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They Were Caught In Our Old Street Pics...

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Yes. its here somewhere Chris. But nice to see an old car. I believe there were quite a few comments.
Soon found: :laughing:

Two Birmingham Businessmen in Berlin

Two Birmingham businessmen pause for a moment on a sunny Berlin street to have their photograph taken. It is 1932, the last summer before Germany starts to change for ever. My father is on the right. The identity of his colleague is unknown. We are on the Charlottenstrasse, a smart area of...
birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
The car is undoubtedly a Riley, the OG number plate started in April 1930, and ran until April 1931. As the number is 6698, I would place the car’s birth at Jan 1931, and the model as a Nine Monaco saloon, but with slightly less certainty. The taxi is a mystery, (maybe a Citroën) my knowledge of these old cars extends only to British makes. The Riley, at the time, was a fairly expensive sporting make, a bit like a small BMW or Alfa Romeo would be more recently.

Nine meant nine horsepower, a government contrivance for taxation purposes, the engine being a 1087cc four cylinder producing about 30 brake horsepower or so.

Monaco is the name of the body type, in this case a wooden framed saloon with a fabric (usually leather cloth) covering

www.carandclassic.co.uk

1930 UY 9178: Riley “9” Monaco SOLD

Find your dream classic car from over 10,000 private adverts plus many more trade adverts on Europe's No 1 classic cars site. 100% F...
www.carandclassic.co.uk www.carandclassic.co.uk
 
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Thanks, Alan. I really meant in this thread. Possibly here, somewhere. But I'll leave this here anyway - the odd newer member might be interested in it and the link you kindly provided.

(The original 2008 article has got updated in the meantime: a final, much more encouraging outcome for one of the families whose business appeared elsewhere in the background of this image and whose grim history I managed to track down).

And thanks also, John. Just think of the journey that car has had from the streets of Birmingham. No autobahns in those days. Nor car ferries. And Berlin is a long way to the east. It presumably got back OK. My Dad did, anyway! Not our family car, unfortunately.

Chris
 
Just for interest - one different Brummie and the same Brummie car - the same scene a few seconds earlier or later, my father having become the photographer.....

BerlinukColleagues1932img651red.jpg

(That corner was totally destroyed by RAF bombs or Russian artillery. It is now the back of the Berlin Hilton. I have a 2007 photo taken from the same spot but won't post it here as we are edging towards the off-topic already!)
 
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ChrisM said:
Just for interest - one different Brummie and the same Brummie car - the same scene a few seconds earlier or later, my father having become the photographer.....

View attachment 146957

(That corner was totally destroyed by RAF bombs or Russian artillery. It is now the back of the Berlin Hilton. I have a 2007 photo taken from the same spot but won't post it here as we are edging towards the off-topic already!)
Click to expand...
Found lots of these cars on line but none with a front bumper so is this one none standard? John.
 
Jonob said:
Found lots of these cars on line but none with a front bumper so is this one none standard? John.
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Sorry about the time I have taken in responding to your question about front bumpers, but the wife, the greenhouse and the belated garden work caught up, and she who must be........

The front bumper may have been fitted by the owner, or requested from the factory knowing that he had a foreign adventure in mind. The front dumb irons extend to not far behind the location of the bumper, so the engineering involved would have amounted perhaps to drilling some holes and fabrication of suitable bracketry to mount it. My view would be that it might not have been sensible to weld in that area, embrittlement of the metal around the spring mounts would not be desirable. The bumper would have been relatively weak because of its mounting, okay to protect the radiator from small animals but no cow catcher!

I have not seen such a bumper on an early 30s Riley, the one fitted could have been sourced from a Morris, those fitted to later Rileys being much more elaborate. In response to the “non standard” query, in those days there was less standardisation since the cars were more hand built.

Hoping that this is a suitable answer.

www.imcdb.org

Morris Oxford in "Smiley"

www.imcdb.org www.imcdb.org

imcdb.org

Morris Cowley in "Grand Tours of Scotland"

imcdb.org imcdb.org
 
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Late afternoon, September 1964 on Stratford Road and three teenage girls in school uniform warily watch those young lads pushing the 'soapbox cart'. The bus on the left has turned into Stoney Lane passing the Jubilee Stores. The tower of St Agatha's Church is visible above the shops on the left.
CoolColourised_StratfordRd_1964.jpg
The image has been computer colourised. The B&W image is in another thread on the forum.

In the same place today the Jubilee Stores would have been where the 'Aldi' sign is and maybe that post box (partially visible) is the same one seen in the old photo. The tower of St Agatha's Church is clearly visible and has a mobile phone mast on top.
Now_StratfordRd.jpg
 
Love looking at these then and now even though did not come from the area , but parents used to visit friends in the area back in sixtys and early seventys and loved catching the buses from Cas Brom in to town and out again
 
I recall the earlier b&w photo of Sparkbrook. It suggests a time before the junction on the left was widened. That junction with Stoney Lane and Walford Road was always a traffic bottleneck even back in the early 1950's. There was often a police constable on traffic duty there in the rush hours.
 
oldMohawk said:
Late afternoon, September 1964 on Stratford Road and three teenage girls in school uniform warily watch those young lads pushing the 'soapbox cart'. The bus on the left has turned into Stoney Lane passing the Jubilee Stores. The tower of St Agatha's Church is visible above the shops on the left.
View attachment 148281
The image has been computer colourised. The B&W image is in another thread on the forum.

In the same place today the Jubilee Stores would have been where the 'Aldi' sign is and maybe that post box (partially visible) is the same one seen in the old photo. The tower of St Agatha's Church is clearly visible and has a mobile phone mast on top.
View attachment 148282
Click to expand...
oldMohawk, I see the tower on the right is missing, seems like the building is still there. Is it just the tower that is gone?

More great photos!
 
Hi Ploody,
It's nice to hear from someone who was actually in one of the old street pics. I presume you managed to avoid running into those girls. They looked as if they were walking home from school but according to the time on the clock it seems late. The colours were added by me and I could edit them to something different.

Another interesting photo at that location is earlier in thread as below ...
oldMohawk said:
In the pic in post #41 a man seemed out of place, the man in this pic looks in place but interesting.

It is Stratford Road/Stoney Lane in 1952, the camera was ready, the street scene was set as a uniformed man rides in on his motorised bike.

He has large leather cuffs on his sleeves, badges and shiny buttons on his double breasted jacket, he stares at the camera, I wonder what he was thinking ? I can't seem to place the uniform maybe he was a tram driver, but I remember those motorised bikes, a postman in our road had one and I used watch him going off to work pedalling furiously to get the motor started.

index.php


from https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/old-street-pics.38737/page-2#post-430265
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oldmohawk :)
 
Richarddye said:
oldMohawk, I see the tower on the right is missing, seems like the building is still there. Is it just the tower that is gone?

More great photos!
Click to expand...
Hi Richard, the building opposite St Agatha's shows as a church on Streetview but the tower or steeple must have been demolished at some date.
goo.gl

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
goo.gl goo.gl
 
The missing spire was on the Stratford Road Baptist Church. This thread gives details:
posts 92 - 102.

Stratford Road

Not sure about the exact border between Sparkhill and Sparkbrook but roughly north of the Warwick Rd is Sparkbrook and south of the Warwick Rd is Sparkhill. ps just found a map that shows the border as Stoney Lane/Walford Rd Well, that fits the description of the places i.e. Sparkhill is up...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
Hi all the colours are fine old mohawk and the girls could be late from school having played netball or rounders that was the thing in the day.All asking about the Baptist Church spire was burnt down in a fire in the church which I think was hired out to a photo studio in the 70's/80's and I went to this church at the time of the photo 1964 in the boys brigade 2nd company
 
Radiorails said:
The missing spire was on the Stratford Road Baptist Church. This thread gives details:
posts 92 - 102.

Stratford Road

Not sure about the exact border between Sparkhill and Sparkbrook but roughly north of the Warwick Rd is Sparkbrook and south of the Warwick Rd is Sparkhill. ps just found a map that shows the border as Stoney Lane/Walford Rd Well, that fits the description of the places i.e. Sparkhill is up...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
Click to expand...
Thank you RR!
 
Just looking back on this superb thread, perhaps our car identity wizard from Staffs can confirm the make of sports car in thread 414.

Bob
 
The first picture in this thread about a man (possibly a dad) pushing a pram, reminds me of my late mother-in-law telling me about hard times when she was a child (she was the eldest of several siblings) being sent out with an old pram full of bundles of firewood, and not being allowed to return home until it had all been sold. I recall she said she was made to take her little sister to play on people's sympathy, and that they walked the streets for hours and hours. Even though my mother-in-law grew so tired she could hardly put one foot in front of the other, she would end up pushing her sister as well as the firewood. The sad part of this story is her parents used the money she earned to buy gin rather than much needed food.
 
oldMohawk said:
Late afternoon, September 1964 on Stratford Road and three teenage girls in school uniform warily watch those young lads pushing the 'soapbox cart'. The bus on the left has turned into Stoney Lane passing the Jubilee Stores. The tower of St Agatha's Church is visible above the shops on the left.
View attachment 148281
The image has been computer colourised. The B&W image is in another thread on the forum.

In the same place today the Jubilee Stores would have been where the 'Aldi' sign is and maybe that post box (partially visible) is the same one seen in the old photo. The tower of St Agatha's Church is clearly visible and has a mobile phone mast on top.
View attachment 148282
Click to expand...
My family were quite involved with St Agatha's and I was during the 1950's a member of the Boy Scouts, Church Lads Brigade, Youth Club and Altar Boy. I hasten to add I was not a Goody Goody but at that time it filled a gap.
It was an Anglo Catholic, Church of England and as such it was attended mainly by a congregation of well off people from out of the parish who tolerated we local scruff.
When I think back about these snobier stalwarts I think they would be turning in their graves at the thought on a mobile phone tower stuck on the top of the church it used to be.
 
Certainly don’t see any reason to disagree with the others.

The car with the spare wheel on the back (EKB) is a 1937/40 Ford 8 model 7Y in basic trim. I think that they built some during the war as basic transport for essential users but they mostly got driven into the ground.* The deluxe model had a steel cover like a big saucepan lid to hide the wheel. The MG models of that era always cause a problem but TC is as good a shout as any.

BTW, I don’t know if anyone has commented, but GOE 633 is one of the 15 or so AEC Regent III buses bought by BCT post war. They were basically the London Standard bus chassis, but with Birmingham modifications and Park Royal bodywork, but no more were purchased.

JOJ567 was a 1950 built Birmingham Standard Metropolitan Cammell bodied bus on the Guy Arab III chassis. Much more like it!

*I’ve done some looking up, and the 7Y had been discontinued in 1939 and replaced by the 04A Anglia, no different mechanically but with a boot and a different front grille, sorry!

antigosverdeamarelo.blogspot.com

Ford Anglia 04A 1939 - 1948 ...

Um pequeno inglezinho, Ford Anglia modelo 04A. O modelo da foto foi produzido entre 1939 e 1948, mas não sei dizer o ano específico desse ex...
antigosverdeamarelo.blogspot.com antigosverdeamarelo.blogspot.com

1948 Ford E04A Anglia saloons.

Original image of a Ford Anglia E04A motor-car photographed in Ireland, and other examples.
www.oldclassiccar.co.uk

Ford 8 (or 7Y) Deluxe 1958-61 post vintage car portrait print

www.classiccarportraits.co.uk
 
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