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New unseen photos with no locations

This is the position I suggested for he cottages in photos #4 and #5 in Mike's post #410. The blue dots being cottages and the red dots being the tall wall. I suggest it's roughly there as I think the wall is a commercial /industrial building and the land could still be classified today for commercial/industrial use as a business park. Vv.


Vivienne

I can tell you from memory that there was no housing either side of Saltley Viaduct, just gasworks, railway sidings, public works dept & commercial properties, but here's a map from around the time Mike was taking his photos so you can see for yourself.
 

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Vivienne

I can tell you from memory that there was no housing either side of Saltley Viaduct, just gasworks, railway sidings, public works dept & commercial properties, but here's a map from around the time Mike was taking his photos so you can see for yourself.
Maybe old maps from the Wright St and Cato St areas could be looked at to see if buildings with the same plan shape as the one in the photo could be spotted next to houses at right angles to a street.
 
Most Schools had a tower or a steeple, I always thought that these had something to do with fresh air circulation, if you can imagine what was like in Victorian days when most of these schools were built.

Presumably to hold a water tank, as the mains would be of insufficient pressure for a large user.
 
Nice video Richie. Will study it later.

A few things crossed my mind about Mike's 4th and 5th cottages. The first is they're built of different brick to the regular bricks used in the area (is it London brick). The second is they remind me of artisan cottages built for railway workers. Sometimes they were squeezed in alongside railway property. Could these be? Viv.
 
I have looked at the rail line viaducts on old maps around thatb area, but not found anything the same ( ON A MAP). In fact there do not seem to be too many.
 
I've looked at available aerial photos and also cannot find any houses near viaducts or embankments in that area.

Like others I'm reduced to looking at small details in the pics and they probably won't help ...

There are two terraces of only two houses at right angles to the road.

The houses have unusual small windows between the bedroom windows over their front doors . I can't recall previously seeing houses with that window layout.

The one terrace has the large building really close to it. The flat drained roof over the angled part of the building suggests there is a room underneath. Also the shadow on the right wall seems to indicate that the high wall finishes just out of shot.

There are out-houses with chimneys on the house gable ends adjacent to the road.

The houses have small front and back gardens and narrow access roads.

The houses have rooms each side of their front doors and so accomodation is not small and not cramped.

The street light in photo5 is different to the one in photo3 pics and could indicate a different road or even area.
 
Nice video Richie. Will study it later.

A few things crossed my mind about Mike's 4th and 5th cottages. The first is they're built of different brick to the regular bricks used in the area (is it London brick). The second is they remind me of artisan cottages built for railway workers. Sometimes they were squeezed in alongside railway property. Could these be? Viv.

Good thinking, Viv. It's difficult to assess true colours in pictures 4 and 5 of Mike's sequence because his film didn't record faithfully the contrast between sunlight and shadow - and there has been a hefty colour shift as the film or print has degraded in the intervening 45 years. Picture 3 is intriguing: the house on the left edge is red brick, while the focus of Mike's attention is soft yellow: Peterborough, or 'London' brick. Yet this has been painted or glazed in a deep crimson colour from pavement level to chest high.

Of course it's quite possible that between Small Heath and Cato Street North, Mike went to Watford without telling us...
 
Unless Dr Who transported me in the Tardis and then made me forget, I can assure you I have never been to Watford
 
I've looked at available aerial photos and also cannot find any houses near viaducts or embankments in that area.

Like others I'm reduced to looking at small details in the pics and they probably won't help ...

There are two terraces of only two houses at right angles to the road.

The houses have unusual small windows between the bedroom windows over their front doors . I can't recall previously seeing houses with that window layout.

The one terrace has the large building really close to it. The flat drained roof over the angled part of the building suggests there is a room underneath. Also the shadow on the right wall seems to indicate that the high wall finishes just out of shot.

There are out-houses with chimneys on the house gable ends adjacent to the road.

The houses have small front and back gardens and narrow access roads.

The houses have rooms each side of their front doors and so accomodation is not small and not cramped.

The street light in photo5 is different to the one in photo3 pics and could indicate a different road or even area.

OM - I think your original intuition that the location is more Small Heath than Cato Street North is proving to be correct. But I too have scoured your aerial photo and can't find a fit.

Presumably there are just two houses in the terrace, yet there are three pairs of chimney stacks: is the central pair shared between both properties? I'm also curious about that low extension with its own chimney; we have seen a similar thing in one of Mike's photos off Icknield Street. What do you think it was for? Structures like that were uncommon here in London.
 
Mike

Have you never been to the Watford Gap (Blue Boar) then?

If you remember when I first saw these photos I was pretty convinced that they were taken in Darwin Street Highgate at the rear of the Alhambra Cinema, but I have since consulted the maps and can see that it can't possibly be there. Though I am pleased to note that several contributors have formed the same idea as myself that the building in the background is a cinema.


The reason why I have not contributed any guesses or suggestions to this section of the thread is the same reason why I have not for some of the others. I am all guessed out. Which makes me especially pleased to see that you took the advice to post some of these untitled photo's so that others may take a stab at them. Thankfully some of them have been given locations and to be honest a couple of them I never thought would be.

The thing is they are out there now, and even if some of them prove difficult as it seems these two are then we may have a new member join sometime in the future who will know exactly where they are located and might even have lived there.
 
Mike

Have you never been to the Watford Gap (Blue Boar) then?

If you remember when I first saw these photos I was pretty convinced that they were taken in Darwin Street Highgate at the rear of the Alhambra Cinema, but I have since consulted the maps and can see that it can't possibly be there. Though I am pleased to note that several contributors have formed the same idea as myself that the building in the background is a cinema.


The reason why I have not contributed any guesses or suggestions to this section of the thread is the same reason why I have not for some of the others. I am all guessed out. Which makes me especially pleased to see that you took the advice to post some of these untitled photo's so that others may take a stab at them. Thankfully some of them have been given locations and to be honest a couple of them I never thought would be.

The thing is they are out there now, and even if some of them prove difficult as it seems these two are then we may have a new member join sometime in the future who will know exactly where they are located and might even have lived there.

Watford Gap (Northants) is a long way from Watford (Herts)! I've noticed on other threads that new or existing members contribute vital info to subjects sometimes years into dormancy. And of course it's terrific fun for us, lighting our pipes and donning our deerstalkers...
 
Phil
I would agree that I was very surprised when some of them were successfully and convincingly identified. I think this on has about reached the end of its run, but will wait till sunday before posting another
 
Watford Gap (Northants) is a long way from Watford (Herts)! I've noticed on other threads that new or existing members contribute vital info to subjects sometimes years into dormancy. And of course it's terrific fun for us, lighting our pipes and donning our deerstalkers...


Viewfinder

Having paid many a visit to the Blue Boar when it first opened in the 60's, and after four of us as young lads being questioned by the police sleeping in our car at Watford after a pretty raucous weekend in London. I did know the difference is about 50 miles or so in distance. I was just pulling Mikes leg, to be honest I would have thought that living down south as he does that there was more chance that he had visited Watford. There again I would have thought most teenagers in the 60's got themselves down to the Blue Boar at one time or another especially in the early hours of the morning.
 
Help! This is a golden oldie...featured a few times in a variety of posts over the years...but I cannot remember it's true location! ...I THINK it was maybe old Ann Street....please confirm or deny....and the significance of the rather more ancient, almost church like remnants? Cheers....


Ann Street possible.jpg
 
Dennis it is the rear garden of a house that used to stand in Upper Priory, it is even said that the arched structure is part of the Old Priory that used to stand at that location.

Good to hear from you I thought that you had emigrated.
 
Of course!! Now I remember it..! Cheers my friend! And I am still lurking mate.....albeit less frequently than usual.....old age.....
 
Whilst we are waiting for Mike to sort another one out (Mike could I suggest the Stores). I'll put this one up, I knew as soon as I saw it that it had been tagged wrongly because if this is any part of Calthorpe Park in the late 70's I will eat my hat. I thought it might be the seven streets adventure park that stood on Malvern Street off Clifton Rd where the inner city farm stands now, but even then it wouldn't fit. Any ideas will help?
 

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