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Erdington Tramway Terminus

M

mossg

master brummie
I wonder if anyone can throw some light on this one. In Wylde Green village there is a building that looks to have been an electricity sub station in the past,although i have been told that it was toilets at some point.
There is a ghost sign above it but it is not at all clear as you can see from this Google earth picture.It does look a little more readable if you are close to it.Or in my case sitting in the wine bar across the road.
My best guess is ERDINGTON TRAMWAYS.Does anyone know this building?moss
 

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Moss
It is shown on the c 1913 map as a waiting room. As can be seen it was at the end of the road for the tramway

map_c_1914_wylde_Green_showing_waiting_room.jpg
 
Good find Moss. I had a go at zooming in and out on Streetview but would never have been able to work that one out. Thanks Mike too. There's a small section on Streetview that gives you an (older?) view of the whole building too. Would have been a much cosier waiting room than that bus shelter! Viv.

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Seems to me it's a piece of local history worth recording. Thanks Froth for the info and if you can get any up to date photos that'll be a bonus. Just out of interest, is this still a terminus (i.e for buses, not trams of course!)? Viv
 
Great, thanks Froth. Just as well we didn't see that West Midlands Gas sign before. Would have thrown us completely off the scent - 'scuse the pun. Hope they find a good use for the building, pity to have it covered up. Wonder who owns it now. BG? WMPTE? Viv.
 
I have tinkered with picture of the waiting room building at Wylde Green,and think you can see ERDINGTON TRAMWAYS a little clearer.moss
 

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Heres a photo of the waiting room in its prime, I still cant read the lettering but I don't think it says Erdington Tramways.
 

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The first 13 posts of this thread are copied from the "Ghost signs" thread. The discussion about the tramways waiting room on Sutton Road seems to me to be worthy of its own thread.

The good news is it no longer looks empty and a small business seems to be operating from there. Good to see its being put to use again.

I also found this image of the tram terminus. I presume the waiting room building hadn't been built at this time, as I'd expect the photographer to have featured it in the photograph. The modern day view seems to show a much wider road. Viv.


image.jpeg image.jpeg
 
In that old pic the Building is on the opposite side, in the past a Toilet and the Gas company
 
Frothy, there would've been toilets in the waiting room surely so your post #5 would be right. Last time I looked it was a swish gents' hairdressers, something to do with 'dogs', quite a strange name, but I can't remember. I'll see what's going on next time I go up there.
 
Mike, I found your map from 1914 interesting as Broadfields House is still there so the long parade of shops which replaced it must've been built after that date. On the opposite side of the road, Lindenhurst, the very large house is still there with another parade of shops in front which look as if they were built in the 20's or 30's.
 
So if I've got this right the house in view behind the tram in the old photo is Lindenhurst ? Now a supermarket? Viv.
 
Such a pity the waiting room lost it's porch. Here's a comparison with Phil's photo in post #13. Viv.

image.jpeg
 
Viv, yes that's right. It's now a Lloyds Bank but it's got a tiled frontage. I've always thought it looked a bit odd. The Co-op is in the same block, on the corner and I don't think has anything to do with the old house as there are a few shops in between including Wylde Green Pharmacy and a hairdressers.
Talking of odd, I always thought there was something wrong with the present day waiting room, it looks much more in keeping with the porch. Before it looked as if it had been plonked there. I'm sure the toilets were down the sides of the present building, ladies one side and gents' the other. Thank you for spotting the lack of porch, I'd missed it.
 
Does anyone know when the access road for the tram terminus was built please? You can see it on the third of Viv's pictures on post #14. Until this time the tram stopped in the middle of the road at the county boundary.

First Tram to Chester Road.jpg
 
It looks like there was a proposal for a few years before 1905 to extend the tramway from the bottom of Gravelly Hill
to a point just beyond Chester Road on the main road to Sutton, and which was the boundary of Erdington and
Wylde Green. The work began in 1905.

From Viv's picture it looks like the first tram ran on 1 March, 1907. So it would seem that trams did not run to that
point until 1907.

(This being electric trams !)
 
In 1938 trams on route 2 were diverted from High Street to a new reserved track, which was the last to be built in Birmingham at the time. The new terminus, at a side reservation, was the boundary with the city and Sutton Coldfield.
 
Thank you all for your input.

Alan, was the 'reserved track' the one that ran along New Sutton Road?

And, just to get it clear in my mind, the new terminus 'at the side reservation' is the one between Broadfields Road (Erdington) and Florence Road (Sutton)? It ran in front of the shops which are still there now, opposite the Co-op. To be honest I thought it was built a long time before 1938 so I was completely wrong. I suppose the increase in traffic made it impractical to have to the terminus in the middle of the main road.
 
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