Austin J Beeney Broad Street 1970s

[Richard Harris]

Hi , Does anyone have any memories of Broad St in the 1970"s? I had my first retail job in Austen J Beeney's menswear shop at 214 Broad street. The shop was run by Mr Hands and Mr Dunn (Terence and William although I was never allowed to call them by their names of course ) , the shop was primarily a menswear shop but specialised in uniforms such as chefs whites , cow gowns , boiler suits etc. I remember the street being full of car showrooms, antique shops, cafe's , banks etc as well as Lee Longhams ,Horizon travel agents and the TUC headquarters. There were also an awful lot of offices which from a menswear point of view were our main week day trade as it was absolutely dead on a Saturday when the offices were shut. We had the occasional visit from news presenters and crossroad stars as we were just down the street from the ATV television centre. The Apollo electrical store opened while i was there and not having done their homework they made the mistake of doing their grand opening on a Saturday , I still can remember the sight of a rather bemused Len Fairclough ( from Coronation street ) coming down the street in an opened topped car festooned with balloons and scantily clad ladies and arriving to a crowd of 3 elderly ladies and a dog. Broad street is rather unrecognisable to the one I knew in those days and sadly 214 Broad street has now been erased from the map but I would be very interested if anyone has any memories of the Broad street I remember.

 

[Vivienne14]

Welcome Richard. Great photos and memories ! So much has changed in the Street since the 70s. I too remember Broad Street as a very quiet street at weekends with no office workers etc.

Love the photos of typical window dressing style of the time. Pack as much into the window as you can ! I suppose most ‘browsing’ was done through the window.

Thanks for posting. And hope some of our members remember the shop.

Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

There’s a long thread on Broad Street in general which might be of interest too. https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/broad-st.30581/

And if course a search will also bring up other threads,

Viv.

 

[Pesky Graham]

Hi , Does anyone have any memories of Broad St in the 1970"s? I had my first retail job in Austen J Beeney's menswear shop at 214 Broad street. The shop was run by Mr Hands and Mr Dunn (Terence and William although I was never allowed to call them by their names of course ) , the shop was primarily a menswear shop but specialised in uniforms such as chefs whites , cow gowns , boiler suits etc. I remember the street being full of car showrooms, antique shops, cafe's , banks etc as well as Lee Longhams ,Horizon travel agents and the TUC headquarters. There were also an awful lot of offices which from a menswear point of view were our main week day trade as it was absolutely dead on a Saturday when the offices were shut. We had the occasional visit from news presenters and crossroad stars as we were just down the street from the ATV television centre. The Apollo electrical store opened while i was there and not having done their homework they made the mistake of doing their grand opening on a Saturday , I still can remember the sight of a rather bemused Len Fairclough ( from Coronation street ) coming down the street in an opened topped car festooned with balloons and scantily clad ladies and arriving to a crowd of 3 elderly ladies and a dog. Broad street is rather unrecognisable to the one I knew in those days and sadly 214 Broad street has now been erased from the map but I would be very interested if anyone has any memories of the Broad street I remember.

I started at A J Beeny's April 1970 straight from school then went on to manage their army and navy stores in Walsall 1976 till 1986 . Great times .