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Snow Hill (the Road)

I used the Jungle occasionally as someone I worked with at Butchers Transfer Printers worked there of an evening. One of the first places I saw a suspended ceiling used if I recall correctly.

Now help me out here as I may be mistaken but were there shops that went off along short alleys between the shops below the Jungle Coffee Bar? I recall one selling books and another selling Mushy Peas and ?
 
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sospiri said:
OuterCircleBus:

I seem to recollect that there was also a government surplus radio components shop down there (similar to Hurst Street).

Maurice
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Hi Maurice
I notice there is a radio/television shop in Phil's pic in this post
index.php

ps. I notice the words 'Welcome Hotel' on the building, wonder if that was a previous use of those premises ?
 
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The Welcome Hotel doesn't look that welcoming:uncomfortableness:, hopefully it was just a ghost sign.
 
oldMohawk:

Since Norman H. Field was in Hurst street, a few doors above Matthews, I presume they moved to Snow Hill. I can't imagine them having both shops open at the same time. As to its use as a hotel, I guess that stretch of Snow Hill looked very different before the war. I wish my memory was a bit better!

Maurice
 
OuterCircleBus said:
I’m looking for anyone with recollections or photographs of Snow Hill (the street) before it was swept away in 1962.
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Sorry about drifting off your topic somewhat, but when you ask for recollections, all sorts of memories pop up from the corners of our minds !....:friendly_wink:
 
Maurice - thanks for your post #3 (you were quick off the mark!). I've found this photo of the Jungle Cafe which appears to be no 18 (the numbering in Snow Hill ran down from Steelhouse Lane to the northern end then back up the other side, rather than odds on one side and evens on the other). This photo seems to be from later in the 1950s but I don't have a precise date. If you can unearth yours that would be great. The Jungle isn't listed in the 1956 Kellys.

Snow Hill Jungle Cafe 1950s.jpg
 
Ell - thanks for your photo - yes that was the line of the original Snow Hill (in fact I took an almost identical photo last weekend). The footprint of the current Snow Hill station is virtually identical to the original although the platforms are further north under the car park on the left in your photo. If you venture across the grass onto the white concrete "kerb" you can look down the gap between the kerb and the "living wall" and see the present tram tracks. You will also see embedded in the kerb the bolts that will hold the overhead line equipment for the metro trams.
I have attached a photo that was taken from a similar spot as yours in 1963 after all the premises in Snow Hill had been demolished, but the station is still there. By 1966 Snow Hill Queensway had been opened and the old road and the land to the east had been made into an open air car park. It was like that until work started on the new buildings after 2000.
There were originally three buildings planned for that site and work started on all of them. The central core for the third one is now being demolished, the developers plan to put a garden there.

Snow Hill - 21st December 1966 v2.jpg20131026 Three Snow Hill central core being demolished - IMG_2807.jpg
 
Sadly not a photo of snow hill in the 1950,s but is a birds eye view of Snow Hill in the early 1980,s https://www.flickr.com/photos/dofartshavelumps/8423825980/in/set-72157632632841664 and about the same time https://www.flickr.com/photos/dofartshavelumps/8423825980/in/set-72157632632841664

OuterCircleBus said:
I’m looking for anyone with recollections or photographs of Snow Hill (the street) before it was swept away in 1962. Like many streets in Brum, Snow Hill has totally vanished except for a short stretch at the northern end called Old Snow Hill. But once upon a time it has a life of its own outside of the station. Look at any old map of Brum and you’ll see that it was the main thoroughfare connecting the town centre to Handsworth and the north west. As time went on it became a major tram & bus route and was a commercial centre in its own right, bordering the “Gun Quarter”. It gave its name to the magnificent GWR station and even had its own theatre.
Why am I interested? My father had his bookbinding business in no 99 Snow Hill until the building was swept away for Great Charles Street to be widened and as a child I would catch the bus into town, get off at Greys and walk down the hill (looking in on the station) to meet him there & earn a few pence clearing up before we went home.
I’m looking for anyone who has memories of the businesses that lined the east side of Snow Hill between WW2 and 1962.
It is nice to know that the original line of Snow Hill is now between the two office blocks One Snow Hill & Two Snow Hill and the wall of Snow Hill Station. At the moment it is grassed over, but in 2014 metro trams will once again run up the line of Snow Hill. Historically Snow Hill saw steam trams, cable trams and electric trams running out to Handsworth.
I have established a website/blog where I plan to present my findings on the subject of Snow Hill: www.snowhillbirmingham.info take a look!
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Maurice - just found a picture of Snow Hill looking north from the Great Western Hotel in 1959 - it shows the Wimpy in all its glory! I think that the Jungle is where the canopies are pulled out over the footpath to the left of the lamp post.
DAVID

Snow Hill looking north from Great Western Hotel 1959 v4.jpg
 
Horsencart - thanks for the 1980s photo - it just goes to show what devastation a bit of demolition can cause. You can clearly see the original Snow Hill with the parking meters still there and the site of the new office blocks being used as a car park. The station was a car park too. It was almost as if they thought knocking everything down was a good idea - but then not knowing what to do with it!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dofarts...57632632841664
 
one of my favourites...looking up snow hill from constitution hill....the pub on the left would be the salutation corner of summer lane/constitution hill

lyn

 
OuterCircleBus:

I'll do my best to find the Jungle pic, but I've changed machines four times since I last set eyes on it and the original printed copy is packed away somewhere. It was on BHF until the site got hacked.

EDIT:

Found it, but I did say it was only the shopfront and I should have said shop fascia as there's not a lot of it. The word JUNGLE was in white perspex surmounted by shocking pink neon, and the white has tended to overexpose. It was done on an old Agfa Isola 2 1/4 square. But the ambience of the era with "Drainpipes" is there.

jungle.jpg

Maurice
 
It's never once occurred to me that alongside Snow Hill station (on Snow Hill) there were once shops. The first photo in post #20 shows them just to the right of the man walking down Snow Hill.

I've a relation who was a blacksmith and shoeing smith on Snow Hill (also on the Wharf and/or the Bridge at the bottom of Snow Hill). So any early photos would be of special interest if anyone has any.

Like this thread title, as we naturally tend to get into 'railway' mode whenever Snow Hill is mentioned. Be good to be able to closer explore the shops, residencies etc along there. And on both sides of the road. Was Snow Hill always such a wide road for example? Viv.
 
HI maurice and viv
i was wondering wheter of you got any early picyures of the shop along the front of the old snow hill station ;
before 1959 possibly 1957-8 where i am sure all the busses use to stop just short of the old railway station and they was small shops
and one was a watch and jewelers shop and there used to a cafe always steamed up windows all day long
because that belong to our family it was afew yards from the old entrance to the snow hill station
anmd when i met my long lost cousin last week we both discussed the shop when we came out of the costa coffee shop ; we discussed it and tryed to judge the distance from and between the station entrance my cousin never seen the shop but i did when i was growing up
and i do beleive from memory of mind now i come to think of it that property had an alteration to the frontage and i do beleive in the period mentionioned by your good selves honestly belive it was called the jungle i can only presume that the name was thought up because of the masses of people queing up to get on those west brom buses and to hockley to get to and from homes and i am prettty sure i recall seeing that name
after it was sold and changed name it was a smaller front coffee shop at at one point owned by one of the jelfs it would have been arther or george ;
it would be great if any body got the picture of that year or even early would be great best wishes Astonian;;; Alan;
 
Hi Alan,

I'm old enough, but in those days I took very few photographs. In fact I don't know what made me take a picture of the Jungle - I wasn't in the habit of carrying a camera with me. So sorry, I can't help.

Maurice
 
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This is the only picture I have of Snow Hill 1964. I did post it before, but it got lost so this is a good place as any to repost it.

Terry

snow hill 1964.jpg
 
"The Jungle" coffee bar was owned by Len Diamond,a mens outfitter...He turned the front section of the shop and the cellar into a coffee bar around 1957,but retained the rear half of the shop as a trendy mens tailoring department.
 
They demolished the Snow Hill shops ready for the scene in Terrys picture in post #31.
24__Snow_hill_road2C_side_of__station.jpg

Picture from the image host
 
I'm afraid these "built for traffic not people" arrangements such as happened here make me despair. Office blocks that are completely lifeless after 5:30pm and at the weekend. Contrast the picture in #30 with that in #31. The centre of Manchester went the same way, but this is just me having a rant! :)

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
I'm afraid these "built for traffic not people" arrangements such as happened here make me despair. Office blocks that are completely lifeless after 5:30pm and at the weekend. Contrast the picture in #30 with that in #31. The centre of Manchester went the same way, but this is just me having a rant! :)

Maurice
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Snow Hill looks like this now except the larger skyscrapers have been ditched because of the recession..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjp4wlR6kyk
 
Horsencart - thanks for the 1980s photo - it just goes to show what devastation a bit of demolition can cause. You can clearly see the original Snow Hill with the parking meters still there and the site of the new office blocks being used as a car park. The station was a car park too. It was almost as if they thought knocking everything down was a good idea - but then not knowing what to do with it!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dofarts...57632632841664
 
Viv - there were just four "shops" under Snow Hill station in the picture in #20 but they were specialist engineering companies. In the 1956 Kellys they were listed as:
116 - The Tool Production & Design Company
117/8 - The Birmingham Power Transmissions Limited
120 - Reid Watt Limited - Motor Accessories
Lower down the hill next to the shops was the entrance to the railway parcels depot
Most of the shops of course were on the other side of the road and in the photo in #20 they'd already been demolished.
In this photo taken in 1974 you can see the shops (boarded up) the entrance to the parcels depot (disused) then to the right of the photo is the corner of Great Charles Street. By the time this photo was taken they'd already started building St Chads Circus and you can just make out the white wall around the new roadway.
As well as the sadness of the disused station awaiting demolition, in the roadway is a stark automotive contrast. An MG YA saloon, they were built between 1947 & 1953 and a Ford Zodiac (or maybe a Zephyr) Mark IV, these were made between 1966 & 1972. The MG was probably one of the last British cars made with running boards and the Zephyr/Zodiac was cutting edge with its V4 or V6 engine.

Snow Hill Station 1974.jpg
 
HI MAURICE
I AM BEGINING TO THINK THE LITTLE TEA CAFE WAS ALONG THE BOTOM END OF COLMORE ROW AS YOU REACHED THETOP OF SNOW HILL
THE PICTURES I AM LOKING AT FROM MEMBERS SHOWING TO ME AS THE SIDE ENTRACE WHICH TOOK YOU DOWN TO CONSTITUTION
IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE OLD RD THAT COMES UP FROM THE NEW ENTRANCE OF SNOW HILL AND THINKING ABOUT IT ABIT MORE I BELEIVE THE ORINIONAL KARDOMA CAFE WAS ACROSS THE RD FROM THERE WHICH WHERE ALL THOSE LITTLE SHOPS WAS AND A COUPLE OF DOORS AWAY WAS DEFINATELY THE LITTLE CAFE THAT ARTHER HAD FOR MANY YEARS POSSIBLE UP TO THE LATE FORTYS WE KNOW THAT MY COUSIN AND I ARE CORRECT OF THE OLD DAY OF WHEN IT WAS WHAT WE TERMED AS SNOW HILL ENTRANCE ON THE COLMORE RD END BECAUSE YOU WOULD WALK INTO IT AND COME OUT ONTHOSE ENTRYS OF THE CAR PARK FOR TAXIS FOR SOME REASON I THINK THAT RD COMING UP WAS POSIBLE LIVERY STREET AND I BELEIVE THERE WAS A BIG TOBACONIST ON THE CORNER AS YOU ARE WALKING BACK TO AND ALONG ONTO COLMORE RD AS IF YOU ARE HEADING TOWARDS THE COUNCL HOUSE WE BOTH KNOW THAT THERE FATHER HAD ONE RESTURANT IN THE OLD GREATBURLINTON ARCADE WHICH WAS VERY CLOSE TO WHERE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT
BEST WISHES Astonian;;;;;;
 
Good morning Alan:

My mind is getting a bit hazy about those times now! I did leave Birmingham in 1961 and didn't really visit the city again until the late 1980s. But I think you're right about the tobacconist on the corner of Livery Street and Colmore Row - wasn't it one of the Bewlays chain with a window full of pipes? Long since gone and I see that the book about the Company is now out of print.

Maurice
 
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