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C Brandauer & sons

F

Frantic

Guest
I posted some time ago that I used to work in the Toolroom at Brandauers in Hospital st. I remember someone telling me that the building used to be a hospital at one time. Does anyone have any info please.
 
The pictures are nice and sad to see Mark. I just wonder when anything is going to be done about it. I know it has a preservation order on it, but I wonder if it will end up like the Mill in Walsall, burnt down. I always feel sad when I drive past!
 
Enjoy is not a word I would use to see a building falling down and neglected, but thank you for posting the photos Mark. As it will never again be used as an industrial building, the hope I guess is for developement into apartments. The wonderful light and the height of the rooms would be an attraction - wouldn't they?:)
 
Hi to List & thanks to Mark for the excellent photos (sad history, but Ours)
Di ;) nice hopes for continuation of the Building etc but i fear it is too
dilapidated & actually unsafe for any usage unless Millions spent on it,
The foundation & ground levels are sinking/cracking with upper levels
structure & flooring very unsafe, Heavy traffic down New John St West
route to Aston Expressway, Spag Junction, Motorways, damaged building.
Mark,, nice photo of the old Spiral staircase :redface: also captured nice shot
of a 500 Amp Armoured eleccy cable on the wall behind the blue posts,
Myself & team of Sparkie contractors installed that (between Tea breaks )
about 6-7 years ago, their old Lead-wax paper cable had blown (aged)
Great place to work, nice people to work with, Brandauers still operate
just down the road off Summer Lane in Moorsom Street,
In doing my Genealogy "tree" i found my G Grandma Mary (McDonald) Morgan used to work there 100 years ago, (Knib looker-over) quaint eh!
Highly skilled industry manufacturing tiny Pen knibs etc, the Engineering & Tooling (respect to Frantic & m8,s ) view at Pen Museum,Jewelry Quart
Good to see the "Trade" survives in a smaller way, sad for Old building
expect it to be demolished with housing essential the priority now.
Best Regards to all Listers & Viewers,, John Y 8)
 
C. Brandauer & Co. Ltd.

Hi all,

At least eight of my LONGMORE ancestors, including both my parents, worked for Perry Pens in Lancaster Street. Their extensive archives, inherited by Renold Ltd, who took over Perry Chain at Tyseley, have been deposited with Manchester Library, though you will have to get written permission from the Company Secretary of Renold to view. However, the latter was very helpful, providing me with a copy of the Company history and one of my late uncle's payslips as a momento. At some point I will add a feature page about Perry Pens to my website.

One of the other companies in this game was C. Brandauer whose derelict factory still exists to the best of my knowledge. Below are some links to some interesting pictures by that much-maligned body, the urban explorers. Whilst they may receive a bad press, take their lives into their own hands, and earn disapproving glances from the Establishment, these guys (and a few gals) do provide some unique pictures and insights into industry before the developers remove all trace. Thought provoking if nothing else.
Links replaced


Regards,

Maurice at The LONGMORE Pages
https://www.msheppard.com
 
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hi sospiri. many thanks for all the photos of the old place. they are truely wicked. i spent most of my life living across from brandaurs and a mate of mine worked there in the 70s. me and my brother are amataur historians and are always taking pic of old buildings ect. we have may of the ouside of the building and were going to risk going inside to ge pic but you have saved us the trouble. thought you may like to know that as far as we know it is grade 1 listed and will not be demolished thank god. the word is it will be turned into apartments. all the best and thanks again.
 
hi sospiri. many thanks for all the photos of the old place. they are truely wicked. i spent most of my life living across from brandaurs and a mate of mine worked there in the 70s. me and my brother are amataur historians and are always taking pic of old buildings ect. we have may of the ouside of the building and were going to risk going inside to ge pic but you have saved us the trouble. thought you may like to know that as far as we know it is grade 1 listed and will not be demolished thank god. the word is it will be turned into apartments. all the best and thanks again.

It needs a hell of work done to it. Its not safe in there at all. A lot of rotten floors and roofs
 
Hi Mark,

Well it's amazing what they can do with a bit of shuttering and some reinforced concrete. Over here a three-storey old nightclub with no roof is just being given that treatment. Again the Greek equivalent of a listed building and its amazing how just four walls can stand without further support, but it's coming along nicely! :)

Regards,

Maurice at The LONGMORE Pages
https://www.msheppard.com
 
I used to visit the old Brandauer works when my company supplied them with felt ink-pads - exciting, or what? It was something of a dump even then. The company is still trading, in Bridge Street West, I believe, but these days involved in precision pressings for the electronics industry.

I drove past the old premises yesterday. Wow - if they want to convert that into flats, then leave me off the list of potential buyers. It looks positively dangerous from the road!

Big Gee
 
Works of Art

Some of those photographs are pure works of Art and should be exhibited as such, they are absolutely breath-taking, apart from the history of the place, like all old buildings of Brum tug at my heart strings. Cat
 
28 days later

Hi Cat,

I totally agree. That is a huge site and, whilst those guys might be bending a few rules, the worst of which is probably trespass, they produce some terrific pics. All power to their elbows! If I was much much younger, I'd probably join them! Quite a bit of stuff about Birmingham on there too. I don't think I'd be into scaling cranes and bridges though, even though they do mainly use the proper ropes and gear. :D

Regards,

Maurice at The LONGMORE Pages
https://www.msheppard.com
 
I found the drawings poignant to look at. The innitials of the draughtsman and checker...30 years ago...not long realy. Maybe these people still work there at the newer place. There is much that is sad about the derelict remains of a place that provided a livelyhood for many, all in the past now, never to be rekindled for the most part in many cases. Hopefully the march of progress is for the better.
 
I worked in the Accounts Office of Birmingham City Transport in the 1950s and there used to be boxes of old invoices, all neatly filed and labelled, going back to 1911. I remember taking a quick glance one day and there were invoices for the supply of hay for the horses, etc. As I wasn't actively interested in history then (at such a tender age!), I never did get around to going through them properly. They must have told the story of a complete age entirely different to this as they were over 40 years old then. No doubt they were all thrown away when BCT got absorbed into WMPTE - shame! :(

Maurice at The LONGMORE Pages
https://www.msheppard.com
 
A lot of the Transport dept., and Midland Red, accountant's files have been saved and are in archive store. I have seen ledgers of uniform issue c1918, lists of horses from the horse bus days (all numbered, some named as well), and similar stuff. Everything used to be kept. It is nowadays there is no sense of history, the managements don't know what happened ten years ago, never mind fifty or a hundred.
 
Hey guys. Interesting reading about this place. It's been a long time yearning to get into this place as it is rotting away slowly, and is at great risk.I am one of the aforementioned Urban Explorers, and we really are just here to document these buildings before they disappear. There are a few strange ones who go "draining" but that's not really what it's all about. Documenting our social and economic past is important, as I can see a future where buildings last 5 minutes before they are re-made for a different purpose. Some of the places we've been are over 200 years old. Try telling our kids that modern buildings will be around that long!!!

[ame="https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AdrxdnGDAPg&feature=channel_page"]YouTube - Urban Exploration on Inside out[/ame]
 
Hi Virusman,

Good to see you here. I'm merely a lurker on 28DL so my name never appears there, but I check it daily and there have been some phenomenal reports & pics. Keep up the good work! :D

Regards,

Maurice
 
Hi, I'm a freelance film-maker currently working on a series of videos documenting some of the historical buildings that lie derelict and abandonded across the city today.

One of the first in the series will be the Brandauer Factory in Newtown.

We're looking for people with any information on this building, whether it be documents, photos or memories. Perhaps you worked in the building, lived nearby, or know someone that did?

Please do get in touch if you'd like to share any information with us. Any help, big or small is extremely welcome.

Do check out the main thread I've set up here about the project, and get in contact via the forum if you can help us at all.

https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32433

Many thanks,
Michael.
 
Some time in the mid 60s I was sent to do some electrical work at Brandours nib factory, was it in Hampton Street?
It was I think on the second floor. I had to lift two long floor boards, a foreman was watching me and we discovered hundreds and hundreds of nibs, LH , RH , italic and I don't know what else. The foreman looked and said most had not been made for at least 50 years! The swa cable was soon laid, and as I started to replace the boards he gave me two large handfuls of nibs. I can't remember what I did with them.
 
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