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Digbeth

People writing about the unhealthy food we ate in the 1950s Fry this, fry that, chips with everything. But at our house, we did eat at least fresh home grown veggies. Also Dad, had Rhode Island Chickens he raised, that we ate FRESH right after he had chopped their heads off!!! No Vitamin pills then, I also remember drinking fresh milk from a farm with the cream on the top. Plus going to Harding,s bakery and eating warm fresh bread, But now 84 years young guess it worked for me?
 
Astoness said:
thanks ell...bit off the subject here but i sincerely hope that the powers that be have a bit of money left over to tidy up the digbeth/high st area...i was up that way the other week and as i stood outside the coach station on the high st side i looked left and then right and i thought to myself if i was a tourist taking in the same views i would turn round and go straight back home again...
lyn
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NOTE: This reply was first posted in another topic (hence the off topic comment below) but was moved here by the admin people.

As you say off topic, but I think the area around the Digbeth coach station and Digbeth in general will see massive changes over the next decade or so (though being 68 I am not sure how much of it I will see).

First of course the huge Wholesale market will be moving out of its present site just south of the Bull Ring in a year or so.

Unless you look at Google Maps (or similar map) it is hard to tell how large the Wholesale Market is but it is MASSIVE, and when it goes this will leave a HUGE area ready for redevelopment.

Also of course the area just North of Digbeth (near Curzon Street and New Canal Street) is going to be the site of the HUGE HS2 train station.

Also there are plans to bring the trams down to Digbeth as well.

So these three developments (Wholesale Market site, HS2 station, and trams route) will totally transform the area.

So for example when the HS2 station opens many people will want to live nearby so they can get on the train and be in London in 45 minutes. For many people who WORK in London that is a reasonable commuter time (some people take longer than that to get from the edge of London in to central London).

So I can imagine many new flats will be built in Digbeth, some people may even move FROM London to live in Digbeth and go to London by train every day.

In fact some flats are already being built in Digbeth, for example Fabrick Square which consists of 300 flats (all sold already) in the old Harrison Drape factory, see web link below

https://sevencapital.com/development/fabrick-square/

I can see dozens more like this being built in the next decade or so and Digbeth will change dramatically over that time.

I think Digbeth may well become a very desirable place to live being so near the city centre and the BillRing, also once the HS2 station is built and the Wholesale Market site redeveloped.

Exciting times ahead for Digbeth!
 
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But even more exciting if people did not just move homes to digbeth, but the jobs came to. London is a frammed sardine can , with far too many people working there, as opposed toother parts of the country.
 
Re photo #65. Possibly lunchtime with ladies in green overalls about to cross the road heading back to work ? Wonder where they worked ? Viv.
 
nice ghost signs as well viv..maybe the ladies worked at the custard factory

lyn
 
Yes Lyn they are. Think it's a Phyllis Nicklin photo. How very perceptive she was in her photographic recordings of the move from old Brum to the new-1950s/60s Brum. Viv.
 
Re post #64. Must have been about 1964 as the board bottom left is announcing the opening of the Bull Ring Market. The building bottom right is interesting. Marked "June Dairy". Any ideas what this was ? Looks almost next to St Martin's. Was it a temporary/mock structure ?

Thanks for posting Stitcher.

Viv.
 
Post 65 shows the parking lot which Midland Red buses used for many years. I remember looking there many times to see if there were any unusual buses there which I might not have seen before. Many buses from the outposts if the Red sometimes turned up there. Remember that as well as "The Friendly Midland Red" there was another earlier slogan stating "All Over The Midlands", and they certainly were. Their service buses (as apart from touring coaches) could be seen as far away as Whitchurch (Salop), Stafford, Melton Mowbray, Northampton, Oxford, Gloucester and Hereford to mention just a few compass points.
The excavations in the photograph I believe are part of the road widening scheme, delayed by WW2, though Deritend and Digbeth.
 
The S. Rose & Company Ltd building seen from New Canal Street in Digbeth. It was used in 2016 for filming of Ready Player One (opening in cinemas March 2018).

On the corner of Bordesley Street.





Hope it gets restored. Maybe something arts / media related? Film studio?
 
Shall always remember that as, I think after it had gone from Cadbury to Premier Brands, there was a TV advert that went "Who put the T in Typhoo", and for some time the big illuminated sign, visible from the train, which should have said Typhoo, hadf a defective "T" so showed as yphoo
 
If it is really Digbeth then technicslly it could not be, as the Old Crown is actually (just) in Deritend
 
Whichever place it is in the drawing, while very nice, is a 'chocolate box' style image; it fails to portray the squalor of the mid nineteenth century in such places.
 
It's labelled as Digbeth. The prints are are online via JSGallery. It's called the Thomas Underwood Collection, but no idea whether that's an artist, or someone who collected them .

Yes Pedro, the SWTNecks was from the same collection. Shall post others as, although they're quite sentimental, they give us a glimpse of the places. Viv.
 
The Leathern Bottle, and possibly the Three Crowns (?) next door. No date for this one. Viv.

IMG_0225.JPG
 
Thanks Pedro. So if that's our man, he won't have drawn the image in post #75. Must say that one does look like a different style. Viv.
 
The Leathern bottle and the three Crowns were sold in Jan 18 together. In Oct 1866 , George Muddyman, a yearly tenant of the Three Crowns, left it, being replaced George Beasley.At the time of the sale the tenant of the Leathern bottle was Edward Smallwood. the trustees of Edward Smallwood (presumably he had just died), transferred the licence from him in March 1870. Edward got the licence for the Leathern bottle in oct 1863. so drawing was between oct 1863 and Oct 1866
Would draw your attention to https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...of-birmingham-c-1870.41158/page-2#post-563894 where there are several of these views and others from a sale in ebay
 

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There are a lot of these drawings ! If I've got this right, some seem to be based on earlier drawings. So the 1870s drawings are depicting an 1830s scene. Is that correct ? Viv.
 
I think it may have been a mixture, as the title is birmingham buildings old & new
 
The Pank thread reminded me just how enormous a part Digbeth and close neighbour Deritend has played in the history of Birmingham.
Many areas of the parts of the inner city had interesting history and features, but I suggest Digbeth, in particular, had more than anywhere else. It history line is a lot longer for a start and much has been discovered about its people and industries of its earlier days. However, in more recent times - say 19th and 20th. centuries - Digbeth had a tremendous variety of places that were of great interest to those who looked for them. Some prominent transport features were the unused railway viaduct, Midland Red bus garage and coach station, Liverpool Street and Barford Street (Deritend) BCT garages and of course the canals which industry used but in the process had managed to enclose from view.. Additionally the place saw not only buses, but trams and trolley buses. Birds custard, Typhoo Tea, the Police Station were also quite prominent as was the Bonser Warehouse.
Industries, which made up a large proportion of those 1000 trades the city was famed for, were there and managed to fill up much of the streets which ran off from the left and right. A couple of days, at least, could easily be spent reconnoitring those fascinating streets. There were very many pubs, famous and infamous, but I was too young to get to know them. But, all in all, it was a most interesting place to sped some time.
I am sure others folk here know of other well known places that I missed out.
 
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Digbeth from High Street Bordesley. The Custard Factory and The Old Crown with the ever changing skyline.



November 2018 view from the no 60 bus.



Selfridges and the Custard Factory, December 2018 near the demolished Renault site.

 
Astoness said:
this pic seems familar to me but cant be certain if its been posted before...

looking up digbeth with rea st on the left...dated 1934
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Lyn I wonder what
Astoness said:
this pic seems familar to me but cant be certain if its been posted before...

looking up digbeth with rea st on the left...dated 1934
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Lyn I wonder what bearing the SPQR has on the warehouse, Senatus Populusque Romanus (The Roman Senate and People )
I was wondering whether Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony had gone into home decorations
 
dek carr said:
Can anyone remember a Cafe the second shop up toward Deritend from Smithfield Garage. this was probably the smallest cafe in brum they had little pews between tables for seats two men ran the cafe lovely blokes though, we would go in there for a tomato dip (a crust dipped in the tomato pan) for a penny,every day they would have a tray of cakes that lasted about 10 minutes if you were lucky i used to love the Lardy (dripping )cakes the size of a piece of bread i could sink my teeth into one right now. Dek
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Dek Carr a penny dip brought back memories , going up Dudley Rd to St Patricks RC school back in the 50's just before you got to the brow of the hill on the right hand side a cafe used to do penny dips in the tomato juice, this cafe was next to Verrechia's ice cream parlour . My word another blast from the past
 
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