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Then & Now

In 1979 Keith Berry was in the Lozells area and came across some urban renewal in Chain Walk which was a short road from Lozells Road down to Birchfield Road. In the 1950s and 1960s it was a convenient shortcut for drivers wanting to avoid Six Ways.
ChainWalk1979.jpg

Today the houses are still there but Chain Walk can't be used as a shortcut because it is blocked off at the Birchfield Road end.
Modern_Chain_Walk.jpg

Have look round with street view.
 
Villa Road in 1979 looking towards Hamstead Road. Ansells Pub on the left.
Villa Road Then.jpg

The pub is now a Veg Hall but the word 'Head' still in the pic but more decorative. The 'Chicken Inn' seen in the old pic has become the W M J C (West Midlands Jerk Centre) selling spicy chicken.
Villa Road Now.jpg

 
In 1979 Keith Berry was in the Lozells area and came across some urban renewal in Chain Walk which was a short road from Lozells Road down to Birchfield Road. In the 1950s and 1960s it was a convenient shortcut for drivers wanting to avoid Six Ways.
View attachment 139732

Today the houses are still there but Chain Walk can't be used as a shortcut because it is blocked off at the Birchfield Road end.
View attachment 139733

Have look round with street view.
Gower St school at the top?
Dave A
 
I don't think any of us look back on the 1950s with wholly rose-tinted spectacles. And black-and-white images probably block out such things as litter and general untidiness/scruffiness. But what I can't understand is why everything, if this last image is anything to go by, has become so UGLY, in comparison.

Chris
 
It's difficult comparing black & white images with modern colour ones, but now today's signs use much more garish colours in order to try and make sure that their image projects above everyopne else's. Today's advertising industry is immense compared with the number of people engaged in the industry in the 1950s and the costs are quite a significant part of the overheads of many businesses too.

Maurice :cool:
 
Certainly the colour makes a big difference, it's now far brighter, there is more of it and it's everywhere over these buildings. More is quite obviously better these days. But the forecourt - just scruffy, pillars, bins and other stuff everywhere, pavement surfaces all different, much of it worn out...... You can't blame individual businesses who are just doing their best - in fact you can't blame anyone, I suppose. It's all about free enterprise, after all.

But I do wish that it didn't have to look so depressingly dreadful when compared with what, almost certainly, it was once like.

Chris
 
I suppose the up-to-date pics of some streets in the city centre are an improvement such as New Street.

A 'then and now' I know because I lived in this area when I was a child but have not been there for years. This pic is dated 1940.
sbeeches1940.jpg

Today it looks like this. More cars but we all use them and in the distance the M6 runs across where our playing field was complete with a babbling brook. The M6 totally spoilt the area but I can't complain, I use it twice a month.
Beeches1.jpg

Colours removed modern pic ...
Beechesbw.jpg

Have a scroll round at the shops I remember but no cars parked in front back then
 
The old one looks like it was all brand new, then. Trees recently planted. Great that it has matured so well. (And very useful to have a b/w version for comparison - thanks, oldMohawk).

Chris
 
A pic below of the Beeches Estate being built.
I have this pic elsewhere on the forum and it shows the Beeches Estate being built in 1936. The car is on the Aldridge Road and Green Lane on the right eventually became Greenholm Road.
Beeches_Estate_Being_Built.jpg

linked pic only visible if logged in.
 
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