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Needless Alley

Smudger said:
Was there a rather posh cafe called "Satis" in Needless alley in the 50`s?
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I also remember a very pleasant cafe in Needless Alley, but a bit later, probably about 1962 to 1967. My mother used to take me there while she hauled me around Birmingham on her shopping trips. I can't recall its name but if anybody has any ideas to suggest I am sure I would recognise its name. I do recall that it was a bit ahead of its time, offering food and drink in a way that had not been done previously in Birmingham (what you might call "avant garde"). Then to add to the nostalgia, I can still hear in my head the cacophony of roosting starlings and I can still smell in my head the charcoal-fired chestnut and potato roaster man on the corner of New Street and Stephenson Street as we left Birmingham to catch the train home. Happy days.
 
At the bottom of Needlless Alley , was New Street and the early form of chuggers . The Old Moore's Almanac sellers and if you didn't buy one they started ****** and jeffing at you . As has happened to me on more than one occasion . Very gentlemanly .
 
Jason Ellis said:
I also remember a very pleasant cafe in Needless Alley, but a bit later, probably about 1962 to 1967. My mother used to take me there while she hauled me around Birmingham on her shopping trips. I can't recall its name but if anybody has any ideas to suggest I am sure I would recognise its name. I do recall that it was a bit ahead of its time, offering food and drink in a way that had not been done previously in Birmingham (what you might call "avant garde"). Then to add to the nostalgia, I can still hear in my head the cacophony of roosting starlings and I can still smell in my head the charcoal-fired chestnut and potato roaster man on the corner of New Street and Stephenson Street as we left Birmingham to catch the train home. Happy days.
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Oh the baked spuds and roast chestnuts in paper bags with salt.....love it.
 
I do remember the shops where I too bought stamps. As far as I recall there was an alley right through the city centre, starting next to Dunn's in Corporation Street, down to Dale End and the Jacey Theatre and thence roughly southwards. Part of this route was called Don Street and eventually you found your way into a small cemetery, in what I think was Park Street, Digbeth. You turned left then, past the Fox and Grapes, pub, and thence to Fazely Street and onto Small Heath. Anyone with clearer memories please correct me if I have gone wrong; I am after all 82!

John :cool:
 
I can fin a route which about fits your description exceot the first part, which, as far as I can see , must gave been down bull st, not really an alley

ScreenHunter 2813.jpg
 
Hi Mike.
I am going back as far as the late 1940s, which is when I started venturing into the City alone! Living in Great Barr, Dunn's was then the alighting point for the Midland Red 118 and 119 buses. My memory isn't perfect, so I guess I could be wrong. I didn't mean Bull Street. I just can't remember the name of the alley, and I think it vanished when they redeveloped that part of Corporation Street which adjoins Bull Street; they built a new Midland Educational store and a Barretts, on the corner. I worked on that site when I got demobbed from the RN in 1964.

To be frank I wouldn't know Birmingham now. I haven't been into the City since they opened the latest redevelopment, so I could see and photograph the new statue of the Bull. I can't use 'buses now and my car has been sold! So I just 'Taxi' into Sutton Coldfield these days! That way I can finish my shopping trips with a couple of pints and a clear conscience! ;)

John :cool:
 
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No27 said:
Almost an atmosphere of reverence in there in the late 60s - the chap with half moon specs pulling out old binders and sorting through obscure stamps with gold plated tweezers - very Dickensian!
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My late father owned the stamp shop in Needless Alley - The West End Stamp Co. My father used to wear the half moon specs. Worked in the shop on Saturdays and holidays in the 1960's. Thank you for your kind words. Attached is a photo of Needless Alley where one can see STAMPS written on the wall by the door to the shop.
Berrihert said:
I remember the West End Stamp shop very well.I used to spend my pocket money there in the 1950’s.Mr Hughes a charming polite man in gold bi-focals always humming.He would go to immense trouble to help you find a stamp.He even gave us credit.In Paradise Street there was another stamp shop which also sold cigarette cards run by a lovely lady.We always dropped in there too as it was near another essential school boys shop Spicers the Taxidermist which soldequipment to blow birds eggs and butterfly specimens.Edward Spicer was another great chap... but I degress ! We discovered that Mr Hughes was ‘walking out’ with this lady.. we spotted them going into the Cinephone[which showed european films every 3 weeks[financed by suedo porno from Sweden].I hope they married and were happy they were old school personalities urbane,cultured , kind and well mannered.. a rarity these days.
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My late father was the Mr Hughes who owned the stamp shop. Thank you for your kind comments.
 

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  • Needless Alley.jpg
    Needless Alley.jpg
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That's struck a chord in my memory.
Our art teacher at Birchfield school (A Mr. Massingham ) set us an exercise to paint or draw some scene or building in Birmingham centre. I chose Needless Alley, and my contribution was something similar to the picture above. I did it in pastel, as a rainy-day scene, and Massingham kept the picture on the classroom wall. It vanished one day though, and of course I never saw it again!

I used to like going into the stamp shop, if only to look at stamps I hadn't got in my collection, and which I could never have afforded anyhow!

John
 
NoddKD said:
I hope I recall correctly that Needless Alley was home to The Great American Disaster, a burger restaurant in the middle to late seventies. Enjoyed many a burger there after falling out of Bogarts!:yum:)


Nodd the drunken rotund one.:eek:
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The Great American Disaster was in Cannon Street.
 
Berrihert said:
I remember the West End Stamp shop very well.I used to spend my pocket money there in the 1950’s.Mr Hughes a charming polite man in gold bi-focals always humming.He would go to immense trouble to help you find a stamp.He even gave us credit.In Paradise Street there was another stamp shop which also sold cigarette cards run by a lovely lady.We always dropped in there too as it was near another essential school boys shop Spicers the Taxidermist which soldequipment to blow birds eggs and butterfly specimens.Edward Spicer was another great chap... but I degress ! We discovered that Mr Hughes was ‘walking out’ with this lady.. we spotted them going into the Cinephone[which showed european films every 3 weeks[financed by suedo porno from Sweden].I hope they married and were happy they were old school personalities urbane,cultured , kind and well mannered.. a rarity these days.
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The business was taken over by a friend of mine, Simon Collyer, I think in the mid 1970's. He continued the shop until bought out under compulsory purchase order. He still deals in postcards, stamps and ephemera trading as West End Stamps.
 
There was lovely lively cafe down here on the left hand side going down from New Street where my father took me for lunch often as he always used it walking over from Newhall Street and having a good lunch every day. Surface was kept clean and I remember the stamp shop too expensive for me. Some nice little shops as well history did not imply wealth but good little premises with close together community of shoppers helping each other to keep going this was in the early 1960's



That picture brings back memory's, I worked just below the Cafe sign in the second picture, you can see the opening that led to many offices, I worked for a company in there, and we used to go the that Cafe for a cuppa and usually baked potato decent prices's, thanks for the pictures.
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Country Road said:
There was lovely lively cafe down here on the left hand side going down from New Street where my father took me for lunch often as he always used it walking over from Newhall Street and having a good lunch every day. Surface was kept clean and I remember the stamp shop too expensive for me. Some nice little shops as well history did not imply wealth but good little premises with close together community of shoppers helping each other to keep going this was in the early 1960's
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I don`t suppose you remember the name of that cafe?
 
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