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Lathams Shops

Taken in Atlantic Road, Kingstanding Morturn. Would have been taken about 1960. It was a 1930s house, all of Atlantic Road is still there. If you walk the length to the junction with Dyas Road, Latham’s was just around the corner to the left. I expect this parade where Lathams had their shop dates from the 1930s too, along with all the shops along Hawthorn Road. Must have been one huge building site at the time.

A drapers would have been essential in the 30s - 50s, all those houses, all needing nets ! They’d have been the first stop for antemacassars (mom had those too on every chair where possible). I remember Lathams sold the plain cotton/linen tablecloths you could buy with the printed flower outlines on ready for needleworking. I did one - took me quite a while to complete, must have been about 12 or 13. Think this was where I discovered a love of sewing - still at it today. I’ve saved the family and friends hundreds of pounds on alterations over the years.

Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Taken in Atlantic Road, Kingstanding Morturn. Would have been taken about 1960. It was a 1930s house, all of Atlantic Road is still there. If you walk the length to the junction with Dyas Road, Latham’s was just around the corner to the left. I expect this parade where Lathams had their shop dates from the 1930s too, along with all the shops along Hawthorn Road. Must have been one huge building site at the time.

A drapers would have been essential in the 30s - 50s, all those houses, all needing nets ! They’d have been the first stop for antemacassars (mom had those too on every chair where possible). I remember Lathams sold the plain cotton/linen tablecloths you could buy with the printed flower outlines on ready for needleworking. I did one - took me quite a while to complete, must have been about 12 or 13. Think this was where I discovered a love of sewing - still at it today. I’ve saved the family and friends hundreds of pounds on alterations over the years.

Viv.
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We live in a bungalow and our bedroom is at the front facing the road, so we still have nets as the pavement is higher than the front of the bungalow, but yes they showed your social standing and they also showed how well off you were, tightly stretched nets meant you could only afford the window width, pleated (if I can use that word) nets showed an ability to be able to buy a window and a half, which was the standard for measuring how much net you needed for a proper hang. Antimacassars what a memory, both my grans and a lot of the aunts had them on every chair. Of course those were the days when men put noxious greasy substances on their heads, now a quick spray of Harmony (because we are worth it) and it holds all day. Motoring through the City the other day, I went from Chester Road, Castle Bromwich to Halesowen via Kingstanding and Great Barr and did a memory run around Kingstanding and a lot of the shops built late thirties with their flats above are still there (and I noticed this later in Acocks Green, Kings Norton and Yardley), although they sell very different goods nowadays. We bemoan the loss of local businesses and it did seem that there were no local drapers, television and radio, cycle shops, but kebab and pizza houses, except coming through Stirchley, where there were a great many shops seemingly devoted to selling what I assume was Sari materials and what seemed like hundreds of greengrocers.
Bob
 
Interesting observations of lifestyles of yesteryear, some of which are still much in evidence. This reminds me of the expression - which I only ever heard in Birmingham - as someone being "kippers and curtains". ;)
 
Vivienne14 said:
Taken in Atlantic Road, Kingstanding Morturn. Would have been taken about 1960. It was a 1930s house, all of Atlantic Road is still there. If you walk the length to the junction with Dyas Road, Latham’s was just around the corner to the left. I expect this parade where Lathams had their shop dates from the 1930s too, along with all the shops along Hawthorn Road. Must have been one huge building site at the time.

A drapers would have been essential in the 30s - 50s, all those houses, all needing nets ! They’d have been the first stop for antemacassars (mom had those too on every chair where possible). I remember Lathams sold the plain cotton/linen tablecloths you could buy with the printed flower outlines on ready for needleworking. I did one - took me quite a while to complete, must have been about 12 or 13. Think this was where I discovered a love of sewing - still at it today. I’ve saved the family and friends hundreds of pounds on alterations over the years.

Viv.
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Thanks Viv, I know Atlantic Road quite well, being from Erdington, Short Heath. Mon would shop on Hawthorn Road, we would catch the No 28.
 
Me and mum and her antemacassars ! Most likely a Kingstanding Lathams purchase. (And my toy poodle called FuFu - looks pretty creepy to me. We're watching TV in this photo - probably Emergency Ward 10, a favourite of both of us). Photo about 1960, taken in the back room Atlantic Road. Viv.

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viv i have a feeling i have seen a fuller pic of that shop and yes i will stick me neck out and say it was lathams... will see if i can find that photo for you

lyn
 
yes viv i was right its one of rays pics...could be our mom used this one as we were right on the no 8 route

Aston cross (2).jpg
 
Great photo, thanks Lyn. Unusual shape to the section curving round onto Rocky Lane. Of all the photos we’ve seen of Latham’s so far, they seemed to favour corner plots for their shops. Viv.
 
Astoness said:
yes viv i was right its one of rays pics...could be our mom used this one as we were right on the no 8 route

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Lots interest and much of the past here; apart from the clock and the public library (minus small spire), which is probably no longer a library, little seems left. I notice a Woolworth store and a National Provincial Bank? I date it late 1960's. Incidentally the NP Bank merged with the Westminster in 1970 to form todays NatWest Bank.
 
yes alan and also the clock was moved further down to more or less where lathams shop was:rolleyes:
 
what a great pic of the cross. when i hear the word Lathams i think of nechells green and oil cloth
 
I remember frequently going shopping to a Latham's in Nechells Park Road with my late Wife in around the 70's buying curtains, dress material etc... Eric
 
Phil said:
Viv

Not my area at all, but is this the Kingstanding shop, I've got it marked as Hawthorne Road, but there is no Hawthorne Road in Kingstanding is there?

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I used to work there at the Kingstanding Rd branch in the 80s and 90s. I remember when we used to get a new range of net curtain in & the candy stripe bed sheets in the spring and there would be a rush to buy them. I regularly meet with some of the old staff including L.Latham.
 
Henry Latham was my first cousin, twice removed. He was born in Eccleshall, Staffs in 1882. He trained as a draper in Cannock under his brother in law and then moved to Birmingham. His first shop was in Nechells Park Road around 1917. He married Florence Stringer and they had 3 children but she died of flu in 1923 when the youngest was only six months old.
He had nannies to look after the children and concentrated on his business which became very successful. However I get the impression he wasn’t always the best father to the girls as he spent so much time on the business.
In 1929 he married Winifred Bradbury and they had four more children. All of the girls helped in the shops as he now had three shops with those in Kingstanding and Glebe Farm. However the girls didn’t get always on with their step mother and found their father temperamental and so after 1945 most of them moved out of Birmingham, some of them to Canada.
Henry died in 1954 while living in Walmley Ash Road.

Hope you find this background interesting!
 
My grandfather Frederick McGuirk (Fred) working in Latham's drapery shop in Nechells in the 1960s. My mother lived with her parents in the flat over the Glebe Farm Road Lathams. Apparently Mr Latham offered Fred the flat because he was a hard worker and a highly respected member of staff. The family lived there from the 1930s for over 18 years then later moved to Earlswood.
 

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Mike McGuirk said:
My Grandfather Fred McGuirk working in Latham's drapery shop in Nechells in the 1960s. My mother lived with her parents in the flat over the Glebe Farm Road Lathams. Apparently Mr Latham offered Frederick the flat because he was a hard worker and a respected member of staff. The family lived there from the 1930's for over 18 years then later moved to Earlswood.
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i lived in nechells. mom used to get the oilcloth from there.i remember it standing on end by the window. after mom bought it.the next-door neighbour would collect it on his hand cart.
 
Weirdly long before I started researching my family history I lived in Stechford and often used to go to Glebe Farm, not knowing that one of my ancestors had a shop there. Anyone any idea when the Latham’s shops closed?
 
Corbo12 said:
Weirdly long before I started researching my family history I lived in Stechford and often used to go to Glebe Farm, not knowing that one of my ancestors had a shop there. Anyone any idea when the Latham’s shops closed?
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Lathams also had a shop at the Poolway Shopping Centre on the Meadway, Sheldon. John.
 
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