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Bordesley green

Although few horses and their carts appear in the old photograph they were to be seen in large numbers on streets at the time, before the motor became more prevalent. Road sweepers would have been very busy in those days. Much of the area seems to have been swept away as well. :(
 
Hi Geff

Yes, I was born at number 36 Whitehall Road in the early 50s and lived there until I was 24 (apart from back and forth to uni for four years). I remember Craig's bike shop well and had my scooter (big blow up tyres) and my first bike from there (I'm still cycling !).
Walkers was at the other end of the road and sold TVs and radios. Mr Mrs Ellis had a food shop at around number 60 (lovely couple).
My mom and dad were Marg and Wally Hall and my sister (nine yeas older than me) was Margaret.
We lived next to Mr Mrs Payne (number 34) and Mr Mrs Hartland (at 38), Bela and John and their children Jean, John and Maureen.
Mr Payne ran a betting shop (illegally at the beginning with bets going through the letterbox.) I was a good friend of William, their grandson who lived at 34 with them and his mom.
Mr Mrs Merry lived at 55 and I was a good friend of Stephen their son (same age as me).
The Dipple family (I was a friend of Dennis) lived on our side of the road towards the Green Lane end.
Mr Mrs Phillips lived at twenty something on our side and I was a good friend of their son Richard. He had a sister (a bit older) called Marilyn.
Many happy memories of Whitehall Road then. Do you remember any of these people?

Cheers

Chris Hall
 
Chris Hall said:
Hi Geff

Yes, I was born at number 36 Whitehall Road in the early 50s and lived there until I was 24 (apart from back and forth to uni for four years). I remember Craig's bike shop well and had my scooter (big blow up tyres) and my first bike from there (I'm still cycling !).
Walkers was at the other end of the road and sold TVs and radios. Mr Mrs Ellis had a food shop at around number 60 (lovely couple).
My mom and dad were Marg and Wally Hall and my sister (nine yeas older than me) was Margaret.
We lived next to Mr Mrs Payne (number 34) and Mr Mrs Hartland (at 38), Bela and John and their children Jean, John and Maureen.
Mr Payne ran a betting shop (illegally at the beginning with bets going through the letterbox.) I was a good friend of William, their grandson who lived at 34 with them and his mom.
Mr Mrs Merry lived at 55 and I was a good friend of Stephen their son (same age as me).
The Dipple family (I was a friend of Dennis) lived on our side of the road towards the Green Lane end.
Mr Mrs Phillips lived at twenty something on our side and I was a good friend of their son Richard. He had a sister (a bit older) called Marilyn.
Many happy memories of Whitehall Road then. Do you remember any of these people?

Cheers

Chris Hall
Click to expand...

Chris I remember the Dipple family and Dennis (they lived at number 18).

I used to work at the bank (see post/photo 508) - Barclays Bank - and then we had new premises built few a few yards away - very large glass fronted building.

William.
 
d38uh32 said:
Does anyone have any memories of Bordesley Green. I used to live in Whitehall Road and I have some very happy childhood memories during the late 50's early sixties. Does anybody remember Curlies the sweet shop, Bert Guys and Craigs bicycle shop.
Click to expand...
I was brought home from Loveday Street Hospital to 19 Colonial Road in November 1947. One of the worst winters on record. I had a long association with that house because my sister (10 years older than me) took it over with her husband in about 1960 and had her twin girls there. They were looked after occasionally by the next door neighbour, Gladys Bignell, as I had been after my Mom died in 1958, and before Dad re-married and he and I went to live in Ward End.
I used to play with the son of the owner of Bert Guys, and with our other neighbours son John Lewis. I could ride a bike at an early age so we visited many railway bridges and stations for train spotting. Colonial Road went down into a dip, which was great for getting down it at speed on a book balanced on a roller skate.
The local shops I remember most are the Cake Shop 2 doors from Guys, where my favs were pineapple cream tart, yellow ice buns, and tiny little hovis loaves. Further up was Mr Handley at the Chemist, where inside it was all boarded up so you couldn’t see the goods. Along again was the pork butchers, where we got boiled ham and something called polony. It was like a sausage with a thick red skin and you sliced it like you would a chorizo. Then The Sweet Shop run by Winnie and her sister that sold Walls Ice Cream.
Just before Churchill Road there was a crossing, and a little up from the bottom of Blake Lane was the Butchers. My sister went out a bit with a young guy called Walter who worked there ... being teased by the popular chant Walter, Walter ... lead me to the alter! And opposite the Butchers was the Doctors. Dr Benbows son came to my school (Drummond Road) for a while, until he went to Grammer School I think.
Back down and round the corner opposite Winnies was the Shoe Repairers. Then the timber yard and then a few houses just before the Fish and Chip Shop. A girl at my school called Susan Georgina Borne lived in one of those houses. And I remember her name because of the building company with the initials SGB. Next to the chippie was the fruit and veg shop, and then on the corner of Fifth Avenue? was a general grocery shop.
The shop I loved the most was on the far corner of Botha Road. A husband and wife, whose features were quite extraordinary, made their own ice cream (gelato I think from cornflour and milk), and their own toffee and treacle toffee to die for! After doing Saturday shopping for a Mrs Christian who was 100 and lived just up from us, I would hurry down there and buy everything I could with my 3 pence wages! No wonder I had my first tooth out when I was 5 at the Dentist above the Bank, after crossing Churchill Road, and next to the entrance to the allotments which I walked through in my way home from school! Happy Days ...
 
The little Hovis loaves! I wonder if you can buy them now. I used to go through Bordesley Green on the bus going to school and coming back.
 
Lovely memories Stargazey. I remember the area further up towards town as my Aunt Win lived in Victoria Street, and my Mom worked at Bordesley Green Technical College for Boys ( as it was called then). However I do remember the dentist above the bank. When I went there the dentist gave me a phobia about going, he was so awful!
Lynn.
 
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There was a girl who used to catch the same bus that I did going to school, who got off in Bordesley Green to go to where she worked in a building on the left as you were going towards Stechford. It was quite a small building a bit beyond the shops, and I always used to wonder what she did there. She seemed very smartly dressed.
On the other side was a house with a row of hair dryers in the window.
 
Maria Magenta said:
There was a girl who used to catch the same bus that I did going to school, who got off in Bordesley Green to go to where she worked in a building on the left as you were going towards Stechford. It was quite a small building a bit beyond the shops, and I always used to wonder what she did there. She seemed very smartly dressed.
On the other side was a house with a row of hair dryers in the window.
Click to expand...
Hi there ... think a little bit more info is needed here if you’re going to get to the bottom of your Q, particularly ... where in BG she got off the bus!? Good Luck!
 
Its the junction of Bordesley Green (straight ahead), Victoria street on right, Bordesley Green Road on Left and Cherrywood Road between Bordesley Green and Bordesley Green Road. If you go straight ahead on the Bordesley Green you next turning on the right is Carlton Road, followed by Whitehall Road and then Palace Road. I lived on Palace Road.
 
Agree with jim1uk 2001 on location of picture, I lived in Victoria Street.

Maria Magenta, not sure where your 'smart girl' got off the bus, but I do remember 'Madge's' hairdressers on the right hand side of Bordesley Green. It was in the ground floor of a house somewhere between Palace Road and Charles Road (or maybe Imperial Road).

Annie
 
annie56 said:
Agree with jim1uk 2001 on location of picture, I lived in Victoria Street.

Maria Magenta, not sure where your 'smart girl' got off the bus, but I do remember 'Madge's' hairdressers on the right hand side of Bordesley Green. It was in the ground floor of a house somewhere between Palace Road and Charles Road (or maybe Imperial Road).

Annie
Click to expand...

I didn't know the hairdressers' was called Madge's! That's great to know, thank you.
I've looked at a street plan, but can't place where the smart girl got off the bus. Really I was just thinking aloud, but in a way I would like to know what she did there. It's one of those very vague memories that I suppose we all have. She had blonde hair with a lot of lacquer :) and caried a basket (not such a vague memory, then!)
 
Hi All. my grandparents lived in Victoria Street in the late 40s early 50s, it was a large Victorian looking building with a very big garden looking at the map it looks as though it is to the left of the Baptist church but I can not remember the number.When I visited them I would rush up to the attic window and look over the huge garden where my Grandad grew all his vegetables and kept chickens,ducks and rabbits so to me it was a Farmyard. All though they had piped water, in the kitchen was a old fashion water pump and set in the floor was a wooden hatch, when lifted it exposed the well with a terrifying drop down to the water level. I remember across the road was a builders yard where my Uncle was Caretaker. Regards Acklam19
 
Hello Acklam,
If you grandparents were opposite the builder's yard (Pearces), they were half way down Victoria Street and across from North Warwick Street and just before the maisonettes, which were built early 50s... where houses had been bombed. The fist maisonette was No38
I knew the caretakers at the builder's from mid 50s onwards.
Annie
 
My Aunt Win lived down an entry on the right just as you came down Victoria Street from Bordesley Green There was a hairdressers on the front called Ella’s.
Lynn.
 
Next to Ella's was a Dressmakers.
I knew two girls who lived in the terrace behind the shops, Jackie and Susan.
It was a happy time for me, growing up in Victoria Street.
Annie
 
Hello Lyn,
Thank you for your reply.
Not only did I know Susan from schooldays, we used to go dancing at the same place... Billy Ponds in Green Lane and then later we worked for the same company in Hobmoor Road.. Morris & Jacombs.
It all seems a lifetime ago... but lovely times in one of the real old areas of Birmingham.
Regards to Susan... I hope she's well and happy.
Annie
 
Sue is fine although not in the best of health. I'll certainly pass on your regards, I'm sure she'll be thrilled to hear from you. I take it your name is Annie?
Lynn.
 
Thanks again for your reply, Lyn. I'm sorry to hear that Susan is not too well.
She would know me as Anne.
I am still in touch with a couple of people from M n Js.
Susan's main friend from Victoria Street was Madeline who lived in the house just before the maisonettes on the left.
I remember your Aunt... very small, but your Uncle was a tall man... I think they had a family connection in Blakeland Street.
Hope Susan remembers me.
Annie
 
You're right, Uncle Harold had family in Blakeland Street...I think he lived there before they were married. Yes Anne, Aunt Win was small in stature but large in personality Haha ! My mom was a half sister of Win, and very different! She was a dinner lady at the Boys Technical School in Bordesley Green Road and popped in to see Win most days. I'm a fair bit younger than Sue but I do remember that area very well, such lovely shops on the Green as we called it. Do you remember Sue's brother Ray? He sadly passed away some time ago. I'll txt Sue tonight, I'm sure she will remember you :grinning:
Lynn.
 
Hello again, Lyn,
I was trying to think of Susan's brother's name.. Ray.. thank you! Sorry to hear he's gone.
Remember his first child being born.. and think his wife was Evonne?

Yes, lovely shops on BG at the top of Victoria Street... Especially Crawfords.. the smell of loose sweet biscuits and opposite was The Court Steam Laundry and near to there was a Chemist where there was a wonderful display of Mabeline cosmetics.. used to buy the Mascara. As, I said, lovely memories!

Look forward to hearing Susan's response.

Annie
 
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