• 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
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

They Were Caught In Our Old Street Pics...

Status
Not open for further replies.
The tram, the man and his little pillion rider are going past St Martins church towards Digbeth. It looks like late afternoon and no one in the pic is looking at that tram which will soon disappear from the streets of Brum ... although that women on the right might be but she only wants it to get out of the way so she can cross the road ....:D
 
Was the pub something like the George? Is it the one that was in front of the Museum concert hall? It's a great picture oM and one I definitely haven't seen before.

Just looked it up and it is the Old Royal George I was thinking about.
 
It is already somewhere on the Forum Lady P, maybe in one of the Bull Ring threads.
Anyone who used the Stratford Road or Warwick Road bus services before the Manzoni Gardens were built would be familiar with the place and the bus stops.
 
lynnrymond said:
In pic 1939 could anyone tell me where no 38 Brearley St would be? My lovely Gran lived here in the 20s and a quite a few of my Aunts and Uncles were born here. She, herself was born at 10 Court 3.
Click to expand...
My mother (Doreen Wright) lived in Brearley street, Hockley - with her mother (Alice) and aunt (Lilian Bradbury). The houses were built up back-to-backs. Nan had a pretty (but small) garden, shared brew house and toilet. They had moved to that house after being bombed out 3 times and Nan would remain there for getting on for 20 years. I remember it in the late fifties. There was nothing as open as the garden area in your picture - although the back houses in the adjacent street (Great Russell Street where my other gran lived) were laid out like that.
 
Trying to be a 'good' wife, I was watching a film with my hubbie (the original boy engineer) on utube the other day:
(be warned its 2 hrs). I was becoming a bit sleepy until the following scene came into view (1hr 36:10mins into the film). It is taken on the loop between Suffolk Street, Navigation Street aand Horsefair ( i havent quite got it pinpointed but I think it close to the junction between Hill Street and Navigation Street).
Does anyone know about elephants on the streets on Brum (around 1950-53)??
upload_2018-1-30_11-43-59.png
 
macqueen said:
My mother (Doreen Wright) lived in Brearley street, Hockley - with her mother (Alice) and aunt (Lilian Bradbury). The houses were built up back-to-backs. Nan had a pretty (but small) garden, shared brew house and toilet. They had moved to that house after being bombed out 3 times and Nan would remain there for getting on for 20 years. I remember it in the late fifties. There was nothing as open as the garden area in your picture - although the back houses in the adjacent street (Great Russell Street where my other gran lived) were laid out like that.
Click to expand...
Hi Macqueen,
Do you know what number your mother lived at?
 
macqueen said:
My mother (Doreen Wright) lived in Brearley street, Hockley - with her mother (Alice) and aunt (Lilian Bradbury). The houses were built up back-to-backs. Nan had a pretty (but small) garden, shared brew house and toilet. They had moved to that house after being bombed out 3 times and Nan would remain there for getting on for 20 years. I remember it in the late fifties. There was nothing as open as the garden area in your picture - although the back houses in the adjacent street (Great Russell Street where my other gran lived) were laid out like that.
Click to expand...
Hi, they lived at 2/187 in 1945. I think there were 4 houses in the yard.
 
What a brilliant film of the old trams, I'm to young to remember them. When was the film early 50s? They certainly rocked and rolled when getting up speed along the straights. What was Chunkys advert on many of the trams?. I don't remember it.
I remember going to Billy Smarts circus at the Bingley Hall about 1955, and they had elephants. Were the trams running then? Poor things, they must have hated it, walking in the busy city centre, a young elephant looking at the size of it . Thankfully that's one area of the modern era I agree on, no large animals in circuses.
 
I always look at the people in old street pics and on a sunny afternoon in the 1930s the traffic lights have changed and folks are on the move (except one) towards the pavements, some to the left, some to the right, and one still in the middle. Most wear coats, but that lady on the left wears only a short sleeved dress ... it was a favourite spot for street photos.
CorporationSt2COL.jpg
 
A photographer was taking a pic of a not particularly interesting part of Belchers Lane, Bordesley Green, and some children stood and wondered why. The women with the pram could safely stand in the road in those days.
3BelchersLane.jpg

Nearly the same part of the road today.
4BelchersLane.JPG
 
oldMohawk said:
A light hearted look at some of our old street pics. I enjoy looking at the buildings but often see a pic with people in it and find myself trying to imagine what they were doing, and what they were thinking ....
Some photos are links to other member's posts and will not be visible unless you are logged in. Other links went wrong during the migration from vBulletin but they are being corrected.
A 1940's dad taking baby for a walk. Is this the only old photo on the forum showing a man pushing a pram? 1940's dads did not usually push prams unless the wife was walking alongside, but this dad took the pram out and so he's on the forum !
attachment.php
Click to expand...

OM Have you ever thought it might be Sunday morning about 11.55 , and once he's seen the photographer's gone, he'll be straight in the pub for a pint then out again to keep an eye on the pram while he relishes hi pint
 
Williamstreeter said:
OM Have you ever thought it might be Sunday morning about 11.55 , and once he's seen the photographer's gone, he'll be straight in the pub for a pint then out again to keep an eye on the pram while he relishes hi pint
Click to expand...
I suppose back in the 1940s you could leave a baby in a pram outside a pub without anyone commenting ...:)
 
Browsing this thread looking at people, I decided to add some colour to the 1930s newspaper pic from post#3. I now see that the man walking with the lady was wearing dark glasses. The 'marching man' still looks odd. I've never seen anyone walking like that in other old street pics. The 1920s 'two-way' system had become 'one-way' and the Bluecoats School roof tiles have been removed.
ZColmore_Row_1930s_0.jpg
 
Love the colouring OM.

I think the male with the lady in the red coat is a schoolboy. Isn't there another image of these two (or very similar) but near the Bluecoat school/Kardomah/Great Western Arcade side of Colmore Row ? Seem to remember a boy and his mum image there too - or maybe it's a different date. Viv.
 
oldMohawk said:
I love this 1930s photo, its sunny with blossom on the trees, nice bus shelters. That bowler hatted man marching towards Snow Hill Station, he's in a hurry, maybe he's late back from lunch. Is that a teenage schoolboy arm-in-arm with his mum, probably hoping his school mates did not see the photo !
Colmore_Row_1930s~0.jpg
Click to expand...
Hi Viv, I had originally thought he was a schoolboy as you can see from my earlier post above, but now I'm not so sure. The original pic was scanned from a newspaper so resolution is low. Maybe the paper intended to show the conversion of the old Bluecoat school into offices. Other things are the 'errand boy' standing on his pedals picking up speed, and with the recently introduced 'one way' traffic rules they have painted 'look left' on the road for pedestrians.
 
For my fourpennorth I think he's a schoolboy with his mom as he has a cap with a badge on. I think the man crossing the road is walking 'purposefully' either because he's trying to get across before the cars run him over or because he's late back from lunch. No, can't be lunch as the shadows are too long. It must be this time of year as the blossom is out.
 
oM, looking at the shadows of your afternoon picture, I've been trying to work out whether that tells us what time of day the Post#2448 was taken. Was it early morning? Or have I, once again, lost my sense of direction?
 
Hi Lady P,
When you look closely at the 'schoolboy's' cap, the badge is possibly something behind him and his hat could actually be a large flat cap overhanging the sides of his head .. but who knows ...
The shadows suggest that the sun is behind St Philips so it is mid-day and the man could the manager of the Grand Hotel hurrying back from somewhere or could just be hurrying out of the way of oncoming cars ... ;)
I remember from the 1950s that people visiting Birmingham often complained about the one-way system in the city centre !
 
Hi oM, I though you didn't get shadows at noon when the sun is overhead. It's twenty to eleven so I shall try to remember to step outside and try it - probably out the back so that the neighbours don't see me!
 
One thing is more certain, even if the time is not and that is it is springtime with the beautiful blossom on the trees. There are trees there at the present time but I don't think they are flowering cherry type trees.
Two guesses now: it is 2 pm. BST and the guy striding out across the road may be hurrying to Snow Hill station for a train. ;)
 
Last edited:
oldMohawk said:
Browsing this thread looking at people, I decided to add some colour to the 1930s newspaper pic from post#3. I now see that the man walking with the lady was wearing dark glasses. The 'marching man' still looks odd. I've never seen anyone walking like that in other old street pics. The 1920s 'two-way' system had become 'one-way' and the Bluecoats School roof tiles have been removed.
View attachment 124669
Click to expand...
The lad on the bike may be on his way to make a delivery or on his way back to George Mason`s to pick up his next delivery.
 
Colmore Row runs South West so the sun is South East which means that it is before noon. There are still shadows at noon in this country as are we are north of the Tropic of Cancer which is the most northerly the sun comes to the earth. I think the Blue Coat school moved out of the city centre in 1930 and the one way system was introduced in 1933. The Corporation bus looks post-war to me but I am not sure of that.
 
Yes! I realised that we still get shadows at mid-day. Still learning!

Anyone remarked on that smashing lamp with the No Entry sign on. Very elegant.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top