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Kings Heath

J

jake

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anyone remember these in kings heath high street in the 50s/60s
chapman & saunders opposite woolworths sold dinkey toys and aircraft models (keelcraft) hornby train sets, bebbingtons a great big wooden
building sold everthing i think used to run up and down the shop as the wooden floor made a right din, then there was masons the grocers/
wrensons grocers/ tays butchers, (i worked for the tays in kings heath), then up to alcester lanes end the dog track, over the road the kings arms (fondly known as the knob and still is) but its a theme pub now, old man shetland who raced greyhounds had his kennels in dawberry fields road (known as piggy lane) due to the fact there was a pig farm at the top end,i lived in the country untill the council surrounded us with houses, great day's, the old look after each other day's have gone never to return. and they call it progress

jake
 
Yes, or as my old man used to say " we are progressing in a backward direction" ;)
 
Jake,not sure if you have been down High Street lately,but it sure has changed.Most of the shops are now charity shop or building societies.
I lived in Livingstone Road for 25 years with Mom and Dad until I married in '73.but only moved about 5 miles away to Shirley.
The roads been narrowed and its a right bottleneck.Didn't they plan a bye-pass in the 70's,I remember a friends family house been compulsory purchased,it's still standing now.

Colin
 
That parts not changed to much apart from there's a Video rental shop,a print cartridge shop and I think a Chinese restaurant.The Kingsway became a bingo hall (now thats progress)
My Dad used to be a part-time doorman/assistant projectionist at the Kingsway,in the 40's,and I remember the Saturday morning kids club,half the kids paid (6d I think),the other half slipped in through the fire exit
I'll try and take a picture to compare with that one

Colin
 
i still live in kings heath, so have watched the changes as they happen, i think whoever drew up the plans for what
is now a nightmare to drive through was very intoxicated at the time, they should have a sign each end of the high street, HOW TO CAUSE A TRAFFIC JAM .
jake
 
:angel: Your wish... O0 Hope it's ok!
Photo Re-sized for Colin B:
Re: kings heath high street
.‚.« Reply #6 on: Today at 12:48:45 PM .‚.»

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Went down Kings Heath High Street today.Took this photo as a comparison,the buildings have not changed,just the type of shop in them
Managed to park my motor (the 4x4 ) in just about the same place as the car in the left hand corner.
What type of car is the one in the middle

Colin B
 
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Thanks Chris,thats fine, is there anyway to remove the first picture?

Colin
 
well done Chris...
we shop there regularly
(being in Balsall Heath with no shops to speak of)
 
yes it sure does, i spent loads of time and pocket money in chapman and sanders, mostly on dinkey toy cars, most shops now have lost that
your a customer and are important to us, there is no interest in the customer anymore except to get your money, how did we end up like we have.
 
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I went to Wheelers Lane boys school, leaving in 1952,used to ride a carrier bike most evenings and all day Saturday for a grocery shop named Sweetings on the corner of Highbury Rd. and Grange Rd.for 12/6 a week if I remember correctly. now live in Somerset.
 
hi colin
it sure doe's those were the days when kids could be kids,
not like the enviroment we now have where kids are almost prisoners, they can't grow up as kids to many dangers for kids today,
bring back the old values, and watch it change back to a decent country
 
I remember Kings Heath High street very well. Mr granparents lived off Brandwood Park road so we regularly travelled on the 50 from Trafalgar Road to The Knob. I remember well the public baths in Institute road, Woolworths on the corner, opposite the toy shop with its train set and the model of the Eiffel Tower in Meccano
Does any one remember the BCT mobile canteen that parked in Vicarage road by the toilets, in the evenings, so the bus crews could get a hot drink? It was the terminus for the 49 and No 2 buses.
And who remembers "Decorwalls" the paint and wallpaper shop. The manageress - Toss (Gladice Tame) Died last year in New Zealand at the grand age of 104!!! She was my aunt, her husband Bill looked after the gardens at The Knob and won prises for them.
Down by the Kingsway was a music and record shop, my dad bought the music to Mary's Boy Child there, when Harry Belefonte made it so popular.
Years later, working for the Premier Driving School in Mosely, I used to take advanced pupils up the High Street to test their clutch control and handbrake use.
 
Hello Ironfighter

Good to see there is another one of us who remembers Kings Heath Village.

Yes I remember the canteen and Decorwalls. My mates mother worked in there and we used to pop in on the way back from the Kingsway on Saturday mornings. I think the record shop was Hobdays just off the High Street in Poplar Road.

Our first stop after leaving Flash Gordon (the original) in the Kingsway, was the Newsagents the first shop in the High Street after the Parade. It stuck out at the side of the Municipal Bank (hard to remember we had those). I did 'bob a job' in this shop and was shown a collection of documents that seemed to show that this was the oldest surviving building in Kings Heath.

We lived at the other end of the Village in Addison Road (where the number 11 still goes off towards Swanshurst) where Taylors the haberashers and the Duro Wine shop was.
 
Yes you're right, the record shop was Hobdays. I was born and lived at the bottom end of vicarage road, and my girlfriend (now my wife for 40 years this year) lived at the top end of poplar road next to the church (cambridge rd)

I remember the Municiple bank, the paper shop, the co-op on the other side of the road. We used the Baths a lot in institute road.
 
I used to work at the TV and Radio shop in Drayton Road with 'Hobby' Hobday (not sure if I ever knew his real name) who by then had sold the Record shop and bought a shop at Maypole which his wife ran selling I think childrens clothes. Hobby would only work for so many days at Drayton Radio as he worked at a local butchers for the rest of the time - something he had started to do in the war years.

The owner (or perhaps co-owner) of Drayton Radio was Fred Addiss (not sure of spelling). The other co-owner (who Fred amy have bougth out) was a Scottish lady but I forget her name now.
 
Hello there Bernard Ric

Remember the shop

Lived in addison Road and had to take the dog 'round the square' and would peer into the shop. Sorry I don't recollect who was peering back!

Regards
 
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