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City Centre Photographs

Back to the "A" board, being a signwriter I was trying to work out the shape of the letters, I think the first 3 letters read Art, and the last letter of that word is d.
 
oldMohawk said:
A view up Hill Street in 1955 when I was having fun about town although I was due for National Service a year later. Laura Dixon Schools of Ballroom Dancing ... I remember the adverts but never enrolled. Some nice cars parked in Hill Street.
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The good old A90 Austin Atlantic, the first car in the line. Can't place any of the others offhand, but there could be a Jag down there.
Bob
 
oldMohawk said:
As I uploaded the statue pic I did wonder whether he was wearing a 'fig leaf' ...:)
There have been many photos taken of that location but I've not seen any others showing the statue.
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Certainly not wearing a fig leaf as I see it on my computer screen. The pageant of Birmingham would have been a celebration of the centenary of the granting of the Municipal charter of incorporation to Birmingham. The QE hospital built that year was originally to be the Charter Centenary Hospital. It was decided not to celebrate the 15oth anniversary in 1988 as it would confuse people as it was intended to celebrate the Centenary of the City charter the following year (hence Centenary Square. although that took a few more years to complete).
 
Hi, Cars on Hill Street: Austin A90 Atlantic, Wolseley 699 or MG Magnet they have a very similar body shell, Austin 8 or 10, another Wolseley/ MG, Hillman Minx, Jaguar Mk9. Possibly a Vanguard, and then a Ford van.That's my best guess.
 
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oldMohawk said:
Hi Lyn,

It was probably connected with the Birmingham Civic Pageant in July 1938. Maybe there might be other photos of it regarding that event.

Phil
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I think it was something to do with the pagent, this photo explains there were two, one each end of Broad Street.

City Broad St Fountain.jpg
 
A few photos of the Birmingham University Rag day parade in 1950, a regular event which seem to have ceased sometime in the 60's perhaps the increase in traffic and the expense of crowd control put an end to it. We used to make the journey to town every year to witness this event and we were always given a few pennies to throw into the collection buckets.

City Bull Street Birmingham University Rag Day 1950.jpg

City Victoria Square Birmingham Uni Rag Day 1950.jpg

City Birmingham University Rag Day 1950.jpg
 
Dolphie said:
Re: City Centre Photo Album

Whenever I pop back 'home' to Brum I always take loads of photos of the City centre as I've noticed so many changes. I'm almost ashamed to say that in the last 2 or 3 years I've taken something like over a thousand photos of the centre including images of older side streets etc.
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Well done to you Dolphie...So many fine Building are being demolished in and around Birmingham now...I am a Brummie born and Bred and even I cannot find my way around now !!...The City is being transformed for future Generations,I can understand that but there are and were so many Historical Sites that have been just swept away for these Concrete faceless Monstrosities that within 10-15 Years will again be pulled down...I give up...This would not happen in places like Paris,Vienna Etc.,They cherish their Heritage it's such a shame we don't feel the same..
 
claire-brum71 said:
Re: City Centre Photo Album

They've ruined Broad Street, taken all of its character and turned it into glass fronted Booze Central, half of the pubs are now boarded up and they're building those flash un affordable flats.... im glad they cleaned up the Canals, only good thing they did really....and i'm sorry but i hate the new Bullring too. I'm not going to mention the design of a certain shop! oh and a certain torched statue... the £250,000 spent on that could have been used on better things! Why are they stripping this city of all that's good!!
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Oh Claire you are so right.
 
Skittlelady said:
Oh Claire you are so right.
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Sorry but I dont agree she is right.

First, I moved up from London to Birmingham in 1979 and worked near Five Ways roundabout. I used to walk down Broad St some lunch times and it was a dump. I have photographs I took of Broad St in the early 1980s and it was terrible,

Secondly, she mentions "unaffordable" flats but many of the flats in these apartment blocks are sold BEFORE the building is finished. Some of these apartment blocks have hundreds of flats, but in many cases they are all sold before completion. So hardly unaffordable.

Sadly I think too many people remember the city centre through rose tinted spectacles.

Since I moved here in 1979 the city has improved totally.

Back then we had a AWFUL BullRing, an AWFUL New St station, the area where Brindley Place is (just off Broad St) was full of awful small factories, the canals were dirty and unused with few people walking around them, and we had lots of horrible pedestrian underpasses full of vomit and grafitti.

I used to walk round the canals near Broad St on a Sunday in the 1980s taking photos and could walk for 2 or 3 hours and not see a SINGLE person. Now I go up there and I see HUNDREDS of people:- working, attending conferences, eating, drinking, enjoying themselves.

The city is a 100 times better than it was when I moved here in 1979.

There is still a lot to do (the huge Wholesale Market needs to be demolished and the area redeveloped) and other areas need improvement, but it is a long slow process that can take decades.

But the city is certainly a lot better than it was 40 years ago.
 
Guilbert arrived when the city was getting into its stride with major redevelopment in the city. Much of the run down areas had gone - as I never lived in the originals or lived in or saw the replacements I cannot comment. *
But the area described does seem to be generally much improved. Sadly most towns and cities suffer from over zealous drinkers so Birmingham is not alone in that. I notice Seoul has similar buildings to the one in the Bullring, I suspect there are others.
I believe that most buildings of any importance were viewed as permanent. In the 19th. and early 20th. centuries this country had a sense of permanence. I guess it took two world wars to change that view to become one of passing changes, which is what we see all most places today. Everything is soon outdated it seems. However, our homes are usually our castles and within them we can, many of us at least, maintain some sense of permanence and continuity.
* On a visit to Birmingham in 1980 we were taken to see an apartment in a private tower block in Edgbaston. It was dark and there was a good city night panorama. My wife and I hated it! It was akin to being in an aircraft. :D
 
Skittlelady, I agree with you entirely, I am 88 years old and have watched them rip the heart out of my beloved city, they have destroyed the Bullring which was unique, started by demolishing the old Market Hall, that and St Martins and the barrow boys WAS the Bullring. We are now becoming a soulless glass and concrete monstrosity like a lot of other cities. They also demolished the old original Library by Chamblian Square, completely desecrated the so called Centenary Square, I ould go on and on. As you so rightly pointed out other European Cities would not destroy their Heritage this Way. Rant over. Eric
 
Precisely, Eric. It depends upon your age, whether you were born in Brum or whether you are what are referred to in many places as a newcomer. Many cities have been updated without destroying almost everything of historical or architectural merit. I was born in a back-to-back, like many of our older members and when I left to move south in January 1961, almost everyone you spoke to had a similar view - when are we going to see the end of this perpetual bombsite? Ripping the place apart had only been started about four years earlier at that point.

Sadly, it is still going on and on nearly 60 years later, and more history has been destroyed by the Council than by Hitler.

Maurice
 
Gilbert

2 points the unaffordable flats that are sold before they are completed are purchased as investments. My nephew bought 2 flats in the Rotunda for the rental market. I don't think he has ever stopped in either of them himself as he has a house out at Coleshill.

As for moving to Birmingham in 1979, you can't have any idea what Birmingham was originally like before that. I really have to inform you that although the city centre is a major part of Birmingham it's not the whole of Birmingham. In the 60's when Manzoni was let loose on Birmingham he should have stuck to clearing the slums and improving the road system. He could have given the city centre a makeover without demolishing the heart of it. He did that good a job it all had to be demolished 40 years later, and from what I see this new version is not a great deal better.
 
Maurice, I was not born in a back to back but lived in one in Aston for 4 years after leaving the RAF until we bought our own house and I preferred Aston then, in the 50's, to what it is now. My old Doctor in Aston lived in a beautiful old Georgian House next to Aston Church, I see that as been demolished, its never ending. The Market did lose its roof in the bombing but still carried on without a roof so no excuse for pulling it down, could have been restored. The only credit I can give the Council is for clearing up the canals, a favourite painting subject of mine, particularly Gas St Basin and Cambrian wharf. Eric
 
Pedrocut

There is a lot of chatter going on in the Birmingham papers at the moment on how safe or unsafe Birmingham is. The only thing I have to say on that topic having travelled widely in England that Birmingham and it's surroundings are no more dangerous than any other major conurbation. The main problem is that there are people in other cities with vested interests that would have you believe different.
 
Interesting to see that the Sunday Times pronounces Digbeth as the coolest place to live in the UK. What is also interesting is that my granddaughter attending City of Birmingham University has just moved into an apartment which I see from the map I just looked at is in Digbeth. Now that is some coincidence. Incidentally this is light hearted relief from previous postings where I find myself torn between two sides. I love and miss some of the old and deplore its destruction, but at the same time the modernist in me loves some of the new. Strangely enough outside the central area, some of it looks as rough and derelict as it did when I left. I know that where there once back to backs and factories, space, green trees and modern housing have appeared, there are places, some off the inner ring road where dereliction holds sway. As a matter of interest with so much of the manufacturing closing down, where did those made redundant work. They cant all br Burger flippers.

Bob
 
Bob, like you I wonder were all the jobs are, they were plentiful when I left school in 1944, I worked at GEC Witton, Hercules Cycles and a Brass Founders, must have employed thousands between them, now all gone, when I came out of the RAF in 1956 I had 5 job interviews, 3 of them companies have now gone. Eric
 
Pedro's link is, presumably, for American and Canadian visitors: the vouchers are in dollars. It was written nearly two years ago. There are some odd mistakes: when did Wandsworth move to Birmingham? :D Lady Wood (Ladywood) and Chelmsey Wood (Chelmsley Wood) are incorrest as is Boardsly (Bordesley). I often wonder who writes much of the incorrect drivel that is posted on the net every day. How do they research their facts. Most seems to be 'Facebook Facts'. If C.L. Dodgson (Lewis Carrol) were to write a book today he would most likely refer to 'unfacts', just as he did with 'unbirthdays'.
All large cities have their problem areas and many small towns as well. I have friends in North America who will not even walk their nearest city's streets - even in the daytime - due to daily shootings.
 
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Phil said:
Pedrocut

There is a lot of chatter going on in the Birmingham papers at the moment on how safe or unsafe Birmingham is. The only thing I have to say on that topic having travelled widely in England that Birmingham and it's surroundings are no more dangerous than any other major conurbation. The main problem is that there are people in other cities with vested interests that would have you believe different.
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Disclaimer....internet links highlighted may not necessarily represent the views of the poster.
 
Pedrocut

Just as a matter of interest could you tell me what part of Birmingham the bus in your linked article is in, because I do not recognise the location.
 
Well shucks and lawks a mussy, I reckon we would be safer looking for Baars in the Catskills than going to Lozells Road, but I wondered what has Pype Hayes got nowadays that makes it so much safer than those crime ridden, drug ridden haunts of prostitution and muggers that we are being advised to avoid. The Norton, the Bagot and the Pype Hayes must have changed over the years. Now you'all still living in these areas of crime and dodginess, you'all be careful out there.
Have a good day now
Bob
 
Phil said:
Pedrocut
Just as a matter of interest could you tell me what part of Birmingham the bus in your linked article is in, because I do not recognise the location.
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The road sign reads Edmund St so the road the bus is in must be Newhall St ...:)
 
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