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Small heath

Hi Michaela,

Welcome to you, I hope these are what you are looking for, the two black & white photos are St Annes School Alcester Street, which I suppose could be considered Digbeth or do you mean the school on Trinity Terrace Camp Hill. If you do I've also included an image of that. The two colour photos (4 & 5) are of the school in Dixon Rd
What wonderful photos of Dixon Road, I was there between 1953/54 & 1960, such great memories!
 
A 1922 image of the Coventry Road junction with Charles Road. There’s currently a ghost sign above the shop on the left - now we can read it. Viv.

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A 1922 image of the Coventry Road junction with Charles Road. There’s currently a ghost sign above the shop on the left - now we can read it. Viv.

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I lived just down from there from 1967 to 1972 in a flat above a shoe shop next door to the Gondola Milk bar. My Mom worked in the Gondola for a while and I had free access to the juke box, which made me very popular with my mates as music was our main interest. It was a spacious flat and it was great to watch life on the Coventry Road going by from our front windows. We were close to Small Heath Park where I spent a lot of time being chased by the Parky who didn't like us playing football on the grass. I bet there is no Park Keeper employed in Small Heath Park today!
 
No John, no parkies in the parks these days to keep an eye on things.
No flowers, no tea rooms, no boats on the boating lake, just the trees and grass survive which may be cut very occasionally. There's plenty of litter about because it never gets cleaned up. What benches and buildings that do survive are probably covered in graffiti, and boarded up. Rather pleasant places really.
Ah well thats progress.
How come all these amenities were better in the old days when as a percentage of your income your rates were cheaper than today.
My neighbour where I lived in the early 60s was a parkie at Small Heath park.
His name was Lou, cant remember his surname.
 
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I remember the vine really well as I walked by it every day to get to Somerville Road School, From Palace Road, on my own at 5 yrs old in the 50's. Mom would use the old style telephone box there a lot and the first 3 letters were always VIC (victoria I think) I can't remember the numbers.
 
ahh the good old phone box pat...in those days it was that or good old fashioned letter writing to communicate with people...:D

lyn
 
Do you remember teachers Miss Hobday,Miss Hughes and Miss Robinson at Somerville Road school Pat? The head was Mr Cooper during my time.
Christine Clarke took me home on my first day in juniors. I believe that her friend Margaret Bromley lived in Palace Road though I may be mistaken.

Peter
 
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John

You have probably seen this photo of the Gondola Milk Bar before, because I must have posted it before somewhere on here.

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Thanks for this Phil. I have seen this picture on the site and saved it somewhere but haven't been able to find it. We lived above the John Britton shoe shop. There was a record shop just beside the vehicle entry a couple of shops down from the Gondola. I bought my very first LP there in June 1967- The Beatles Sgt Pepper. I still have it in pretty good nick. My wife has said that she will play
'When I'm Sixty Four' on my birthday tomorrow when I reach the grand old age of 64...
 
Spot on re the current condition of Small Heath Park. I took my grandson for a nostalgia trip back to Small Heath a few years ago. I hadn't been there for around thirty years. We walked through the park and it was a wasteland. I was saddened to see that the bowling greens had also disappeared. The very helpful green keeper there had taught my mate and me to play bowls around 1968. After that we would often have a game there, sometimes just the two of us and also sometimes with some of the old boys who went to the Sons of Rest cabin opposite.
 
yes vic was for victoria you may remember victoria wines was on corner of victoria street and green lane opposite the vine
 
The phone box outside The Vine.... remember it well ! ButtonA and ButtonB system ...4d to make a call ... Also remember the 'outdoor' when it was privately owned... not Victoria Wines (corner of Victoria Street and Green Lane), Breezes sweet shop next door and Barnsley's/Ward's newsagents. After the three shops there was a bombed site... where we used to play.
 
From the 1949 Kellys:
Stephens R. G. Ltd. wine & spirit mers. 101 High st. King's Heath 14 (Highbury 1211); 793 Stratford rd.Sparkhill 11. Springfield 1419
The same in 1956
 
Do you remember teachers Miss Hobday,Miss Hughes and Miss Robinson at Somerville Road school Pat? The head was Mr Cooper during my time.
Christine Clarke took me home on my first day in juniors. I believe that her friend Margaret Bromley lived in Palace Road though I may be mistaken.

Peter
Hello, sorry I've only just seen your post. I don't remember the teacher's names. I only remember another student, Olive Horn as her mom looked after me after school and used to cook lovely dinners & puddings, if I remember right I would go there for lunch too. It was the junior school then, during the 50's. I will ask my sister if she knew a Margaret Bromley, as I was the youngest of 4 children, who had to look after me too as both mom & dad worked, and if I was hanging about with them and their friends, had to stay at home on my own.
 
A 1922 image of the Coventry Road junction with Charles Road. There’s currently a ghost sign above the shop on the left - now we can read it. Viv.

View attachment 127474
My mother (Dorothy Goldsby born 1905) said she worked at that drapery shop on the corner of Charles Road. It was a similar shop well into the 1950's. She then went to work in the Yardage Department of Lewis's, left there in the mid 30's but returned for a few years just after the war.
 
Volunteers working on a former 2 acre bomb site in Oakley Road to make a miniature park. Work was expected to take 2 months. Viv.AA940AC7-F198-4C9A-B515-67C08C855F1B.jpeg
 
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