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Handsworth

Shortie you have been spoilt! Tin baths were horrible! I was born in Edgbaston and our bath was stored outside, next-door had theirs in a cabinet like #342 but it was horizontal and not rough surfaced like ours. Our bathroom was "built on" in about 1956.
rosie.
 
Oh Rosie, you make me feel quite guilty!! I imagine a bath in those circumstances was not very nice, especially, I guess, if one had a lot of brothers! I have given it thought before that if my grandparents had not been re-housed, I might have been born in Ladywood myself and having the same conditions. I am probably very lucky.
 
I lived in Cooksey Road in the early 60s with a bath in the kitchen under a detachable work surface. A luxury for me not having lived in Handsworth. It was a tin bath for twenty odd years in Guildford Street then about three years with a proper upstairs bathroom in a council house in West Heath. Then getting married and off to the bath in the kitchen. After a couple of years moving to a flat in London as a student with a shared bathroom - money in the meter
 
Shortie
Not in Birmingham, but until I left Chichester to go to university, I never used a bathroom. The other thing was the outside toilet with large bulbous spiders wandering around !!
 
On the subject of spiders I just read this ... a quick factoid ...

Spiders climb down into the bath tub because there is water there. Houses are dry, especially with air con and heating, and spiders need water. They sense that water is in the area of the bath tub and crawl in, only to not be able to crawl out. That's why they also like to hang out around sinks and in the basement, where there is less AC/Heating and there is more moisture.
 
What a nice surprise to find that the buildings to the left of this 1907 view of Hamstead Road are still there and recognisable! Pity the chemist has fallen into disrepair, or maybe it's had sme attention since the Streetview photo? Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1387630770.909922.jpg 1907
ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1387630790.924578.jpg today
 
And a view from the other direction looking down Hamstead Road towards the Villa Road junction. Again, quite a lot is still in tact, but many frontages have changed. Note the typo by the postcard maker "Hampstead". Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1387631305.167773.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1387631320.127756.jpg
 
Nice to see the chemist shop Viv, in the 1960's it was Barclay's Bank on that corner. The buildings might be there, but it is so sadly neglected these days it's almost unrecognisible. It's abou tnine months since I travelled along this road.
 
We left Handsworth about three months ago but even now, when we drive through to visit our daughter, we can see how it's gone down since we left. It seems nobody there has any interest in their environment any more. A lot of the neglect can be attributed to "Rackman" type landlords who buy up all the properties they can and then move in anyone the DSS will pay the rent for. :crushed:
 
OISIN;
Handsworth is not alone when you say deteriation ;first of all i used to be a midland counties dairyman [ milk man ]
way back in sixty one and it was a cracking place i covered most of handsworth roads and streets and at that time there was only part
was for those peole whom was unfortunately haveing to go rakman and that was at the very top end of holly lane it was like a tunnelled entrace
a small in wthe dimention and it had litle tiny rooms and sadly they was a great bunch of people of all creeds whom fell short of rackman
we called it the dungeons they was por people trying to survive but they paid there way for there milk bills never missed aweek
we used to have a laugh with them and they would make you smile like wise my asstistant and my self was alway pleasant to them i hink they was happy to see us but the rest of the houses was fine and well kept so dd the people but we did have a problem with one or two on hamstead rd owing money
and my mate was threatened by a big bloke standing over him with a bottle [ empty bottle of milk ; as he owed weeks and weeks we stopped his supply
and we wanted the IOU moneyand he was demanding milk still as i sent him to this building i thought he is a log time so i went to invstigate
and lord and behold he was standing over taffy with the bottle so i came behind and shouted verbal abuse at him and drop the bottle or else and so he did
handswoth was a cracking place to live years ago my ancesters lived there on hamstead rd in a big house with servants my mother told me
as i have said i have covered most rds of handsworth and coffee shops for delivering there milkyou name the road i dne it and on saturday evening around five oclock ; i would finish out side the red lion pub toting up my book of cash and sorting the emptys and the crates for the sorters back at the dairy in moland street
my brother inlaw tony jones from catherine street also used to work there as a milkman and he eventualy went to live in brunswick rd hands worth around the back of soho rd and the grove lane it used to be a great area as you say its definately down rapid as i have seen it for my self ;
the big question is ; whom is at fault'?. the inhabbintants or council; to let it run down; the council can control so much but the private sector no but the cleaning of the streets yes and if they are council tennants that i do know ; as i was on harborne committe many years ago so i do know a fair bit ;
but take around the rest of brum they are only concetrating on the centre of brum where upon the birmingham peopleshould be first
and there standard of living best wishes Astonian;;
 
This is not a new thing if it has got worse in the last few years I despair as I thought it had fallen as far from grace as was possible, I remember in the early 1960's seeing maids, dressed in black dresses and aprons, arriving at Spooners, the bakers opposite Handsworth Grammar School in Grove Lane. They would come down on bicycles with baskets on the front, we were told they were from "the big houses round the park" By the end of the '60's the maids were a thing of the past and all those large houses it seemed had been turned over to multiple occupation and a few years later were semi derelict. In those days it seemed if you had a bob or two and came from the north of Brum you lived in Handsworth, it fulfilled much the same role that Edgbaston and Harbourne did on the south of the city.
 
A thriving 1939 Soho Road. love the Art Deco Burton's shop. I think most major high streets had a Burton's. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1388961658.454155.jpg
 
I seem to remember going to a firm's 'do' at the function rooms above Burtons on Soho Road when I was a teenager, at least I think it was Burtons,
 
Stephen0002002 said:
Nice pic Viv - I remember Burtons I think and didnt it become a Littlewoods ?
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Don't think so.....Burton's became a "Sari" shop - fabulous colours!. Littlewoods was next door (towards Baker St.) and became the first supermarket on Soho Rd, then next door was a funny little single storey shop (tobacconist?) then "Englands" shoe shop with an arcade like frontage.
 
I knew Handsworth in the mid 50s and right enough it was a fine place then but now the houses are 60 years older, which probably makes most of them twice as old now. Age deteriorates houses anywhere. Especially so if a maintenance regimen is not maintained. Little window light in those old row houses which made them a bit depressing.
 
I lived in Handsworth from 1942 to 1956 and it was a great place to grow up. I remember my mother saying that when she moved there in the late 1930's it was a very lovely suburb with tree lined streets. All different now unfortunately.
 
I was quite happy living there from the time I got married until about five years ago when it took a sudden dive. My road was tree-lined and very pleasant until Rachman style landlords started buying up the properties. Then trees and front gardens began to be sacrificed for dropped kerbs and block paving to accommodate multi-occupancy car ownership.
 
I lived in Putney Road from 1941 to 1962. Our house was privately rented and not in very good nick to be honest. The road was OK, but by the end of the fifties it was looking a little worse for wear. I went back to look at the old homestead in the late nineties and what a difference!
The road had been part of the Council's "urban improvement" or somesuch and the pavement was wider and well paved, the houses were all spruced up (new doors, windows and paint) and wrought iron security gates were on all the entries. I expect the houses all had indoor bathrooms and better kitchens inside as well (we had an outdoor lavvy, a coal house and a scullery) .
A vast improvement, though I doubt this reflects Handsworth as a whole.
 
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Well I remember England's shoe shop - thank you for putting me right on Burtons/Littlewoods.
As Rupert says - sometimes inner city places can deteriorate over time, but the memories are crystal clear.
I live in Sutton now, I wonder what it will be like in say 50-60 years time.

Bryn - Did you ever come across my milk man - Cyril
 
alanfisher202 said:
No Shorty, The Elite was down Soho Road just after the Library,we used to call the Grand the Flea Pit.
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Tezza quite correct,the elite was down by the libraryand the grand was always known as the flea pit.the regal was the poshest cinema and the dearest.the rookery was cheap and clean.the Albion was quite good too.tezza
 
My late uncle was a dentist in Handsworth - he lived and practised in Hampstead Road as B A Latham. I now live in Adelaide, Australia, but still have a strong memory of the house and the dental surgery (which was actually on the corner of Hampstead and Gibson Roads - does anyone have any memories this.

We actually lived in Hall Green ( in much more modest circumstances!) and I can remember catching the 29A from Kedleston Road to somewhere north of the cirt centre and then transferring to the 16A because it travelled along Hampstead Road.
 
Would anyone remember a confectioners on Ninevah Road in Handsworth?
 
I remember some of the shops at the bottom of Ninevah Road a fish and chip shop being one,and also I think there was a cobblers,I was also in the scouts with a chap named Purchus who lived in a shop there I think that was a confectioners (I will get in touch with a friend he lived in Allens Road and may well know
 
I don't know if anyone else has heard the story of a lone German plane machine gunning down the centre of Soho Road, in the early 40's, mom told me the story and a couple of people were killed she and nan and Auntie Kath had just come out of the cinema, and had to duck into a shop for safety. Paul
 
That's a very interesting story, Phil, mom says quite a well known shopkeeper was killed, and that the plane was so low that she could see the people in the plane, I thought someone like "Jayell", or Alan, "Astonian" may have heard it or known about it. Regards Paul
 
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