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Alfred Street, Sparkbrook

Adam Twycross

proper brummie kid
Hello all

I'm wondering whether someone might be able to help me?

I'm looking for some images and/or location information on a specific address, 64 Alfred Street, Sparkbrook, during the 1930s-1940s. Using Ancestry and others I've been able to research the occupants of the address, and using the NLS "then and now" maps that Astoness was kind enough to show me a while ago, I've got a good idea of the overall street layout and location, which is great.

But I was wondering whether anyone might be able to identify the precise location of number 64, or might have a photo of how the street looked around the '20s-40s?

Thanks so much

Adam
 
Mike is better at this than me but according to 1940 Kelly's the "billiards hall" was next to 68 and 64 was Mrs Nellie Burton a hardware dealer. I should add that the numbers seem to have run consecutively not odds and evens.
 

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Just adding a more detailed map c 1950, showing the position in red as Lyn said.
map c 1950 showing 64 Alfred St.jpg
 
Oh, that's fantastic- thank you so much, both!
If I'm reading the map correctly, that's a passageway in between numbers 64 and 65, presumably leading to the back of the properties?
 
Adam

Just as a matter of interest, who were you looking for in Alfred Street as one of my best mates came out of Alfred Street and his (large) family lived there during the period you mention, though I'm not sure of the number he lived at.
 
Here is a larger scale map from c1889. The cross over the alleyways between the houses shows that it was built over, and not open to the sky.
map c 1889 showing 64 Alfred ST .jpg
 
Did not mean tht it had just a roof, but that the alley was a tunnel , with rooms or part of rooms above
 
Sorry that was what I meant - the bedrooms are slightly wider than the downstairs rooms. At the end of ours are two gates - one into our back garden and one into our neighbours. For older houses I suppose it led into a yard.
 
Hi pjmburns, that's how our entry was at Tillingham St. Sparkbrook, built about that time.
Fortunately the gates into the rear gardens were at an angle of 45 degrees.
When I bought my motor scooter I did not take into account that it was to live in a shed in our back yard and this angle allowed me to make it through with very little room to spare. Come to think of it now I could have been in trouble, mind some kept bikes in hallways and living rooms.
Cheers Lucky Tim.
 
Yes - wheelie bins just fit through the angle with a bit of a jerk. Not to bad coming out as down a slope which helps! Not a problem when the house was built of course.
 
Like this house in a road near Alfred St. Many now have doors or gates across.
8c71ed36-91d1-44d0-be81-67a386925021
 

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We seem to have two small threads for Alfred Street.
 
Hello everyone,

I am so pleased to have stumbled across this website and would love to give some feedback, which I hope you will find of interest.

In the late 1960's our family company, Varley and Gulliver Limited moved from our rented site in Stoney Lane and bought the row of terraced houses 57 - 70 in Alfred Street on the right hand side going towards Ladypool Road.

I fondly remember the open fronted greengrocer "Nuf Sed" on the opposite side of the road on the corner with Ladypool Road, the amazing gospel singing from the Mission Hall which was directly opposite V&G, and the wonderful smell of Trippas Bakery on the corner of Ladypool and St. Paul's Road. Their jam doughnuts were and still are simply the best I have ever tasted!

Who remembers the mad woman who lived at the Stoney Lane end near to the petrol station? Mad as a box of frogs but a good chatterbox once you got to "know" her!

The George, on the corner of Alfred Street and Ladypool Road, was a really friendly local's pub and the V&G gang often went there for a lovely home cooked Friday lunch! I recall in the 70's it was one of the pubs that M&B and Courage "swapped" and it became run by a brother and sister team (Paul and Sue if my memory serves me?) from the Waterman at Hatton, near Warwick. A bit of a change of location for them, eh? And they were great!

We sold V&G in 1990 to Hill and Smith Holdings PLC and in 1993 the footprint of the V&G site was redeveloped to what exists today.

I remember that there were some quite deep wells in the back yards of some of the houses.

The billiard hall was demolished and rebuilt, and then occupied by Burden's Cream Ices, who supplied ice-cream powder to the "Mr Whippy and Friends" gang until it was closed.

V&G left the site earlier this year to relocate in West Bromwich.

I don't go into town very much these days, but when I do I always make a detour along Alfred Street to remind me of all the happy times I had and of all the lovely people - shopkeepers, traders and residents - that I was so fortunate to meet in Sparkbrook.

Happy days indeed.
 
We seem to have two small threads for Alfred Street.

Hi Radiorails,

Did your Aunt Liz live by the petrol station at the Stoney Lane end and did she have china pots and things tied on her garden fence as I'm sure this is the lady I used to have a chat to every day if she was in her front garden (which I think had a black wrought iron gate leading to it?) when I passed her house on my way to Braggs on the Stratford Road?

She certainly scared the hell out of me to begin with (I was only 17!), but I always looked forward to our daily chats once I got to know her - which took a while!!!!

I knew her as Lizzie.
 
Hello everyone,

I am so pleased to have stumbled across this website and would love to give some feedback, which I hope you will find of interest.

In the late 1960's our family company, Varley and Gulliver Limited moved from our rented site in Stoney Lane and bought the row of terraced houses 57 - 70 in Alfred Street on the right hand side going towards Ladypool Road.

I fondly remember the open fronted greengrocer "Nuf Sed" on the opposite side of the road on the corner with Ladypool Road, the amazing gospel singing from the Mission Hall which was directly opposite V&G, and the wonderful smell of Trippas Bakery on the corner of Ladypool and St. Paul's Road. Their jam doughnuts were and still are simply the best I have ever tasted!

Who remembers the mad woman who lived at the Stoney Lane end near to the petrol station? Mad as a box of frogs but a good chatterbox once you got to "know" her!

The George, on the corner of Alfred Street and Ladypool Road, was a really friendly local's pub and the V&G gang often went there for a lovely home cooked Friday lunch! I recall in the 70's it was one of the pubs that M&B and Courage "swapped" and it became run by a brother and sister team (Paul and Sue if my memory serves me?) from the Waterman at Hatton, near Warwick. A bit of a change of location for them, eh? And they were great!

We sold V&G in 1990 to Hill and Smith Holdings PLC and in 1993 the footprint of the V&G site was redeveloped to what exists today.

I remember that there were some quite deep wells in the back yards of some of the houses.

The billiard hall was demolished and rebuilt, and then occupied by Burden's Cream Ices, who supplied ice-cream powder to the "Mr Whippy and Friends" gang until it was closed.

V&G left the site earlier this year to relocate in West Bromwich.

I don't go into town very much these days, but when I do I always make a detour along Alfred Street to remind me of all the happy times I had and of all the lovely people - shopkeepers, traders and residents - that I was so fortunate to meet in Sparkbrook.

Happy days indeed.
Dear VG , I am related to John Madeley through his brother Leonard my great grandfather and his son Leonard John and my mother Greta Varley. I have traced my family history including John Madeley Varley , but have very little photographic records, except those Leonard John included in his autobiography . Please will you get in touch, perhaps we can exchange some information if you are interested ? Regards. Roy Williams
 
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