• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

City Centre Photographs

oldMohawk said:
Hi Joe
The pic below with some comment is in a forum post here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=33053&p=343406#post343406
CityCollonadePassage1961.jpg

and the pic below is also in a forum post here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=33053&p=348058#post348058
attachment.php

You need to be logged in to see the 2nd pic
Click to expand...

Look at the state of that old petrol guzzler, sitting in the slush with it's headlamp hanging off.
I think I prefer modern cars !
 
Old Joe said:
Any one know what happened to a little passageway .Think it was called Colonade Passage ran from New sy and probably was parralel to Ethel St Possibly would have beenthe first p litle passage way in New st onthe right hand side? Was a model shop of some note in there Old Joe
Click to expand...

The Model Shop was in Burlington Arcade, which ran from New St to Stephenson St, Old Joe. The whole area has been 'done up' over the years, you wouldn't recognise it now.This is the New St end.
Burlington arcade.jpg
 
Maypolebaz


The stamp dealer on Needless Alley was The Norfolk Stamp Co, and the one in Burlington Passage - Lower Temple Street was Margoschis Ltd.
 
Dear old Bingley Hall. In the 1950's I did a fortnights "dep" with the band in Chipperfields Circus at Bingley Hall. Thought I was "jack the lad" when it came to playing drums. That two weeks nearly killed me. Not just playing drums, but having to shake rattles, blow whistles, hit gongs etc, with the clowns and other acts, at the right time, and still play in time with the band. At the end of the second week I had just about got it, but not without horrible glares from the rest of the musicians.The bandstand was an archway over the entrance to the ring, and when the elephants came on, the whole thing shook. I have played all over the world, but that two weeks is something I shall never forget. One of the toughest "gigs" I ever played, and I learnt a lot.
 
That's the one up the hill on the right side, small shop. seem to remember a heavy set man working there. possibly a beard? John Crump Parker, Co USA
 
DavidGrain said:
Same view today. They seem to have added some decoration to the first building on the right
View attachment 86052[/Q Thats amazing The arched windos on the left was where the room was that the telegram boys waited till they were called into the room next door.That would have been the next arhway and the given telegram/s to take into the city At the bottom on thesame side as the arcges was theentrance dow the stairs to New st station Platform No 1 which I w2as talking about somewhre else on tis site
Click to expand...
 
I have walked across Corporation St. there many hundreds of times in the fifties. I can't quite read the shop name on the left but it looks like it says Dolcis which is the way it was in my time. Great photo and have not seen it before.
I wonder what date it is...early 20s?
 
Rupert said:
I have walked across Corporation St. there many hundreds of times in the fifties. I can't quite read the shop name on the left but it looks like it says Dolcis which is the way it was in my time. Great photo and have not seen it before.
I wonder what date it is...early 20s?
Click to expand...

Its the same shop as in this photo from RIBA here, taken from the side street on its left and naturally a few decades earlier to this image
image.php
 
maypolebaz said:
I love these old photos that show people going about their daily lives.
Could it be that there were more policemen "on the strength" in those days ? There always seem to be one of them, somewhere in the picture.
Click to expand...
I also like looking at the people in the old pics and have noticed policemen in the pics.
Dancing

Is he a dancing
policeman ?

Can the policeman help her ?

I can see my
bus but how do
I get to it ?

Click on them ...
 
Last edited:
Robert Calvert painted some beautiful Birmingham scenes. I have a very nice framed painting by Robert of Lickey Hills (Rednal) tram terminus.
 
Thanks for that Nick, I don't know your age I am 67, but it sums up real old Birmingham in the rain, as a kid I still somehow remember those scenes. Paul
 
The stamp dealer on Needless Alley was The Norfolk Stamp Co

I remember this shop in the 70s & 80s as West End Stamps run by Simon - who still sells at shows in Dorridge and the Irish Centre
 
00000church%20street from colmore row 1895.jpgHere's a pic of Church Street from Colmore Row 1895 can't make out the writing on the building on the right hand side looks like Billinge and Cygnet Landor something could do with a Kelly's look up please Mike
 
I have another copy of that photo with slightly better resolution and have adjusted it. It shows company was Billinge & Co, step ladder makers. Incidently the other copy lists it as Church st. corner of Edmund st. The 1895 Kellys does not list them, but the 1884 and 1890 ones list George & Alfred Billinge, ladder makers at 67 Livery St


part_2_ofChurch2520Street_cornr_edmund_st.jpg
 
I'm honestly not sure, because, on looking further, George & Alfred are still laddermakers in 1883, but in 1882 there is an Alfred Billinge , carpenter, at 15 Church St, and in 1880 Alfred Billinge is a laddermaker in Edmund st. No number is given, but, looking at the street directory it seems close to the junction with Livery St, which, if this is the firm, would fit with edmund st going away from us in the photo an Livery St across the bottom. However the wall on the left hand side of the picture may help with the date. On it (see below) there is an advert for A Laughton, paper hangings, Dale End Now prior to about 1883 the firm was Nightingale & Laughton and was in Carr lane.From about 1884 it became A Laughton , 3 Dale End. By 1890 they had moved to Martineaux St. Of course old signs remain, but I would think they would want their new address added fairly quickly, and so the date of the photo is probably c1884-1889, so I would guess livery St is the most likely. In that case the building is on Livery St, close to the junction with water St

Church2520Street_cornr_edmund_st_part_expanded.jpg
 
Going back to that, this would make the demolished area on the left , and the other buildings on that side part of GWR Snow Hill as no 67 Livery st was around the area in red on the c1889 map.These GWR \reas were there when the map was surveyed, but not sure how much earlier, so this makes te Livery St attribution a bit doubtful

map_c_1889_area_around_no_67_livery_st.jpg
 
Hi Mike, This picture has been on the forum in the past. I think it shows the corner of Edmund st and Margaret st. May be they used this plot of land to display their wares. Moss
 

Attachments

  • Edmund St and Margaret St..jpg
    Edmund St and Margaret St..jpg
    480.8 KB · Views: 70
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top