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Bull Ring 1930s - 1950s

The snow drifts were deeper than that, my Father told me that he walked from Snow Hill to Dudley Road hospital in January 1947, to see mom and me because there were no tram or bus's working and in places he said the drifts were over his head, 6' 2".
paul
 
I remember after the war going to the Bull ring and buying a pair of nylons for Mom the ones that had a line down the back from a stall vendor in the Bull ring, Also many trips to Woolworths. Coming from the Cov Rd if you turned right at the bottom of the hill some shops there, got a suit from one of them in the 50s. Think the bull ring road was cobbled stoned at one time? John Crump oldBrit Parker,Co USA
 
I have another very different memory of the Bull Ring although I do recall the Bull Ring befor,during & after the war,doing my National Service in the 1950s & catching the "Parlanes Coaches" back to Aldershot at 1am from outside Woolworths.I wonder if anyone else recalls those days or should that be nights !!
 
I used to walk down the Bull Ring on Sunday evenings after weekend visits to Brum on my way to catch coaches parked in a side road off Digbeth - I fondly remembered it in the NS thread here....
 
I really like this 1949 photo of Dudley Street/Worcester Street. It would all have been cleared away to make way for the development of the Bull Ring and Smallbook Queensway(?). I like the Brooke opticians sign - is it BIG enough! I also like Mr Lickorish's clock shop - what a delightful name, sounds like a character from a Dickens novel. It's a scene that's long gone and seems almost impossible that it was ever once there. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1364289808.588892.jpg Dudley Street/Worcester Street 1949
 
Viv
Lickorish was apparently a real name.In 1949 there is a Gera;d Lickorish and miss cecilia Lickorish listed in birmingham.They say dickens got his names from real people
 
Thanks Mike. it's such a sweet name - oh I know, pathetic joke but it had to be said! It sounds like a very unusual name and I assume it must have originated from 'Liquorice'. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Thanks Mike. it's such a sweet name - oh I know, pathetic joke but it had to be said! It sounds like a very unusual name and I assume it must have originated from 'Liquorice'. Viv.
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Just for Viv but then back to the subject.

[h=1]Last name: Lickorish[/h]
Recorded as Lickorish, Licorish, Licquorish, Liquorish and possibly others, this is a very interesting medieval English nickname surname. The word 'liguorish' was French and was used to describe 'a sweet person', - one good enough to lick!
 
Are yes indeed an unsal name licorish what ever way you want to spell it ;
but there was a family of licorish living in king edwards rpoad ladywood in the or should i say up till the year of 1957
it was a little tiny house up the entry of the rear of 24O -1 KING EDWARDS ROADS AND HE WAS A LITTLE CHAP AND THINING HAIR
THEY HAD A COUPLE OF KIDS i know because i lived at 243 king edwardds rd ladywood they was neibours ;
and when they moved out a lou lewis movedinto there house he became a friend of mine ; astonian;;
 
Give me (1958) Birmingham any time , Please. The city, the people, the culture, I sometimes think I cannot live in this awful world another day.
paul
 
My fond memories of the Bull Ring go back way before any of this and, whilst I was around when the old market hall was demolished and do remember the fish market being inside further down the hill by a multi storey parking lot, I still remember that as the destruction of my memories. So I would have taken a match to the cardboard bulls...a symbol of rampant concreting that has become sordid...what's left of it. Nothing that is, or can be done now, will bring back in any way, what was there up to the 50s; as worn down as it was with age and bomb destruction. It is what the later crap is trying to remember; completely inadequately.
I would have much rather modern development were put down in greenfield outer locations and the inner core maintained and 'refurbished' as was...as far as possible. Keeping vehicular traffic outside the central city and having trams within. The central city would have become a tourist attraction for visitors from around the world. No-one wants to look at concrete and glass. Certainly not visitors, who have the same in spades but can not create 'that what was'. Imagine taking a walk down Crooked Lane or through the Central/Midland Arcades today..under the Victorian style skylights and hanging chandaliers or walking down a refurbished Union Street and Dale End and Bull Street. All with fine 'brickwork' for pete's sake.
It's not that the new would not be there also but we could have had both. I think anyway.
 
Rupert said:
My fond memories of the Bull Ring go back way before any of this and, whilst I was around when the old market hall was demolished and do remember the fish market being inside further down the hill by a multi storey parking lot, I still remember that as the destruction of my memories. So I would have taken a match to the cardboard bulls...a symbol of rampant concreting that has become sordid...what's left of it. Nothing that is, or can be done now, will bring back in any way, what was there up to the 50s; as worn down as it was with age and bomb destruction. It is what the later crap is trying to remember; completely inadequately.
I would have much rather modern development were put down in greenfield outer locations and the inner core maintained and 'refurbished' as was...as far as possible. Keeping vehicular traffic outside the central city and having trams within. The central city would have become a tourist attraction for visitors from around the world. No-one wants to look at concrete and glass. Certainly not visitors, who have the same in spades but can not create 'that what was'. Imagine taking a walk down Crooked Lane or through the Central/Midland Arcades today..under the Victorian style skylights and hanging chandaliers or walking down a refurbished Union Street and Dale End and Bull Street. All with fine 'brickwork' for pete's sake.
It's not that the new would not be there also but we could have had both. I think anyway.
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I hold more or less the same sentiments Rupert.
 
Agree Rupert we should have been able to have both, with sympathetic blending of old and new. Now a lost opportunity. Viv.
 
Why oh why didn t we just build around all these wonderful structures in the bullring imagine the character it would have now
 
Funny, how certain things come to mind from your past, jogged by a name etc, Bull Ring! I remember just after the war when Woolworths was there and on the weekends they had the vendors with the carts, I found Mom a pair of Nylons. the ones with a seam up the back of the legs, hard to get then. Proud son took them home to her, what a gift! John Crump OldBrit Parker, Co USA
 
Hi Raymond. Are your colour photos of the last of the Bull Ring developments (I.e. when Selfridges was built)?

Hi Shortie. Think Hortons' must have done very well with their pork products as they have a 'by appointment' crest above the door. Strange that they went into property, but then that was often the way with Birmingham businessmen, tried their hand at many things.

John, your mum must have been truly made up with her 'fully fashioned' stockings. Lovely!

Now this seems a bit odd today, a 1906 postcard of a fire in Jamaica Row. Not the sort of thing we'd think of sending today. It says it was sketched 'on the spot' and damages amounted to £30,000! And look there's an audience gathered, well nothing changes on that score. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1365877294.147386.jpg
 
Here's a picture I found on the internet, I don't know if it's been before. A bombing at the bull ring.
300px-Bull_Ring_Blitz.jpg
 
Yeah, walked down Worcester Street past those shops many times; to catch the Worcester 144 bus. Actually they look in decent nick but were quite old maybe. When the High Street buildings were demolished these peaks stood out on the skyline. I think the 144 terminus was in Station Street. Would that be the entrance to Queens Drive next to the bottom parcel store? I always thought that the Market Hall entrance on the right was meant to be the front one. More significant than the one at the Bull Ring end. I bet most of us remember the Bull Ring entrance better though.
 
Thanks Phil and Rupert. I think they must have been demolished before my time, I have no recollection of them at all. Would the Parcels Office have been for Moor Street or New Street or both? Perhaps the two chaps standing outside the office were awaiting a delivery. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Thanks Phil and Rupert. I think they must have been demolished before my time, I have no recollection of them at all. Would the Parcels Office have been for Moor Street or New Street or both? Perhaps the two chaps standing outside the office were awaiting a delivery. Viv.
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Some old plans of New Street Station have recently been released. That parcels office was for the London and North Western Railway at New Street Station. The parcels office for the Midland Railway was on the other side of Queens Drive. After 1923 they would both have been LMS Railway.
 
Just been looking at the early posts on this page, especially the escapologist memories. I presume it was this same fellow who stuck hat pins through his cheeks, tongue and loose skin on his chest!! He would then crack a large whip in front of the crowd urging them to make donations.
 
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Here is another photo from the demolition collection I am scanning. Oswald Bailey.

img338.jpg
 
Saturdays Dad Granddad and me would visit the fish market. Loved the small plates of cockels Mussels salt vinegar. YUM! Dad always got fish for the Sat meal. Lots of stalls and people grand memories. John Crump OldNOWOLDERBrit. Parker. Colorado USA
 
oldbrit said:
Saturdays Dad Granddad and me would visit the fish market. Loved the small plates of cockels Mussels salt vinegar. YUM! Dad always got fish for the Sat meal. Lots of stalls and people grand memories. John Crump OldNOWOLDERBrit. Parker. Colorado USA
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There's some nice pics of the new Bull Ring on here, including some cockles and mussels i think..
[video=youtube;q0xfVvU0yDU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0xfVvU0yDU[/video]
 
The book looks like an interesting read Ell. But at £25 think I'll try and get it from the library or wait for the paperback! Thanks for posting. Viv.
 
Had just opened up that Seven mag from yesterdays Sunday Telegraph and found that review!

Is a bit pricey. Maybe it's cheaper on Amazon?

Why they thought the designs in 1959 were futuristic and would be admired 20 years later I don't know!

Modernity came to Birmingham in 1959 when council officials announced plans for the redevelopment of the Bull Ring area of the inner city. “Ugly old buildings are being wiped away,” planners boasted. In their place would come cutting-edge architecture and futuristic flyovers. Alderman Frank Price trembled with excitement: “Twenty years from now the future citizens of Birmingham will look back on this period of their city’s history and will say: ‘This was Birmingham’s finest and most courageous period.’”

Two decades later, the Bull Ring was universally scorned as the worst example of brutalist architecture. The signs of discontent were there at the start, but Price and his friends had ignored them. “Ask any retailer for his views on this wonderful city of the future,” a local remarked in 1959. “He will reply in words not usually found in the dictionary.” When the bulldozers arrived in 2000, the city echoed with Brummie cheers.
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