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City Centre Photographs

oldMohawk said:
Albert Street date unknown but the tram track has gone so possibly mid 1950s.

In the car seen in the bottom corner, the driver is 'hand signalling', indicating that he is either slowing down, turning right, or even turning left.

The 'Beehive' shop on the right always seemed a little old fashioned when I went in there.
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Not a Nissan, Citroen. Peugot, Mercedes or BMW to be seen, in fact four of the six identifiable cars are BMC and am I right in thinking the van could be Austin? Trusty old electric milk float there as well. And could that van far right hand side be a Jowett Bradford?

Bob
 
The van behind the Traveller is a Ford Thames and I don't think the van in the distance is a Bradford, favour it being a Morris.
 
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Astoness said:
i agree with you 100% eric..although i could use stronger words because lessons were not learnt then..they have not been learnt since nor will they in the future...

lyn
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Brings to mind the last line of Don Macleans song,Vincent:"They did not listen,they're not listening still,perhaps they never will".

Nodd the Pessimist.
 
NoddKD said:
Brings to mind the last line of Don Macleans song,Vincent:"They did not listen,they're not listening still,perhaps they never will". Nodd the Pessimist.
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We always need to remember how many buildings Chamberlain knocked down to build Corporation Street and New Street.

If he had not done that we would not have those roads which I think we all agree are an asset to the city.

And how many buildings were knocked down to build the Council House and the BMAG behind it.

All cities are constantly changing, if they did not they would all be full of Tudor houses or even older houses.
 
The first photograph of some smiling elderly people, in colour, was taken by my son aged 17 in June 1987. We cannot remember where in the city centre it was and there are not many clues. I also took a rather dull black and white photograph of the same people but from a different direction. It does show that we are near a shopping centre (seen extreme right). Use of a magnifying class does not reveal anything else. Dave.
IMG-20200513-WA0013.jpgP1000729 (3).JPG
 
Hi Maurice. My first thought was that it looked like a churchyard but I know that on that day we did not go to Kings Heath. We did visit the Bull Ring, Aston University, Corporation Street, and some of the area around the Town Hall. A much greener Manzoni Gardens is a possibility but only if it is very close to a shopping centre. Possibly the Bull Ring shopping centre would fulfil that requirement. Dave.
 
farmerdave said:
The first photograph of some smiling elderly people, in colour, was taken by my son aged 17 in June 1987. We cannot remember where in the city centre it was and there are not many clues. I also took a rather dull black and white photograph of the same people but from a different direction. It does show that we are near a shopping centre (seen extreme right). Use of a magnifying class does not reveal anything else. Dave.
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Farmerdave The B+W photograph I thought the people were sitting outside St Martins in The Fields and the shopping centre was opposite that , I'm bound to be wrong though
 
Sorry about that. My eyesite misread the numbering on corporation st. The correct position of no 229 is on the corner of Lancaster st as below in red. This looks more like the photo.
map c1950 showing 229 Corporation st.jpg
 
Williamstreeter said:
Farmerdave The B+W photograph I thought the people were sitting outside St Martins in The Fields and the shopping centre was opposite that , I'm bound to be wrong though
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If you mean the St. Martins in the area of the Bull Ring, then that is a possibility. Would need to see benches for people to sit either inside the churchyard or just outside. Thanks. Dave.
 
I think the answer was in post 1928 by Lloyd i.e. Manzoni Gardens.
St. Martins in the Fields overlooks Trafalgar Square, but I guess it was a lapsus memoriae. ;)
 
Radiorails said:
I think the answer was in post 1928 by Lloyd i.e. Manzoni Gardens.
St. Martins in the Fields overlooks Trafalgar Square, but I guess it was a lapsus memoriae. ;)
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Rr looking at it in post 1928 if you are looking at an entrance to a subway , opposite to that which would be behind you, there is great big plate glass windows and bare concrete no wording to indicate shopping whatsoever , to my knowledge looking at different pics of the time
 
A Bull Ring photo with no date but the clock indicates late afternoon. Possibly bomb damaged buildings on the left and on the advert hoarding appear to be the words 'We Need' and 'We Work' and a man who looks as if he is rolling up his sleeves ... what is the message ?
BullRingwithclouds.jpg
 
Yes, Phil, much too early for the "buy British" campaigns, of which I think the earliest was in MacMillan's time. But definitely after WW2 there were campaigns to get us to export more. I would have been 10 years old and only went into the City with my parents on a Saturday afternoon, generally the markets, so didn't take an awful lot of notice of my surroundings. But in your photograph the rubble had been tidied away, but re-building was yet to start so 1947 sounds about right.

Maurice :cool:
 
Hi to you all. Thanks for the photo and the information. My sister was born in 1947 and I came along in 1952. We lived in Skinner Lane and I was christened in St Martins. In the photo on the right there is a building with two columns at the entrance. Is this the old fish market? I remember going there with my mum. I seem to remember you walked up steps to enter it and there was no roof because of bomb damage. The two other things I remember besides the smell of the fish was an old bomb (or was it a mine?) which had been painted red and converted into a collection box and my mother at one of the seafood stands eating whelks and cockles out of a cardboard carton.
 
The building with columns is the Market Hall. If you search the site there are threads about the Bull Ring (note: two words in the past), markets, bombing and St. Martin's.
 
Thanks again Radiorails. I've done some research and it must have been the Market Hall. No roof. Am I correct? If so there must have been seafood stands inside the entrance.
 
I remember the fish market being to the one side of the Market Hall, to the left as you entered from the Bull Ring. Not sure if it was partitioned off in some way.
 
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