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Edmund Street

Corner of Edmund Street and Easy Row (map 1888)

The two policeman in this Shoothill image are standing on Easy Row (blue dot), off to the right is Edmund Street. Just visible on Edmund Street is, I think, the towering building of Mason's College/early Birmingham Uni.Viv.

image.jpeg image.jpeg

Phyllis Nicklin captured this corner in the 1960s, but by that time the large building on the corner had gone and the low level building of HM Stationery Office was in its place. See extreme right of her image.

image.jpeg


And a 1963 image posted by Astoness which was lost from this thread (post #19 - shall repost it). This is looking up Edmund Street towards Mason College/Chamberlain Square). Easy Row off to the left.
image.jpeg

Viv
 
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And finally this last image is looking along Edmund Street towards Easy Row in 1904. The Belle Vue has been demolished to the right and we can now see the domineering Liberal Club in front of us, just in front of that is the turning for Congreve Street. And Mason's College is a little further along.

The old(est) Register Office would be just beyond the College but not very visible in this image. Viv.
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image.jpeg

That far end where it joined Easy Row would have looked like this in the late 1900s (image extracted from the Register Office Edmund Street thread). The Register Office was on the right. I think the low building to the right of the policeman's head (the PC in the middle of the road) is the Stationery Office.

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And a later (1901) map for reference.
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viv i can only wring my hands in despair at some of the wonderful buildings we have lost...

lyn
 
Yes Lyn. It especially ruthless; the buildings, the street all gone. That's why I found it so hard to visualise. There're very few hints to latch on to. I don't remember the street at all, so it's been an interesting bit of research trying to get a picture together of Edmund Street.

At the same time very sad, as buildings like Mason's College, the Liberal Club, the (Victorian) library ....... would have all been places of great civic pride. But at least the Council House & Extension survived. Viv.
 
Could some kind person mark where the Barlow's shop (re. post #26) was at 113 Edmund Street please ? Thanks. Viv.
 
Thanks Phil. Expected it to have gone, but a nice surprise to see its still there and only slightly modified. Viv.
 
My 2xgreat grandfather lived at Court 20 in 1861, I think it might have been on the Easy Row end of Edmund St.
I can't tell from the map, perhaps the courts had gone by then?
rosie.
 
Does the new Centenary Way follow the old course of Edmund Street (the section that ran from the Congreve Street towards Easy Row on the 1901 map in post #32 above) ? Viv.
 
The Belle Vue Hotel just prior to demolition. Some people seem to be kneeling on the pavement in front of the shed-like building in the centre of the image.
BelleVueThere.jpg

The Belle Vue Hotel has been demolished. The property with the 'Garage' sign still appears to be there after the demolition.
This is a larger image of the same view earlier in the thread.
BellvueDemolished.jpg
shoothill
 
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I worked in the next building to Barlow's stationary shop for five years 1975 - 1980. I am sure it was number 120 Edmund Street. The facades of the buildings are still the same but the insides have been demolished and rebuilt into one building. Mr & Mrs Shutts used to live in a flat at the top of our building, they were caretakers. There was also the local Labour Party office somewhere there, over the stationary shop I think. Next door, in Edmund Street was a tailors where they sold hand made suits and expensive shirts. Further along the road was The Swan Hotel. over the road was another stationers that specialised in artist materials (I worked for a Commercial Artists and Photographers), the building was beautiful red brick, I see on Google Maps that it is still there.
 
Looking at the photos in post 43, I get the impression that some of the buildings look quite unsafe and a very strong gale might have blown them down. ;) There appears too be a ghost sign on the upper wall, above the GARAGE sign. I believe the garage was still there, at the time of the photo, just hidden behind the front building and they seem to still do cycle repairs and storage. I presume the storage was for people who worked nearby and cycled to their work. I wonder what was happening in the garage entrance to arouse the interest of the lady young girl? The two women are having a good chin-wag it seems.
 
richardinwales said:
Fred Barlow, later known as Barlows Of Birmingham. Office equipment company owned by my step fathers family until sold @1972

BARLOWS_OF_BRUM.jpg
Click to expand...

hi richard is there any chance you could repost your photo please as photo bucket has made it blurred...many thanks

Lyn I had saved it and have replaced the blurred image

lyn
 
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Post 42 drew attention to a Midland Red office. I had spotted it before - wondering what London Transport was doing there. :D However, it suspect it was a Midland Red enquiry office, does not seem the best place for a parcels office, but it may have been. Midland Red had offices in the Bull Ring area until 1937 but then moved to Worcester Street. Most bus companies were into the parcel delivery and collection business at one time, and many, including early BCT trams, often had post boxes as far as I recall.
 
Barlows was the shop on the corner of Edmund and Barwick Street. I worked in the building next door. I couldn't remember the name. Just to the right of the shop was the entrance to the back of 120, where I worked. Also the garage where the caretaker kept his car. Good to know that the original building has been kept, even if it is just the facade. (and the numbers have changed!)
 
Was not sure if this view down the road was Edmund Street at the time of the photo. Don’t have a date, but probably early 1900s. I’m sure someone will correct me if this is on the wrong thread. Viv.

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Some information in this thread about the Council House and its bridge.

Council House Birmingham

Birmingham Council House Until the building of the Council House on what was then known as Anne street the Council used to meet at the Public Offices Moor St and even sometimes at a local public house. When the descision was taken to construct a building for this purpose as was the norm for...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
Thanks Ell. Yes seem to remember a discussion somewhere about that section of the street no longer being named Edmund Street. Viv.
 
Pedestrianised. This was April 2019 last year.



It's like the section of Broad Street where the tram line currently terminates that is now considered part of Centenary Square.
 
Edmund Street curving to the right onto Margaret Street.



Edmund Street road sign on the Council House to the left.



Chamberlain Square road sign on the Council House extension on the right.

 
Got it Ell. Thanks. So Edmund Street now only goes as far as Margaret Street. Where it once continued right along and across Chamberlain Square (eventually to Easy Row) it now terminates at Margaret Street and the section continuing under the bridge has been named as part of Chamberlain Square. Viv.
 
Yes, although that part doesn't really feel like Chamberlain Square even though it is.

Hope that Chamberlain Square fully reopens soon. Hard to see behind the Paradise Birmingham fences.
 
On today's Bargain Hunt one of the items was a snooker scoreboard made by Podmore & Sons of 118 Edmund St. The contestants didn't do too well with it though.
 
MWS said:
On today's Bargain Hunt one of the items was a snooker scoreboard made by Podmore & Sons of 118 Edmund St. The contestants didn't do too well with it though.
Click to expand...
just watched that pedro..nice original scoreboard in good condition

lyn
 
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Opening in 1891, the Birmingham & Midland Ear, Nose & Throat Hospital in Edmund Street is one of a handful of what we would now call ‘sepcialist’ hospitals that were constructed around the City Centre during the 19th Century. Designed by Jethro Cossins and F. B. Peacock, the building today cuts an impressive figure as can be seen above.
The hospital closed in 1989 with a move to concentrate all medical treatment into a small number of large hospitals in the suburbs – Queen Elizabeth, ebh etc


birminghamroundabout
 
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