I visited the city centre this afternoon, and looked at the building on the corner of Corporation Street and Fore Street (now occupied by Regis hairdressers). I didn’t get much sense of recognition that this had been Crowthers, so I looked at a few other corner sites in the neighbourhood.
When I walked round into New Street, I took a look at the buildings on the corners of New Street and Cannon Street, and then New Street and Needless Alley. This last really did ring some bells. It is now occupied by Hawes and Curtis (men’s clothes) and Muji. I do think this is where Crowthers was, but the area is hard to research online because (for obvious reasons) Google StreetView has not driven down large parts of New Street! I went in to the corner building (Hawes and Curtis), and parts of it seemed familiar. Then I went next door to Muji, and down into their basement. This could easily have been a new version of Crowthers basement. I took some photos outside – and on the corner of the building you can see where a sign used to say Kardomah café. This building of course was identified by A Sparks as the Crowthers location, so I am happy to agree. Vivienne14, does that make sense to you too?
Below are three photos out of the several I took today. If anyone wants to see more photos from these locations, please PM me and I will give you a link to PhotoBucket where I have uploaded the pictures.
Corner of Corporation Street and Fore Street
New Street and Cannon Street
New Street and Needless Alley