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Needless Alley

Thanks dave, Collected stamps for years did a lot of business with them Also it was a penny black, very rare in those days
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.
 
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:
 
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.
Great memories! Many thanks! But I can't remember where Spicers were located. I'm sure I must have passed their shop and peered in from time to time
 
Great memories! Many thanks! But I can't remember where Spicers were located. I'm sure I must have passed their shop and peered in from time to time
Fabulous....we were so lucky to have such times. Whilst I would love to be young again I do not see the 17/20 year olds having such vivid and beautiful memories of the time we had in Brum.....then. No virtual world with pretending friends, no letters, hand written, no waiting, in anticipation, for such letters to fall through letter box. No real photographs treasured enough to put in physical albums.....Yes, I do also recognise the progress, I think. lol.
 
Some may remember these faces if you visited the stamp shop, watch repair shop or needlework shop. Viv.

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Needless Alley in 2019.

Looking up to Temple Row. Behind me was one of those security barriers.



Pedestrianised at this end. Down to New Street.



On New Street is Watches of Switzerland.




This below on a post from the Birmingham Conservation Trust.
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
 
Was there a rather posh cafe called "Satis" in Needless alley in the 50`s?
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 .
 
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.
Oh the baked spuds and roast chestnuts in paper bags with salt.....love it.
 
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