fresh brew, so the ale was a very mellow and fresh. Known as Digbeth water, it was well sought out by the Frothblowers of the day. It became home to the famous Musical Society for a spell until they migrated to my Uncles old pub The Clarendon in Temple Street. Good choice chaps...

Buck Street.jpg
 
Last edited:
Dennis you,ve come up trumps again this is a route I only used when I got a bit bored with Coleshill St and Curzon St I think the street on the left is the top of Fox St and the big building on the right at the bottom of the road is Gaskell & Chambers. Dek
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top