Just read through this old thread, it never ever occurred to me that "The Brit" wasn't in Tyseley, and I lived in Linton Rd just off Tyseley Lane, five minutes walk from the "Brit".
There were allotments on the corner of Warwick Rd. and Tyseley Hill Rd. right up to the bridge where the North Warwickshire line branches off. Later there were advertising hoardings. I used to sit on the embankment there to watch trains, before it was deemed ok for me to join the boys on the bridge outside the station. There you could watch a pannier tanker shunting trucks, and join the excitement of a "double on the main". Just up from the "Brit" was a blacksmith's where you could watch horses shod. I always remember the smell of the hot shoe being sized to the hoof. Opposite the smithy was the Grange and a row of shops that included a butchers, Amison's and a greengrocer Howell's. I understood that Mr. Howells son was lost in the sinking of "The Hood" in WW2. Opposite what is now Cousins was a post office and a Co-op where your money was propelled on overhead lines to a cashier. Most famous was Tyseley pet store that Sir David Attenborough mentions in Zoo Quest for a Dragon.