Oldest City Centre Houses

[Phil]

I read the other day in the Birmingham Mail that one of my old workplaces back in the 60's is going to be renovated as part of a £15 million scheme. The houses are in Bartholomew Row just up from where the new park now starts.

Besides a 15 storey students apartment block there will be two bars, restaurant's and a design studio. One of the bars the old stamp shop from what I understand is to be left more or less as it was when the last tenants left. They were a lighting firm and it is planned to decorate the bar with their old fixtures and memorabilia. If my memory serves they were not there all that long, in my opinion the stamp shop should have been decorated more along the lines of a drop forge stamp shop as it was when I worked there for Landon Brothers (Stampers & Piercers).

Still if I'm still around when it finally gets opened I might take myself along and see how much it has changed after 50 years. I bet they have filled in the pits that the drop forges and operatives used to have to stand in because the drop hammers were so high they wouldn't fit in the basement,

Here are a couple of photos, one of how the houses look today, and one of proposed finished project.

 

[Vivienne14]

Very interesting project Phil. Good to see there's a fair-sized section of the old street being brought into the whole project. Look forward to seeing how it develops. Viv.

 

[Astoness]

City centres oldest houses to be saved

well i have been watching this building for a few years now..once 3 georgian houses and then took over by christopher wray..think they were do do with lighting of some sorts...i really felt sure they would be demolished but so happy to be proved wrong....looks and sounds like a great project to me...sorry phil i was not paying attention..didnt realise it was this building you posted about..


https://www.birminghampost.co.uk/bu...-redevelopment-plans-christopher-wray-9665697