• 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

They Were Caught In Our Old Street Pics...

Status
Not open for further replies.
Looking through the forum pics with trams in them, I spotted two lads sitting in what I and many lads of the time thought were the best seats on a tram - the open balcony. The conductors would never let us sit on the front balcony but we could sit on the back, sometimes being warned not to mess with the rope - not that we ever would do ! ...
friendly_wink.png

The No 40 is turning out of Leopold St into Moseley Rd in 1949.
Would Barbers Teas on the Tramcar be George Barber? My grandad worked for them.
 
Thanks for that, some nice photos on that site. I notice that 'box' thing is in their photo. Perhaps it is something to do with the tram's electricity supply as mentioned in #1637, but I've never seen anything similar in other tram photos.
A posh bin?
 
I think that I can also see a postman emptying a pillar box by the junction of Corporation Street. It makes you realise how hazardous crossing the road was in the 19th century, horse poo must have very difficult to avoid on such a busy road!
Dave
attachment.php

You should walk down our lane Dave. We STILL have to avoid it!!!
 
Hi dave ;
when i was a kid like you and others i was brought up in a terracce but we all had big gardens infront of our front doors
it was a big terrace that went up an hill we was half way up and in those days all the trades men as horse and cart for there
deliveries; and ech morning we had several neibours all baiting each other looking down the sloped terrace
all of us had a front gate to enter your garden to get to your frontdoor even thou it was one up and one down house
but these women had there buckets and shovells at the ready as soon they sen the baker delivering the bread to our houses
and the milk man and his cart or even a bonus the rag and bone man pull up shouting rgs and wollens waling up the terrace they would all charge and run down the terrace armed with bucket and shovel to try and gather this muck up what there horses had done
before each other there was three of them fighting for it and scraping every bit out of each others way
then dash back up the terace all smiling and spreading it over there garden
you would it was like gold dust ; what a carry on ; i remember some time in the mid fifties a guy from the country probly kings norton if the truth was known was selling his horse muck by knocking doors to want to buy a bag of it
best wishes astonian;; alan;;
 
An old pic and new pic of Digbeth. A dog in the old pic stays on the pavement by the cart, many dogs wandered free in those days. We had a dog in the 1950s who would stand by the front door when he wanted to go out, and after he was out for half an hour he would gently scratch on the door until we let in him. Definitely not allowed these days and I agree with that! Some buildings have survived ....
Digbeth1.JPGDigbeth2.JPG
 
Just another morning after a night of heavy bombing in Miller Street Aston. Most of the building has fallen on to the pavement and the roof is hanging off over that women standing on the debris looking at a gate. She seems to have said something which caught the attention of the two blokes in the pic.

Miller_Streetx.jpg
Looking at the buildings, the dome like object on the tall part of the building looks interesting, it seems to have split apart. The tall building behind seems to have survived the blasts but is not there today so may have gone in the 1960s demolitions in that area.
It is difficult to pin the location but it seems to be on left side of Miller Street looking towards Newtown Row and halfway between Bracebridge St and Elkington St. A 1945 aerial view shows what appears to be a cleared area in that position and a hint of that large building in the background.
 
Last edited:
Nice photo if you know what I mean but sad. Was Elkington St named after someone as there is one here too?
Could be the Victorian electroplaters. See below from earlier posts:

icon1.png
Re: Some great men and women of Birmingham..
There is an exhibition running at Tate Britain until May 25th 2015 called "Sculpture Victorious". The sub-title is "Material Wonders of the Victorian Age". Reference is made to the Birmingham firm of Elkington & Co. Post 8 of this thread, by Dennis Williams, gives information on the founder of this firm George Richards Elkington. This from the Tate, "The Birmingham firm of Elkington & Co transformed sculpture through its patented forms of electroplating and electroforming in the 1840s, in which an object, or a mould, could be dipped in a metals solution which was gradually decomposed using an electric current, leaving a thin shell of gold, silver or copper on the surface. Electrodeposition was cheaper than traditional casting, and this combination of innovation and thrift won Elkingtons prestigious commissions".
An illustration of Elkington's sculpture making process is provided on the attached link. Dave.

https://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/speel/otherart/elkingtn.htm
 
I agree as to where the phot of bomb damage in miller St was. Looking at the map c 1937, as far as I can see it must be there, the squarish building in the background being marked as "brass factory" on the map close to the junction with Elkington st/

map_c1937_miller_st.jpg
 
Could be the Victorian electroplaters. See below from earlier posts:

icon1.png
Re: Some great men and women of Birmingham..
There is an exhibition running at Tate Britain until May 25th 2015 called "Sculpture Victorious". The sub-title is "Material Wonders of the Victorian Age". Reference is made to the Birmingham firm of Elkington & Co. Post 8 of this thread, by Dennis Williams, gives information on the founder of this firm George Richards Elkington. This from the Tate, "The Birmingham firm of Elkington & Co transformed sculpture through its patented forms of electroplating and electroforming in the 1840s, in which an object, or a mould, could be dipped in a metals solution which was gradually decomposed using an electric current, leaving a thin shell of gold, silver or copper on the surface. Electrodeposition was cheaper than traditional casting, and this combination of innovation and thrift won Elkingtons prestigious commissions".
An illustration of Elkington's sculpture making process is provided on the attached link. Dave.

https://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/speel/otherart/elkingtn.htm
Elkington's Electroplating Works were in Newhall Street on the corner of Fleet Street. Most of us would be familiar with the building as it became the Science Museum (memorable as being so much better than the Disneyfied Thinktank!). Sadly most of it has been demolished with just a small part remaining. Originally it straddled the Farmers Bridge locks on the Fazeley Canal (does anyone remember looking out of a window in the museum, down onto the locks?). There is a blue plaque on the remaining part of the building commemorating Elkington and the Electroplating Works.
Screen Shot 2015-11-25 at 18.55.06.png
 
Not quite, but do remember looking up from a canal boat as we went underneath, though not sure if I knew what the building was then
 
One of my relatives worked in a factory called Brunnners in Birmingham. Unsure of the spelling . They dipped metal objects such as candlesticks, I don't know if it was electroplating but they were a cheap version of the originals and the end product was much lighter and popular in the 50's onwards. Would that be similar to the Elkington's industry?
 
Yes I remember going over the canal inside the Science Museum. Looking down I always remember that in those days the canal always looked green with stagnant water but there must still have been boat traffic and water would have run over the weirs when the top level was full. I also remember walking down this stretch of the canal when I was older. This was in the days when all entrances to canals in Birmingham were sealed up and the only access was at Gas Street. You could do the whole loop out to what is now Spaghetti Junction and back along the other canal with no way out. With the factory buildings each side it was loike walking through a narrow canyon.
 
Whoever took the bomb damage photos around Birmingham in WW2 often seem to catch ordinary people in the scene as a previous photo in #1666 showed. In this photo of bomb damage in Summerhill Terrace, two teenagers and a women stand on the rubble of what might have been the wreckage their house. We can look at the photo but can only imagine what they are saying - the lad in the pic looks annoyed but I suppose you would be if your house had been wrecked.
SumHillTerrace.jpg
 
Last edited:
Whoever took the bomb damage photos around Birmingham in WW2 often seem to catch ordinary people in the scene as a previous photo in #1666 showed. In this photo of bomb damage in Summerhill Terrace, two teenagers and a women stand on the rubble of what might have been the wreckage their house. We can look at the photo but can only imagine what they are saying - the lad in the pic looks annoyed but I suppose you would be if your house had been wrecked.
View attachment 102600

Indeed, Mohawk. There are perceptibly two different generations looking at the rubble simultaneously. The older (Grandparent) thinking 'was the rebuilding after WW1 really worth it?' and the children thinking 'is this our foreseeable future?'
 
Hi Richie, I suppose if it wasn't their house and the women on the footpath was asking 'what are you doing' then things could have been different ...
 
This man is intriguing. Is he a porter? Flat hat, fag hanging out of a corner of his mouth..one of the many characters of these places. viv.[/QUOTE] I think you find they were possibly bus inspectors frequently seen at these bus stops outside Snow Hill Station, on Colmore Row.
 
I agree with you Topsyturvey, I caught the number 8 there many a morning on my way to work and did they use one of those houses to teach the girls how to clean and cook.
 
I think you find they were possibly bus inspectors frequently seen at these bus stops outside Snow Hill Station, on Colmore Row.
Hi Kathsutton46,
At the time (2013) I thought Viv was referring to the bloke who looks like a railway porter. I noticed at the time how he was striding purposefully towards the zebra crossing with his trousers tucked into his socks, and perhaps someone had pinched his bike and he was going to Steelhouse Lane Police Station to report it ...
friendly_wink.png

 
They thought the photographer had gone so peeped out just as he removed the lens cover and they were caught in an old street pic. Looks like they had house plants in their window which is in Court 19 Lancaster St as someone had helpfully painted on the barrel.
LancasterCt19.jpg
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top