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Parliament Street Aston

gingerjon

master brummie
Parliament Street was a mixture of different houses and shops we had terrace housing two storey and a block of two courts that were back to back houses three storeys high top was the attic below the main bedroom and below that a small living room and a very small kitchen and below this was the coal cellar each court shared two toilets a brewhouse and the miskin shed,
the people were a mixed bunch you had the better offs lived in the posher houses these all had there own toilets and two bedrooms and a box room (small bedroom) we had three huckster shops a second hand shop owned by Kate Baker a wool and needle shop and a hire business cart's and basket carriages the owner was Mr Jennings and not forgetting the pigeon shop owned by Mr Stirks Parliament street was between Park Lane and Webster Street with Burlington Street running off the middle of the street
a place were we enjoyed while we were kids never realising what poverty was till later in life we had some happy times there
 
Parliment Street was the last street on my paper round, so I quite liked it!! especially on Sundays, the bag used to hurt my shoulder, with all those extra papers, no trolleys for us!!
 
:?
I was in receipt of the sag factor from the satchel of big heavy bundles of printed matter though I do not recall trolleys. In retrospect it is basic common sense simple logic - especially for children. But then the labour movement has invariably been apologetically backwards in coming forward [eg reducing the working week and working year].
This last week I was taken aback when I mentioned to a woman, soon to retire teacher specializing with handicapped and disabled, the vast amount of (read: trillions of pounds sterling) money made off the backs of women - and of course children, even when Winston Chruchill was pontificating fluffed up glands and of course Kaiser Wilhelm was cousin in the current cabal. Terribly sad shame and immensity of waste.

I too remember Parliament Street. The main reason being not the socioeconomical profile but the august name. As an wee strap of a lad I figured it must have been something mighty specially important. That was way before I learnt how dastardly the Establishment core actually is in terms of fraud and much else.

The class (economic) structure is as though a caste system. How is it in the same municipal block a family with their kinder can have an in-house lavatory and the people and arms' reach yonder resort to the communal toilet in the yard?

It is sometimes salient to almost pinch one's self to remind - yet such need be done for the children today - the Industrial Revolution is but 300 years extant. Winston Churchill ordered the army to shoot to kill (and did many) striking coal miners in (was it?) 1913. When in 1909 - and I have a monochrome plate - he inspected military manoeuvers with the Kaiser.

All that laudatory of those fine folks.

The Birmingham and Evening Mail, Sports Argus, Sunday Mercury was and is a fascist enterprise. I was a personal friend of one of the daughters of the ownership - and she was a diammetric opposite of fascistic. However I sensed the brutality of bigotry. Their cockamamie ideology had not the remotest basis in rational economics. Indeed it was obscurantist to the extent of nihilism.

The glossy (Saturday: SKETCH) weekly - alum impregnated paper - was heavy by the coir as 25 fold. However it was not widely read. Perhaps Rod remembers the jumbo bumper issues for such as the jubillees.... The pink Sports Argus was a licence to print dough. To this day the abuse of oligopoly by that clique is astounding. Godfrey Winn - a confirmed batchelor who resided with his moma, as did Encoch Powell - did a regular gossip column in the Mail. Properly stuck up then one would subscribe of The Post?

Considering Birmngham is part birthplace and cradle of the Industrial Revolution then the newspaper history of recent in the modern era is utterly abysmal.

The Birmingham Planet (Woodrow Wyatt - another first class crank) was neat 'n' nifty. Much promise but obstuse to the extent of incredulity apathy abolished it. For the price of a half pint of mild
:?
 
We lived in 49 Parliament St till '69. With 2 bedrooms and a box room.
I didn't realise the ones with an outside loo of their own were the posher ones  ;D
 
hi folks as far as i know apart from personal ones these are the first photos of parliament st to be seen on this forum...the library came up trumps yesterday...dated 1967...on pic 1 you can clearly see the number 2 on the door..pic 2 i have no idea what the numbering is or which side of the road the houses are on but hopefully some of our members who knew this street well can help us out..on pic 2 it looks to be a little shop half way down and i think i can just make out 2 ladies talking..also 2 children at the bedroom window on the right...hope they are ok as its not very easy taking photos of photos lol..click on the pics twice to enlarge..

lyn

PARLIAMENT ST 017.JPG
 
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Lyn, thanks for posting. The lst pic is the corner of Parliament Street and Park Lane. When I was growing up it was a secondhand shop I think the lady who ran it was called Kate, but it had been bricked up by the time the photo was taken.

I am not sure about the 2nd photo but it may be the stretch from Burlington Street running up to Park Lane on the opposite side of the road to the first pic.
 
hi lynn ;
I Do not surpose ypou have any think of a mr jennings in parliment street he was a maker and hirer of hand carts in parliment street
as my fathers mother married mr jenning before remarrying to another man i beleive he dealt with batterys as qwell it may have been around number 6 parliment street and he would have been operating from a yard best wishes alan;;
 
sorry alan i didnt lived in parliament st i am just posting the photos for those who knew the street..

all the best

lyn
 
Sylvia once again correct me if i'm wrong..but the second picture is Parliament St looking up on the left you can see an opening of Jennings basket place and before that is Griggs's....Brenda
st
 
Sylvia once again correct me if i'm wrong..but the second picture is Parliament St looking up on the right you can see an opening of Jennings basket place and before that is Griggs's....Brenda
st
 
hi brenda yes you are right.. ive just had that confirmed from someone who lived in the street who says pic 2 is looking up from upper webster st to park lane..the shop was owned by mrs grieg..the opening further up showing the black wall was jennings accumulators better known for its cart hire and basket carriages...

in pic 1 the bricked up shop used to be owned by kate baker and rolly morris as a carpet and floor covering business at one time..

lyn
 
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Glad to see the grey matter still has it...that is from years back l'm still living in the old Aston... l would get lost if l lived there now....Brenda
 
Thanks for the reply Brenda, It was my father who was the pigeon fancier, It must have been in the 1940 when we went there.
Nick
 
Brenda, you are right about Mrs. Griggs shop, and the opening to Jennings, after I came off my computer yesterday I gave it some more thought and remembered the shop. The photo was on the right hand side of Parliament Street running from Upper Webster Street to Park Lane.

When I was a little girl Mrs. Grigg had a raffle and the prize was a large chalk doll with painted hair with a kiss curl, and guess who won it? me, Polly Foster came round to tell me, I was absolutely thrilled as due to the war there was very few toys to be bought, mom gave me an old sheet to cut up to make napkins, I laid it on the bed and happily cut away only to find I had cut through the good sheet on my bed, mom went mad as you had to have coupons to replace household linen besides clothes etc.
 
Hi Lyn,

What a star you are, picture 1 is the closest I have got to a picture of my uncles bicycle shop at 143 Park Lane (just out of the picture on the left hand side). Just out of the picture to the right hand side was the passage leading along the back of the gardens on Park Lane which was my access from 7 Parliament Street to my uncles house. Superb work on your part. John
 
Hi Lyn,

What a star you are, picture 1 is the closest I have got to a picture of my uncles bicycle shop at 143 Park Lane (just out of the picture on the left hand side). Just out of the picture to the right hand side was the passage leading along the back of the gardens on Park Lane which was my access from 7 Parliament Street to my uncles house. Superb work on your part. John

hi john only too happy to oblige...i know only too well whats its like trying to find photos...i feel sure that there are more to come of parliament st as the library still have not made the index cards available so i will keep pushing for them...have you seen all the photos on the park lane thread..what was your uncles shop called..i will keep an eye out for you..must apologise john ive just remembered you lived in clarenden st i think..i have another appointment with the library next saturday so i will do a search for you..

lyn
 
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Hi Lyn,

What a star you are, picture 1 is the closest I have got to a picture of my uncles bicycle shop at 143 Park Lane (just out of the picture on the left hand side). Just out of the picture to the right hand side was the passage leading along the back of the gardens on Park Lane which was my access from 7 Parliament Street to my uncles house. Superb work on your part. John

More pictures of Park Lane here.
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=38693&page=2
 
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