silhouette53
master brummie
Its me again - the William Street kid !! LOL Actually I'm over the moon because Lyn ( Astoness ) very kindly hunted down some amazing photos of William Street Lozells for me ( I was born there in 1953 ) and I never thought I would find any. Turns out that we began Alma St infants at the same time !! She was only there for about 6 months though and then moved house and school. What a coincidence though, and therefore it was highly appropriate that it was she who found the photos and I can't thank her enough. It looks to me from scouring this wonderful site that she has provided a similar service for lots of people and GOOD ON YER Lyn !!!! Anyway, I digress - William St came out onto Lozells Rd just across from the Royal Oak pub, now VERY sadly a Bangladeshi supermarket - what a travesty and there was a Co-op on both sides of the road. I've managed to obtain photos of them and here they are. The one at the corner of William St has a butchers dept and I clearly recall going in there with my mom as a small child. From the clothes in the window on the side of the shop which is in William St, I'd guess that the pic dates from around 1920 or earlier. My memory of it is of a fruit and vegetable dept and not clothing so it must have changed at some point. The other pic is of the other shop on the opposite side of Lozells Rd and was a grocery and provisions store - it remained thus as I remember it to be the same when I was a child. My mom used to buy me a pineapple tart from there There appears to be a mirror or something on the front of the shop and if you look you can see the reflection of a small boy who was presumably standing near the photographer across the road as he took the shot. The boys dress would also suggest a date of 1920 or even earlier. I hope these pics bring back memories to some of you - I only wish I could get similar quality pics of these Co-ops in the 50s/60s as they were when I was growing up and going into them. Both these photos were very kindly sent to me by a gentleman named Tony Chew who I met at the Radisson Hotel last Sunday at the Carl Chinn local history event
Colin
Colin