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Ridley St Washington St

teece222

knowlegable brummie
has anyone got any pics of ridley st or washington st, i remember playing on the bombed remains of st thomas's church akso remember whitehouses carraige works, mrs bungy's shop, crumptons cafe, and neighbors baches, and club house on corner of washington st, would be great to see some old pics.
 
As far as I am aware St Thomas's Social Club was at 1 Washington Street which ran from Bath Row to Commercial Street.
 

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has anyone got any pics of ridley st or washington st, i remember playing on the bombed remains of st thomas's church akso remember whitehouses carraige works, mrs bungy's shop, crumptons cafe, and neighbors baches, and club house on corner of washington st, would be great to see some old pics.
hi teece222....
Did you ever find pictures you was searching for? I was born on Washington St in 1956 and lived there till i was 4 or 5. Would also love to see pics of the street and houses etc.... Also remember a bomb site at the junction of Ridley and Washington st. I spent a few months at the local school there i think on Granville st.... thanks ...Pete
 
The only pic of Washington Street that I have is all commercial buildings about 20 years ago, originally the Syren Works of ships' lamp manufacturer Alfred F. Genton & Son Ltd.
washington.jpg

The full story of the Compnay can be found on my website here:- https://mscrete.com/genton.htm

Maurice :cool:
 
Ok thanks Maurice...
I vaguely remember some sort of commercial buildings opposite where I lived... they were probably the one preceding those in you picture... Any idea when they were built? They look too modern to be built pre 1956.
I was born there in 1956 and around five when I left there so it's a bit of a distant memory now..... Pete
 
Hi PapaPedro,

Welcome to the Forum. Kelly's Directory has then as being their in 1933 and the business had ceased by the end of WW2. So I can't be 100% sure that those were the buildings that they actually occupied. I had a walk around there around 2000, but there was no evidence at that time of Genton's previous occupation or of who was the occupier at that time. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Maurice :)
 
Don't know if these help at all (year will be year of publication I think) - do you know what number you lived at? If you do I might be able to post a larger version.
1950s map
1618488009844.png

1969 map
1618488037095.png

1978 map
1618488064493.png
 
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Janice,

Thanks for those maps - so Genton's were on the corner of Washington Street and Ridley Street and had become a car park by 1969. So I must remove that image from the Genton article and hope that someone might find some earlier ones. I was too far down Washington Street, I'm afraid. Unfortunately their letterheads never gave a number, just Syren Works. And my apologies to PapaPedro for misleading him.

Maurice :cool:
 
The problem with the maps is that the earlier ones don't show names or numbers. The road opposite Ridley Street seems to be Upper Gough Street.
1938 map but no idea what is on that corner.
1618501558235.png
 
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Janice,

Ah, corner of Washington Street & Upper Gough Street - I thought that Ridley Street went straight across - my mistake!

I've taken the picture out of my code and substituted the 50's map, but now need to FTP the changes onto the site. They were certainly there in September 1929 because I have one of their invoices on my site with that address & date. Perhaps they knocked down little building just inside Upper Gough Street. Who knows?

Maurice :cool:
 
Hi PapaPedro,

Welcome to the Forum. Kelly's Directory has then as being their in 1933 and the business had ceased by the end of WW2. So I can't be 100% sure that those were the buildings that they actually occupied. I had a walk around there around 2000, but there was no evidence at that time of Genton's previous occupation or of who was the occupier at that time. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Maurice :)
No worries Maurice...thanks for your efforts.... Pete
 
I'm not sure which number house I lived at but it was a street facing house nearer the corner of Washington st and Upper Gough st and I'm pretty sure it was the smaller court size at the rear servicing just 4 houses not 8 which was the case in other parts of the street....
Also I remember a corner shop nearby that had big jars of sweets in the window...
The national trust have kept a few houses and shops on Hurst st so I will have a look around there next time I'm in Brum....
Thanks again for your help
 
No worries Maurice...thanks for your efforts.... Pete
There is this aerial view dated 1937 so not showing a bombsite. Ridley St runs diagonal from Granville St at the bottom up to Washington St running across the from Commercial St to Bath Row on the right.
Ridley St 1937.jpg
image source 'britainfromabove' click it to enlarge
 
This is a somewhat low res aerial view of the area dated 1945 and show some houses missing compared to the 1937 view in #14. Presumably they had been destroyed in ww2 bombing.
1945.jpg
 
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