• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Old street pics..

A view most of us will remember, the Arden Hotel, Odeon and Rotunda on New Street. Shows a rather poor loft extension on top of the Arden! Think it's about 1970. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1373293734.882587.jpg
 
Vivienne14 said:
A view most of us will remember, the Arden Hotel, Odeon and Rotunda on New Street. Shows a rather poor loft extension on top of the Arden! Think it's about 1970. Viv.

View attachment 87273
Click to expand...

What was the building to it's left as i don't recall that?. I think the 51 bus stop to the Scott Arms used to stop just outside the Arden where those people are waiting.
 
Thanks for posting this great photo Viv. I have many memories of the restaurant at the Arden in 1972 when I spent five months in Brum. I used to go with my parents and the meals were always very good.
Can't say I ever noticed the add on extension on the top of the building.
 
Used to catch the 51, 52 and 118 (108 as well I think) from same place as they all stopped opposite the Tennis courts pub on the Walsall road, rarely caught the 118 or 108 as they were more expensive :)
 
The building has a To Let sign on the ground floor which would have been the Lloyds Bank New Street Branch so it must be after they moved into the first floor of the Rounda
 
nickcc101 said:
Used to catch the 51, 52 and 118 (108 as well I think) from same place as they all stopped opposite the Tennis courts pub on the Walsall road, rarely caught the 118 or 108 as they were more expensive :)
Click to expand...
It's funny how little unimportant thing's can stick in your head. I can remember as a young kid waiting for a bus outside the Odeon and being captivated by the Birmingham Motto Forward sign on the side of the Bus and the giant shiny wheels. That's my memory of this little bit of New Street, i can also remember the Arden being demolished and wondering why they would do that:sorrow:. I love the old Brum buses and wish we had some kind of regular heritage route like in London.
Bus.jpg
 
Vivienne14 said:
A view most of us will remember, the Arden Hotel, Odeon and Rotunda on New Street. Shows a rather poor loft extension on top of the Arden! Think it's about 1970. Viv.

View attachment 87273
Click to expand...

Think the photo would have been 1966 Viv. The lettering on the Odeon next door suggests the beginning of the name of the film "Georgy Girl" of that year. No other film beginning with "GE" fits into films released on the Rank circuit when the cinem was a large, one-theatre cinema.

What a hideous extension that is!
 
like Richie I wish the planners had left some of dear old Birmingham, so you could visit your youth, when ever I am up in Birmingham it looks such an abortion of new shiny buildings , very sad really.paul
 
paul stacey said:
like Richie I wish the planners had left some of dear old Birmingham, so you could visit your youth, when ever I am up in Birmingham it looks such an abortion of new shiny buildings , very sad really.paul
Click to expand...
If i want to capture a decent bit of old Brum i have a walk around the side Streets of Kings Heath and Moseley with well preserved bits of decent architecture. Also the business district around Colmore Row and Edmund Street and on to the Jewellery qtr. Old Brum is still there if you know where to look:pride:.


Check out this Guys Flickr shots...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/brettwilde/3863857745/lightbox/




https://moseleyfarmersmarket.org.uk/organisation/

https://enjoykingsheath.com/

https://www.jewelleryquarter.net/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/4399843264/


https://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/5974799994/


https://www.google.co.uk/maps/previ...image&socpid=1&q=old+contemptibles+birmingham
 
yes Brumgum, I know that , the places where I was brought up are still there, its the centre I was commenting on, what they did to Colmore Row, and around the Town Hall to my mind was shambolic, why could not an architect be found to preserve the frontage of "Snow Hill station" for example. Of course this is a generational thing, and when the youngsters of today are my age they will be horror struck like me when it is all redesigned again.paul
 
paul stacey said:
yes Brumgum, I know that , the places where I was brought up are still there, its the centre I was commenting on, what they did to Colmore Row, and around the Town Hall to my mind was shambolic, why could not an architect be found to preserve the frontage of "Snow Hill station" for example. Of course this is a generational thing, and when the youngsters of today are my age they will be horror struck like me when it is all redesigned again.paul
Click to expand...
It seems to me that they are of the same ilk who keep redisgning Cov again and again and destroying what few architecturally ancient beautiful bits there are left. It's probably political vote catching artistic snobbery climbing up the greasy pole, I would think. Gets me going though.
 
paul stacey said:
yes Brumgum, I know that , the places where I was brought up are still there, its the centre I was commenting on, what they did to Colmore Row, and around the Town Hall to my mind was shambolic, why could not an architect be found to preserve the frontage of "Snow Hill station" for example. Of course this is a generational thing, and when the youngsters of today are my age they will be horror struck like me when it is all redesigned again.paul
Click to expand...

I'm not sure the youngsters of today WILL be that shocked, Paul. They will need a benchmark of quality and what we have new, now, isn't. How quickly new things get derelict nowadays. The 70s stuff coming down now should have lasted a hundred years if any good!
 
Richie
It depends on what you mean by "should have". If you mean that large public buildings should last a reasonable legth of time then I would agree, but if you mean that the buildings construction meant that they should have lasted a good length of tiem, then I disagree. Most modern, and those built in the 1960s on were only designed for a relatively short life, and so it is not surprising that they did not last long. Architects and town planners are always looking for an opportunity to make work, and that is what they did by building rubbish, and in may cases bad-looking rubbish also. That is not to say that Prince Charles's views are necessarily any good, as his designs, as in poundtown (I think thta is the name) are built just aas badly, and I gather are very much showing the signs of age even after a very short time
 
mikejee said:
Richie
It depends on what you mean by "should have". If you mean that large public buildings should last a reasonable legth of time then I would agree, but if you mean that the buildings construction meant that they should have lasted a good length of tiem, then I disagree. Most modern, and those built in the 1960s on were only designed for a relatively short life, and so it is not surprising that they did not last long. Architects and town planners are always looking for an opportunity to make work, and that is what they did by building rubbish, and in may cases bad-looking rubbish also. That is not to say that Prince Charles's views are necessarily any good, as his designs, as in poundtown (I think thta is the name) are built just aas badly, and I gather are very much showing the signs of age even after a very short time
Click to expand...

I think i read somewhere that the Snow Hill frontage was in quite a bad condition and was falling down to some extent. The Grand Hotel further down the street could have had a similar fate but has somehow survived and is now being restored thankfully...

https://www.grandhotelbirmingham.co.uk/
 
I wonder if that is taken seriously by outsiders? I suspect not for the best part of a century. I think that there is much more interest in how Robbies getting on with his latest case in Oxford and how the romance with the doctor pathologist will work out. Interesting human series like these are the rage on TV here and the uk is great at doing them with taste. The series about the royals...not so much..not much interest I suspect.
 
paul stacey said:
yes Brumgum, I know that , the places where I was brought up are still there, its the centre I was commenting on, what they did to Colmore Row, and around the Town Hall to my mind was shambolic, why could not an architect be found to preserve the frontage of "Snow Hill station" for example. Of course this is a generational thing, and when the youngsters of today are my age they will be horror struck like me when it is all redesigned again.paul
Click to expand...
I immediately regretted the destruction of the '60s development where I spent some of the happiest days of my life. :blue:
 
Oisin said:
I immediately regretted the destruction of the '60s development where I spent some of the happiest days of my life. :blue:
Click to expand...
Apparantly there was a beautiful arcade in Cov with a big glass fanlight and little bowfronted shops like the old curiosty shop and like Snow Hill Arcade. Has that gone then? I walked up it once looking for the Post and Mail which I know has gone. The Cov Telegraph has been relocted to the canal basin as is sinking fast.
 
Where is your stone statue of the man on the horse next to your name Adept Brummie? He looks like Lady Godiva with attitude. Nico
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top