Alston Street, Ladywood

[sospiri]

Mike,

Would you kindly publish a map showing number 12 Alston Street. My father's mother and siblings lived here between 1909 and 1959 and the houses at this end of the road were demolished for road widening enabling Ladywood Circus and Ladywood Middleway to be created. Photographs of this end of the old road are very difficult to find, but a map would be a nice start as the area is unrecognisable now. Many thanks.

Maurice

 

[mikejee]

Here you are Maurice

 

[Astonian]

Hi maurice
firstly about furthers you mentionioned bout a DR and surgery well i did miss that off because it did mention
on there business cards in 1905 i should have down loaded that picture of it, and secondly regarding the right
hand of the corner that was produced by lynn it was the old pub wich had been derlict for donkeys years
it was in a terrible state of afairs this was on the corner of Alston Street and ladywood road
you can also seen a couple of house that had been bombed no windows no nothink and one day in the summer
so kids set fire to the beams so what happenend next was they demolished the building the pub and all
And furtbers built there new premises there right on the very corner of ladyewood road and alston street
At the other end of Alston street on the corner there was an old lady and a brokendown shop to look at
It was a grocery shop early fifties it closed down and by the mid fifties is was refurbished and openend up as
A chip shop until the final years of the sixty house cleance and redeveloping of ladywood i can tell you i
seen old ladywood being bull dozed and reborn from one end to another i have seen streets being changed
Around and the building going up even as a kid we played in those building site and serched the bombed
Houses street by street taking out window frames weights what we called as bombs we got hundreds from
the streets of ladywood you name them we was in there from monument road to the singers hill
i wittness morvile street sheep cote street there aint a street you can menion that i know about

 

[sospiri]

Many thanks, Mike. Now to start the real digging!

Maurice

 

[sospiri]

Since I'm currently looking at demolition in some of our Ladywood threads, this may help to date things. It's a paragraph from an article in the Birmingham Daily Post dated 20 May 1959 :-


Maurice

 

[Astonian]

Hi Mike And Maurice
Firstly Mike, i hope you do not mind me down loading a map of the area of Alston st and the surrounding streets of how it was up until the 1960 before the start of the redevelopment of the area,
Secondly . maurrice, for you here is the map of the area surrounding Alston street before the redevelopment started
In 1960 and furbers was on the corner of the old ladywood road and the old ladywood police station was brought foreward to the middle way thank you mike again this is for maurices purpose seeing the names clear
best wishes Alan;;;

 

[mikejee]

Am leaving lyn to decide what to transfer to this thread, but photos of Furbers that I took around 1970 are on post 47 at https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/birmingham-1969-73.23229/page-3

 

[sospiri]

Thanks, Alan. Again, as you will see from Mike's map showing number 12, I'm again interested in finding a photograph at the Great Tindal Street end, almost opposite St Margaret's Church as was. Whether I shall find one, I don't know. But like yourself and Mike, I'm also hoping that our endeavours will help other people hoping to find ancestors in this street. So here's a 1956 trade directory listing for the street showing just the businesses which help us to pinpoint the houses on photographs :-



Maurice

 

[sospiri]

Fair enough, Mike, no point in gobbling up server space providing there's a link to the pic. Many thanks.

Maurice

 

[kkins]

Here you are Maurice

View attachment 129093

Hi Maurice, would you point out No. 90 Alston Street for me please? I was born there in 1957. Thank you!

 

[mikejee]

Welcome to the forum, Kkins. You will see under Maurice's name "Gone but not forgotten" which means he regrettably has passed away. I have marked no 90 on the map in green and reposted it below

 

[kkins]

Welcome to the forum, Kkins. You will see under Maurice's name "Gone but not forgotten" which means he regrettably has passed away. I have marked no 90 on the map in green and reposted it below

View attachment 188182

Dear Mike, thank you for your reply. I apologise for not realising that Maurice had passed and if my comment caused hurt. Thank you for taking the time to mark no. 90 on the map. All the best. Kim