birmingham 1969-73

[mikejee]

Posted the last post before seeing your post. This photo was taken directly after the previous 3. As far as I can see it must have been taken along Balfour st, and I can't see myself going away , and then coming back (though it is possible), and surely the mount Pleasant school is at the wrong position for it to be Gosford St, though you know far more than me about the area obviously.

 

[Williamstreeter]

No 21. This seems to be the delivery entrance to Furbers in Alston Street. Looking at the 1914 map, there was probably quite a large area available for hearses.
22. This looks a bit like an old style doctors surgery, and that is what it was from about 1936 to 1966, occupied by Mr (must remember that as he was a surgeon and not one of the hoi-polloi medics) Reginald Abrahams. Before that it was occupied by, among others, an artificial teeth maker and the Misses Fearn ,teachers of music.
3, 23 and 24. These are of Rann St,, the last being a shot from one direction looking down to a fish & chip shop at the end, the first in the other direction, and the middle one, a section of the houses.
Note added by member Jabaprawn :"pictures 23 and 24 i could be wrong.. rann st,. with rann st chippie at the bottom. walked past these houses on my way to school (oratory school,oliver road"
26. Monument road baths before their demolition.

Monument Rd Baths , while at St Peters off Broad St we went here , strangely enough thinking back it always seemed to rain when our class went here . Nothing like not drying yourself properly and walking back to school in the rain. In the school holidays it was different though the odd rainy day , but mostly good days , then out of the pool for a cup of either Oxo or hot chocolate and a packet of cheesettes . That's what I call living , perhaps a game of tracking or cowboys on the way home

 

[Astoness]

john you can still get cheesettes

 

[Williamstreeter]

john you can still get cheesettes

Would'nt be the same, now the baths have gone

 

[Phil]

Mike

As I said in my last post after seeing your map with the school footprint inset I had second thoughts about Gosford Street. Yes it is possible that you were in one of the terraces off Mary Street behind Balflour Street looking toward Balsall Heath Road.

 

[mikejee]

The next three photos connect and show a row of houses . They were taken immediately after the previous ones , and examining the arrangement of the houses (with breaks and the covered passageway in the first photo), together with the area being photographed, I am pretty convinced that they show nos 3-13 Balfour St (in red on the map)

 

[Astoness]

great photos mike...one day they will mean something to someone who lived there

lyn

 

[mikejee]

The next four photos again are in series linking nos 5-23 on the west side of Lincoln St (marked in blue on the map)

 

[mikejee]

Following this is look back in the other direction in Lincoln st showing nos 13-5, and a closer view of the other end of the row showing nos 18-23

 

[Astoness]

mike any idea what no bus ran down lincoln st

lyn

 

[mikejee]

Yes Lyn, it was the 48 service. Phil helped identify the stop, and thus the position of the photos. I think the 48 (if it has not changed its no) still goed down there, though it looks a lot different now!

 

[Radiorails]

Some of the Lincoln Street posts, appear to show the centre of the road surface being a light colour probably where the single track tram lines were. The 39 tram route was abandoned in October 1949. The inward, city bound trams would run from Mary Street, into Balfour Road and thence Lincoln Street then onward to the city. The Balsall Heath tramway system possessed many single tracks in which trams travelled in one direction only.

 

[mikejee]

Alan.
If you look closely the lighter areas seem to be structured (cobbles/stone setts/wooden blocks), whereas the darker areas are not and look like tarmac. Isn't it more likely that the dark areas were where the lines were removed and quickly filed with tarmac?

 

[Radiorails]

My pc picture does not seem to show setts in the centre of the road, where the track would have been, Mike. However, the tracks were in the centre of the road and you could not lift the tracks one at a time as they were connected by lateral stretchers so the whole lot had to be lifted at the same time. This could explain the size and location of the infill.
Incidentally there is a photograph of Balfour Street in one of my books which shows sets between and either side of the tracks. However, the photo is pre-war as it shows a gas lamp (with white top) and the open balconied car has an ornate fleet number.
It might be that the setts either side of the track have been tarmacked over. The traction poles for the overhead were on the same side as that showing the bus stop.

 

[mikejee]

The following set of photographs show the houses down the east side of Lincoln St from 58 down to 35, and with a side view of the wall of the Woodman pub on Edward St. The houses are marked in blue on the map. At highest resolution, and knowing what is behind, the plaque on the wall between 56 & 57 can just about be made out to read Woodbine Place. the houses are shown in blue on the map below

The last owner in Kellys of "Tony's Cafe" at no 56 is F.H. Farnham, and the electoral roll shows not mention of an Anthony or Tony at that address. In the 1940s and 50s it had beena fried fish shop

For a short time till demolition, at no 50 Mary Cooper had a drapers shop.

At 47, with the Stephens Ink sign , the last occupant was H Sojka, a grocer, and previously in the 1950s it had been Edward Solarz, another grocer, but in th e1940s the shop had been occupied by Gilbert Barnes, a newsagent, and this is probably where the sign came from.


The first of the set go from nos 58 to 44

 

[mikejee]

The second group of the set go from 43-35, plus the side of the Woodman.

The bricked-up no 43 was, until the early 1970s, the surgery of Dr Forbes.

 

[Radiorails]

Alan.
If you look closely the lighter areas seem to be structured (cobbles/stone setts/wooden blocks), whereas the darker areas are not and look like tarmac. Isn't it more likely that the dark areas were where the lines were removed and quickly filed with tarmac?

Mike I was a little confused with the photos, viewing them on a laptop maybe. The road was not Balfour Street but Lincoln Street that caught my eye.
Anyway great photos to be sure.
I note in your circa1954 map the tramway is no longer shown.

 

[mikejee]

The following two photos run together and were taken at the same time as the last ones, and must be in the same area. I did at first think they might be taken from behind nos 35-38, but am very doubtful of this, even allowing for changes that may have occurred since the map of c1954

 

[Astoness]

as always mike your photos are unique....no one else would have taken the same shots...brilliant

lyn

 

[Phil]

Mike,

As I suggested a few years back I think the last two photos were of the rear of the once bicycle factory that was in Court Road, You were probably in a back court on Lincoln Road looking at the rear of the factory when you took the photo, there was one down an entry by the bus stop we discussed and if I remember correctly there was a dry cleaners at the top of the entry.

In the photo that I am attaching the factory in question is on the centre right, by the time of your photos it had been divided up into separate units.

 

[mikejee]

Thanks Phil. Some years ago i lost all my e-mails (including early ones from you) and that included those where you commented on the photos. (stupidly I had not backed them up). that certainly fits, and would make the partly demolished houses in the photos those marked in blue and the single story dark-roofed building the building in red.

 

[oldMohawk]

An aerial view of the area dated 1946.
Red dot ...Balfour Street
Blue dot ... Lincoln Street
Green dot ... Court Road

 

[mikejee]

The two photos from post 260 can be stitched to give result below

 

[mikejee]

The next , again taken at the same time, and must be from same area, but I cannot identify and doubt whether anyone could

 

[mikejee]

The next two run together and, again can be stitched to give a continuous view, I did wonder if it was the back of the west side of Lincoln st from no 23, which would fit with the chimneys, but not with the relative roof heights.

 

[mikejee]

The last of this group was taken at the end of the film, so possibly was not in same area, but I doubt if its position could be identified

 

[mikejee]

This photo has been in Carl's magazine, but not previously on the forum. It shows two houses, 90 Balsall Heath Road and 28 Princess Road. Although Balsall Heath Road is a much older road, dating from 1829, these houses are somewhat younger,being built in the late 1870s.
No. 90 (then 67 before renumbering) was first occupied by Henry Ashton, shortly after by his daughter, Marie, and then by Edward Philemon Timmins, a mechanical engineer, which in those days meant someone of high status. For about seven years around 1900 the building was the home and workplace of William Johns, Professor of Music. At that time this description meant only that he was a music teacher, in this case of the piano, not someone with a university post. He was the late-born son of the licensee of the White Swan in Islington Row, who left his wife well enough off to enable William to pursue his profession first in Islington Row, then here and finally opposite the Queen's Hospital (later the Accident Hospital) in Bath Row. From the late 1920s till 1960 it was occupied by the Whiles family, who had a business in Caroline Street, but after that the occupants of the house changed almost yearly, and, despite the dereliction, it can still be seen that once it was a desirable residence.

The attached 28 Princess Road was first occupied by William Picton. He was a partner with his father Charles and brother Charles, in the firm of Picton & Sons, canal carriers, coal merchants and wharfingers, with bases at Birmingham Wharf, Monmore Green in Wolverhampton and at Crescent Wharf, off Cambridge Street in Birmingham. The company had been going from the 1860s and the main trade seems to have been cargoes from Wolverhampton to Birmingham and around that area. In 1882 the partnership was dissolved and George seems to have carried on the business himself, adding deliveries by road to what was then called Picton & Co. The company was prosecuted several times for cruelty to the horses pulling the delivery carts, though this would have been more the fault of his employees than him and seems not uncommon at the time though often brought to light by the efforts of the RSPCA, which was active even then. The company continued until WW2, but George moved house in the mid-1880s to a larger house in Pershore Road near the cricket ground, where he remained till his death.
George was followed by Henry Jones, a button maker with a factory in the city, married to Rebecca. Henry died soon after and Rebecca went to live with her father, a retired pub landlord, six doors away at 80 Balsall Heath Road. By 1895 it had been rented out to Thomas Hunter, a manager at a wine merchant’s in his late 50s, who lived there for about seven years. For a short time it was divided into apartments, but by 1908 Rebecca was again living there. In 1915, at 59, she married again to a 68 year old estate agent, James Haslam. However, for whatever reason, he remains living at his previous home, 34 Beaconsfield Road, until his death in 1930, while Rebecca stays at Princess Road till her death in 1940. Again the house, even just before demolition, can be seen to have been an impressive building.

 

[sospiri]

Mike,

A nice pair of houses in their time, particularly the Gothic arches. Not much garden in the front, but if you were in business, you probably had enough on your plate without the added chores of gardening.
Maurice

 

[mikejee]

This has also been in Carl's magazine.
A short distance away, next to the course of the River Rea and the original Worcestershire-Warwickshire boundary, is 115-123a Balsall Heath Road. Slightly to the right would once have been the Luxor cinema, though this was no longer there when this photo was taken. This was on the edge of the more industrialised part of Balsall Heath.
With the corner of Alexandra Road to the far left, the well-ornamented row of houses leading from it were built in the early 1880s, though the first known occupant, Richard Folland possibly lived and worked to the far right of the site before these houses were built. He was a stone mason who moved here from his former residence in Belgrave Road in the mid-1870s. His workshop, which in 1881 employed nine men, would have been at the back through the archway. He lived in the house next to the archway, originally named 3 Torre Villas but later numbered 123, remaining there till around 1902. The house had several occupants over the next seven years, while the workshop was used by Hassan & Harris, furniture manufacturers. In 1909 Harry Brookstein, a tailor, came to live in the house. He used part of the workshop to house his tailoring business up till the end of WW1 and remained living in the house till the mid-1920s.
A new business came to a part of the workshop buildings in 1911, taking them over completely by 1920. This was Saxon Botanical brewers. Botanical brewers were manufacturers of what would now be called soft drinks, often made fizzy by the action of a yeast. Ginger beer, though not now made by this process, would be a major product, though sarsaparilla and other flavoured products would also be produced. Fentimans are a firm still manufacturing this sort of product. Thomas Saxon had started in Wolverhampton some years before, and the company, then called Saxon and Co transferred business here. Their products were often distributed in pottery flagons with the name embossed on the side, together with threats of prosecution if the flagons were appropriated or misused. The firm, from the 1930s then named Saxon & Co mineral waters, continued till the early 1960s, the works after being used by various small engineering firms.
Next door, which had originally been 2 Torre Villas, was first occupied by Abraham Cohen. Abraham, originating from Russia, had a varied career. In 1861, when he was declared insolvent, he was a tailor, but during his stay here till 1895 he described himself as a general dealer (which would fit in with his sale of a mixture of oil paintings, drawings, woollen cloths and household goods in 1890), draper and finally a commercial traveller.
The other houses in the photo had mixed tenants, but for 30 years from 1902, Richard John Folland, a brewery agent, son of John Folland the stone mason, lived at no 117 (almost completely hidden by trees), obviously wishing to stay close to his family.

 

[Radiorails]

This photo has been in Carl's magazine, but not previously on the forum. It shows two houses, 90 Balsall Heath Road and 28 Princess Road. Although Balsall Heath Road is a much older road, dating from 1829, these houses are somewhat younger,being built in the late 1870s.
No. 90 (then 67 before renumbering) was first occupied by Henry Ashton, shortly after by his daughter, Marie, and then by Edward Philemon Timmins, a mechanical engineer, which in those days meant someone of high status. For about seven years around 1900 the building was the home and workplace of William Johns, Professor of Music. At that time this description meant only that he was a music teacher, in this case of the piano, not someone with a university post. He was the late-born son of the licensee of the White Swan in Islington Row, who left his wife well enough off to enable William to pursue his profession first in Islington Row, then here and finally opposite the Queen's Hospital (later the Accident Hospital) in Bath Row. From the late 1920s till 1960 it was occupied by the Whiles family, who had a business in Caroline Street, but after that the occupants of the house changed almost yearly, and, despite the dereliction, it can still be seen that once it was a desirable residence.

The attached 28 Princess Road was first occupied by William Picton. He was a partner with his father Charles and brother Charles, in the firm of Picton & Sons, canal carriers, coal merchants and wharfingers, with bases at Birmingham Wharf, Monmore Green in Wolverhampton and at Crescent Wharf, off Cambridge Street in Birmingham. The company had been going from the 1860s and the main trade seems to have been cargoes from Wolverhampton to Birmingham and around that area. In 1882 the partnership was dissolved and George seems to have carried on the business himself, adding deliveries by road to what was then called Picton & Co. The company was prosecuted several times for cruelty to the horses pulling the delivery carts, though this would have been more the fault of his employees than him and seems not uncommon at the time though often brought to light by the efforts of the RSPCA, which was active even then. The company continued until WW2, but George moved house in the mid-1880s to a larger house in Pershore Road near the cricket ground, where he remained till his death.
George was followed by Henry Jones, a button maker with a factory in the city, married to Rebecca. Henry died soon after and Rebecca went to live with her father, a retired pub landlord, six doors away at 80 Balsall Heath Road. By 1895 it had been rented out to Thomas Hunter, a manager at a wine merchant’s in his late 50s, who lived there for about seven years. For a short time it was divided into apartments, but by 1908 Rebecca was again living there. In 1915, at 59, she married again to a 68 year old estate agent, James Haslam. However, for whatever reason, he remains living at his previous home, 34 Beaconsfield Road, until his death in 1930, while Rebecca stays at Princess Road till her death in 1940. Again the house, even just before demolition, can be seen to have been an impressive building.

View attachment 128016

What might be called a small 'gothic pile'. It was, without doubt a charming building and a shame it had to go. I guess it got in the way of those with expansionist ideas.