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Stratford Road

Main part of pub building still the same but extension on side and, of course, now a car park as well. Junction very different.
Pic from google street view 2009 (less cars in shot). Maps of the junction - 1904, 1937 and today. Cinema has also gone (was the Robin Hood) now Waitrose supermarket.
 

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It was like this on the Stratford Road during the snow of December 2017. Hardly any cars! (it's not usually like this).

 
I was never in the Robin Hood cinema, but I did go once to the Rialto to see The Wizard of Oz. A friends father took us, in his big Wolseley car, to see it.
I went to the Odeon in Shirley more often: it was the nearest one and no one seemed to object to walking distances in those times. I am sure this could apply to most parts of large towns and cities throughout the UK but when you think back from Shirley to Hall Green railway station along the Stratford Road there were three good cinemas - none classed as flea pits. :D
The only old fashioned cinema, which I am sure was a flea pit, that I visited, was in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. It was called the Alhambra - many cinemas seemed to have, what at the time, seemed exotic names. The comedy film, the Smallest Show on Earth always reminds me of the place. Also the railway station scenes are set in the Potteries - kilns in view.
smallest_show_on_earth_xlg-324x490.jpg
 
The Robin Hood was on a corner so the entrance was across the corner and reached by a set of curved steps.
 
I went in the Robin Hood Cinema a few times, but more often the Rialto, Very often we used to catch the Midland Red to Monkspath, which was all open country in the 1940s, and take picnics and pick blackberries no more than a 150 yards from the bus stop. When I last drove that way, bout five years ago, it all seemed built up, and the aforementioned cinemas had also gone. I prefer to remember it as it was, as do most of us, I guess.

Maurice
 
Happy memories of the Robin Hood cinema. When I was about 6 or 7 my auntie was working there as an usherette. I was taken there a few times by her brother, my uncle, who was only a few years older than I was. Not only did we manage to get in for nothing but at the interval we got a free ice cream as well.:)
 
So it was you who picked all the blackberries, Maurice. One of my earliest memories is taking the Midland Red from Hall Green Parade with my parents to go to Monkspath to pick blackberries. This would be in the late forties. I think we alighted at Dog Kennel Lane. Completely built up now. Dave.
 
Dave,

Dog Kennel Lane rings a bell and we caught the bus from the College Arms as we lived in Knowle Road at that time. I have to say that when you're driving, you can't take your eyes off the road for more than half a second these days, and everything has changed so much that I couldn't be certain of the exact stop when I last drove past. But it was a very pleasant area out there in those days and blackberries were plentiful! :)

Maurice
 
Most of the lanes on the right hand side Dog Kennel Lane and the next one up - Creynolds Lane (with The Mount a collection of, what my Mother always called, shanty houses - cabin type temporary houses which stayed for longer than intended) were "country" and would have contained brambles. As would Hay Lane on the left.
 
Janice,

We always went off to the left after getting off the bus, which was largely grass with bushes and a few trees. I also remember climbing over a style at some point. As I was between 7 and 10 years old at that point and had no knowledge of, or interest in, maps until I went to MGS, it was just a case of following my parents - they knew the way!

Maurice
 
If it was not far out of Shirley then it was possibly Hay Lane or if nearer to Hockley Heath there is Gate Lane (just past where the M42 is now). That is from my memory as i haven't looked at maps. I think Midlands Red buses went as far as H Heath then you needed a Stratford Blue - again my memory might be wrong.
 
These days you can get the X20 to Stratford-upon-Avon via Henley-in-Arden, but I think they will change the route and it will only go as far as Shirley in future (meaning you would have to get the 6 to Birmingham from NXWM).

 
Years ago (about 50 :() - I have just remembered the 150 went from Birmingham to Stratford and the 154 went from Birmingham to Solihull. I think I was wrong about the Midlands Red stopping at H Heath.
Actually now I think about it nearer to 60 years ago!!!!
 
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At the time you are mentioning, Janice and Maurice, Midland Red ran to Stratford-upon-Avon. During the 1950's, Stratford Blue (a subsidiary of Midland Red) assisted the 150 service due staff shortages.
 
There was a 164?, I believe which went to Hockley Heath but it ran along a different route than the Stratford Road. There was the lovely 179 which went via Shirley to Earlswood. Not too far from Hockley Heath. However, most of my journeys around that area were on a bicycle.
 
Yes, I believe the Midland Red went as far as Stratford, but that was a place i didn't visit until 1953. Earlswood was always a train journey. I can remember The Barn at Hockley Heath where Graham Dalley used to play and I know he was only 43 when he died, long after I moved south. About halfway down this page:- https://www.mscrete.com/photos03.htm

Maurice
 
pjmburns said:
Thanks Alan - I knew you would know. My excuse is I was only about 7 in the 50s.
Click to expand...
The Stratford Blue buses, from memory ran one in each hour. The Midland Red were more frequent. I would wait for a Blue as it was different - a different sound, colour and internal furnishings. Not only that, I have the impression - although it is a long time ago - that the conductor spoke with a Warwickshire accent rather than a Brummie one. ;)
 
The cinemas that I visited on the Stratford Road were the Rialto, Robin Hood, Piccadilly and the Springfield; frequency in that order. The Rialto was the closest and most popular for me. The Springfield was fairly close but always seemed to have films on Old Mother Riley. I have just looked at my 1958 diary and find that I watched at the Rialto: "Hellcats of the Navy" starring Ronald Reagan; "Dunkirk" with John Mills and Richard Attenborough; and "6-5 Special" with Lonnie Donegan and Dickie Valentine. At the Piccadilly I saw the comedy "The Naked Truth" with Terry Thomas and Peter Sellers. I saw one film that year at the Robin Hood, which was "Merry Andrew", completely forgettable and starring Danny Kaye. Dave.
 
Dave,

We moved to Kings Heath in 1950, so during my time there, the Springfield, whose back door was two yards from our back gate, either stored sugar for the Ministry of Food, or was empty and occasionally used as a roller skating rink by some of my neighbours. Danny Kaye wasn't my cup of tea either, but I've seen the rest, either at a cinema or more recently on YouTube!

Maurice :)
 
Of the cinemas I mentioned in an earlier post the Odeon, Shirley was a good walk or cycle ride (knew people nearby where I could safely leave my bicycle), the Rialto and others would mean a bus ride. Cinema visits were not a very frequent event, actually, apart from a number of occasions when I went to the Saturday Odeon Club, but they were rare. I much preferred the reality of street and city life. I recall only two cinema visits in the city centre, one a murder film at the Odeon, New Street, which I hated and have lingering memories of it even after some nearly seventy years, the other a more delightful one about Robin Hood at the Gaumont, Steelhouse Lane. An aunt, on holiday from the Potteries, took me and her daughter there where it was being screened. On exiting the tramcars caught my interest; however aunt was not in any mood for a tram ride - even to the delights of far flung places such as as Erdington, Pype Hayes or Short Heath. :(
 
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I also wrote in my diary on 4th August 1958 that the 46 bus route is now discontinued. This ran from the Hall Green terminus, along the Stratford Road, to Station Street. I seem to remember that the 46 bus had older rolling stock than the more frequently used 37 which went from Hall Green to Albert Street. Dave.
 
In BCT days the 37 to Hall Green (city boundary from Albert Street) was the principal, well used, route. The 38 from Station Street was less frequent as most passengers seemed to want the city centre rather than the Markets area. This also applied to the 46 from Albert Street and 47 from Station Street to Fox Hollies Road which were rush periods only. As they were rush periods buses they were, as observed by Farmerdave, the older buses which did not have to achieve the daily mileages of the newer fleet.
It was always a fascinating thing, for me, to look into Highgate Road - and one or two other depots - during the daytime and see the older, more interesting, in some cases, vehicles ready and waiting for their turn with the rush hour passengers.
 
Stratford Road at the border of Sparkbrook and Sparkhill, on the right is the original Piccadilly Cinema which was replaced in 1930 by a new building. The new building remains today as a banqueting suite.

Sparkhill Stratford Rd Picadilly Cinema.jpg
 
Phil,

I think I went in the Piccadilly just twice, as it meant a bus ride from Knowle Road, whereas I could walk up the hill to the Rialto and if something was really worth seeing, I could walk to the Robin Hood!

Maurice
 
Comparing the photos by Phil, posts 176 and 179, it is noticeable that the roadway in post 176 ( after 1930) looks far cleaner than in the older photo (179) which is pre WW1. I can only assume that there were a few less horses and more motor vehicles which might account for this. :eek:
Three shops seem to have gone to make way for the Piccadilly Cinema, the shop next to the bank looks like it might still have its original sun blind and there is a sign with BOWENS? in the later photo. I am sure we will get to know a little more about Bowens in this thread; I assume it was their shop where the sign was.
Steam trams began running along Stratford Road in 1885, later electric trams (private company) and finally Corporation from 1903/4. The Corporation rebuilt the line in 1906. Trams were obviously considered important in those far off days. Th city had opened its own power station at the end of 1906 and not often mentioned is the fact that motor buses, at that time had solid tyred wheels (lasting until around 1924) that caused a lot of damage to existing road surfaces. Apparently the City Engineer was not impressed. ;)
 
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