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Arthur Street, Small Heath

B

Brock

master brummie
Hi All,

Could anyone tell me please where I might find some old pictures of Arthur Street in Small Heath before it was re-developed in the 1960/70's?
Both of my parents were born in the old back to back houses in Arthur Street & I would love to see what the street looked like to learn more about my family.

Thank you,
Brock
 
Sorry beamish but I couldn't view the picture. I would love to see it though so if you do get the chance to try again I would be really grateful please.
Thank you.
 
Thank you so much for trying again for me, I really appreciate it.
It's a wonderful photo, thank you so much.
 
Beamish that,s a really nice photo that,s on the corner of the Cov. Rd with the bus garage in the background i suppose that,s you and your gang deciding weather to play on the railway or not.Dek:D:D:D
 
Hi Brock

My parents lived in Arthur street from about 1961 to 1972 and i was born there. What are your parents called and what number did they live at? My parents were Ray & Jean Haymes and they lived at 8 back of 36, opposite the Prince Atrhur pub corner of Bordesley Park rd and Arthur street. Apparently i was named after a barmaid who worked at the pub :D
I just rang my mom to ask if she had any pictures but she doesn't.
I don't remember anything about the street, i was born in 67.
Hope to hear from you.

Tina x
 
Hi Tina, good to hear from you.
My Mom's surname was Jones & she & her family used to live at 15 back 82 Arthur Street.
My Dad's surname was Ward & he & his family used to live at 16 back 70 Arthur Street.
I also had family living in the neigbouring roads, Herbert Road & The Grove which was in Mount Pleasant.
I used to love to stay with an aunt during school holidays & one Saturday when I was just a very young girl my Uncle came home from work on Saturday lunch time & told us to get ready to go out for a mystery trip. Someone at work that morning had told him that the old back to back houses in Arthur Street were about to be pulled down to clear the area for re-development & as he & my aunt had been born there & lived there for many years he thought that it would be good to see them again before they disappeared forever.
They were in a terrible state with many of them being derilect & unsafe. The door was broken on the home which my Dad used to live in & so we were able to go inside it. A tramp had been living in there sleeping on a damp mattress on the floor & I can remember all of his meagre possessions lined up ready for use when he got back.
The thing that struck me the most was the size of the rooms. Many of the families had several children & I just couldn't imagine how they managed to cram everyone into their home as there were few rooms & each of those rooms was so tiny!
I remember trying to pull the dood handle off to take back to my Dad as a keepsake but I wasn't able to pull it off which is something that I still get cross about!

Regards,
Brock.
 
Hi Brock
My parents and 5 children lived in the house. I don't remember the size of the house, i don't really remember anything about it. I would love to have gone back to see the houses there, too late now i guess. I wonder if they looked like the houses on Coranation steet do? :023:
We moved to Arthur street after there, then Benton road and eventually Acocks green. I don't live in Birmingham now, not since 2002. One day i must visit the area to have a look around. My family still live there.
Where do you live now?

Tina x
 
Hi Brock.
I too lived in Arthur St 8/90 from 1939 to 1955 and I think that tall block of flats are built on the exact spot.
Because the houses were so small two up and two down the sleeping arrangements were my mom and four sisters in the main bedroom and myself and dad in the box room (well named) under the stairs was a "coalhole" next to that a scullery with a stone sink and only cold water of course, the living room was about 10 foot by 10 foot and very damp because the next yards "Miskins" sat up against it.
My father used to go up the Housing Office every week but because we were not over crowded (can you belive) they reckoned we did not have enough points to qualify for a move so it took us 16 years to get out.

Regards Acklam19.
 
Gosh, it's laughable these days when you hear that the council would have considered your home as not being over crowded!
I took a trip to the restored back to back houses which were renovated by the National Trust recently to get a better idea of what it was like to live in them. It's well worth a visit there if anyone is interested in that sort of thing. Each home is furnished & equiped with original items of a different decade so as you move around from house to house you can see how things would have slowly changed throughout the years. It was a real eye opener for me & made me realise what my family's lives were like even more.
 
Hi Tina, well I live in Yardley so it's not too far away from where you used to live.
You wouldn't recognise Arthur Street if you were to visit there now as the whole area was re-developed so it's a mass of relatively new homes & there is a high tower block too. As far as I know, none of the old buildings survived other than old schools & churches in the area.
There is a wonderful book by Chris Upton called "Living Back-to-Back". It's all about the various types of back to back houses that were built in Birmingham (it seems that there were several variations on the same theme) & it's full of information about the old roads & it includes many fantastic old photo's of the old houses all over Birmingham. I was fascinated with the book & it's well worth a read if you spot it in the library or in a bookshop.
If you ever get the chance to visit the National Trust back to back houses in Hurst Street (just next to the Hippodrome Theatre in Birmingham city centre) it will bring all of your old memories back to life for you. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit there & learned a lot about the old houses & what life must have been like to live in them.
 
I ,ve just remember a guy who lived in Arthur St from 50 years ago his name was Graham Hall. Dek
 
Hi,

My mother was born and grew up in Arthur Street. Her maiden name was Florence Lilian Boswell. This was before WW1

Old Boy
 
Old Boy said:
Hi,

My mother was born and grew up in Arthur Street. Her maiden name was Florence Lilian Boswell. This was before WW1

Old Boy
Click to expand...
My Dad's surname was Ward & he was born in Arthur Street in 1915.
My Mom's surname was Jones & she was born in Arthur Street in 1919.
Sadly, we have no photo's at all amongst the family showing any bits of Arthur Street ~ I had hoped that there might have been a few which may have showed the houses in the background etc. Have you any at all?
 
Lyn, that's wonderful! Thank you so much, it's the first picture that I have seen showing the street in any way at all.
Life was tough for the folks living in the old back to back houses without any of the mod cons that we are so used to today which we all take for granted so it's especially nice to see the fun side of their lives too.
Thank you.
 
bordesley park road.jpgmick draisey and brother francis abt1965 over the grove.jpghello all i used to live in bordesley park road from 1954-1968 heres a photo from 1930s with the prince arthur at the top on the right on the corner of arthur street
and one from the sixties with the demolition of arthur st in the back ground begun
 
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