• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Street furniture

Does anyone know what this black object is on the kerb of Witton Island ?
I have seen one before in Erdington shown in post#469 but it was painted blue and was there in 2005
Witton Island thing.JPG
 
Looks like a camera of some sort to me. It must be something important as it has a ring of those spiky things to stop people climbing it. Looks like it's trained on the pub - perhaps it for those Villa supporters....
 
Hi Lady P, I can see the camera on the pole with the spiky things but I'm interested in the low black thing set into the kerb ... someone could trip over it !
oldmohawk ... :)
 
Sorry oldMohawk -should've known you would know what that was. The black thing seems to have letters on the front but I can't make them out. Perhaps it's to discourage drivers from driving over the kerb. It's usually every man (or woman) for himself round that island. Are there any more or is that a lone black thing?
 
There is something like it in Erdington and I could understand it being used to stop people driving over the kerb but regarding the Witton one I'm not so sure.
The Erdington 'thing' below
oldMohawk said:
That blue thing on the kerb puzzled Keith Berry when he took this photo in 2005. It is still there today and still looks blue. Surely these days, it should have a barrier round it to stop folks tripping over it as they walk along looking at their smartphones ...;)
index.php
Click to expand...
 
Diarectly opposite your Erdington thing is a hole-in-the-wall which is heavily used. There are double yellows on both sides (which drivers ignore) so it could be an anti-parking device. This corner is a nightmare as people park on the pavement on the other side, which is the entrance to the pedestrianised High Street. It's also the way down to the Co-op car park, the old swimming baths and it's outside the library. This is where lots of people cross too.
 
You could be right Lady P,
Google has just found me a 'Furnitube' ... but Witton Island seems a strange place to have one. Perhaps it is to stop large trucks from the nearby supermarket cutting the corner.
I wonder whether there are any more in Brum ?
oldmohawk
bellZ02.jpg
 
I think the ones at Witton (there are more than one) are an attempt to keep road vehicles from mounting the island. A clue to that might be the hatching from the roundabout kerbing out into the carriageway. Anyway that's my 2c.
The other one in Erdington does look a hazard from the photo, maybe that's why it is blue? I wonder if there was an upright marker with it originally?

PS: just seen the new post by Old Mohawk. I guess that one protects the lamp standard (if that is what it is).
 
Don't you Brummies have fun. Do you go out in groups 'strange object's spotting? Keep it up long enough and judging from statements in other forums, the council will come along and demolish them. Perhaps they are actually being photographed for a new book 101 things to with an old traffic cone. I have trainee plant and forklift drivers who kill at least three a week and seriously injure a dozen others. However enough levity just tell me what they are?
Bob
 
oldMohawk - I think the island at Witton is a horror. People are nudging around, trying to get in front and then along comes a bus, or two. As you say, huge delivery lorries are trying to negotiate their way to Tesco too. I also think that the lanes have been designated by someone with a warped sense of humour.
Going back to the one in Erdington - I wonder how long that's been there? If it's any length of time I can't believe that I haven't collided with it. I seem to do so with most things and, as you say, this is quite a hazard.
 
I guess you would only ever drive over one of those on one occasion. :eek: Any sensible driver would give them a wide berth in the future.
 
Yes, I do recall the dames the dust carts were doing to the kerbs and pavements on some of the housing estates when they cut the corner. I would assume that they are there to protect pedestrians too
 
Unusual item of street furniture on the corner of Navigation Street and Hill Street. It seems an elaborate structure to support a CCTV camera but it also appears to have ventilation grills as marked. Is it hollow and needs ventilation ?
Image1.jpg
A screenshot of the corner shown below (linked from another forum post)
index.php
 
oldMohawk said:
Unusual item of street furniture on the corner of Navigation Street and Hill Street. It seems an elaborate structure to support a CCTV camera but it also appears to have ventilation grills as marked. Is it hollow and needs ventilation ?
View attachment 120469
A screenshot of the corner shown below (linked from another forum post)
index.php
Click to expand...
and NASA said there was no lifr on Mars after all.

Bob
 
A curious item; Google street did not allow enough magnification to read the sign on it. There are a couple of other interesting items on the pavements close by. There is a square (concrete?) obelisk, appearing to be about 10ft. tall and a sculpture of a man upon it.
 
Radiorails said:
A curious item; Google street did not allow enough magnification to read the sign on it. There are a couple of other interesting items on the pavements close by. There is a square (concrete?) obelisk, appearing to be about 10ft. tall and a sculpture of a man upon it.
Click to expand...
The signs have arrows pointing to the 'Mailbox'. Perhaps the structure has electrical equipment inside connected to the camera which might be 'ANPR' monitoring the 20 mph speed limit. Google tells me that the concrete public art is a 'sculpture by Lea Grandjean at the top of John Bright Street near the Orion Building' but does not say what it represents. It looks clean and tidy around there.
124659000_iOS.jpg
 
Stitcher posted this on the 'See Birmingham by Postcard' thread. Not only does it show a good range of street furniture in the 1960s, but at this time there was a plaque on the Five Ways island marking the site King Edwards School. Is the plaque still there ? Viv.

image.jpeg
 
8351-6183-MA.jpg

This, I gather, is the plaque but I cannot verify if it is still there. There is a blog on 2012 which states it was there then.
 
Not sure if this photo counts as street furniture but it was such a lovely old 'door within a door' that I took a picture this morning. Nearly got run over in the process as I was standing in the middle of Northwood Street and the boy-racers were out. Sorry it's sideways - I've just put some on another thread and they're upside down. Hoping someone can right it for me please?

image.jpeg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
nice photo pen...i love those old doors with the little doors in them...you really must be careful...you are doing what i have done many times..nearly getting run over..cant help it..i just aim the camera totally oblivious to whats going on around me:D
 
Thank you everyone. I'm going to try holding the phone up the other way although what to do about the sideways ones I don't know.

Lyn, I totally agree, must stop leaping in the road - we went to the Jewellery Qtr and you can tell Christmas is coming already. Parking is usually OK on a Sunday but not yesterday.
 
Hi Lady P. I don't use an iPhone, but if the camera works like that on an iPad, you need to have the phone in the position where the button (which brings up the screen) is at the bottom for portrait or the button is to the right if it's landscape. Not sure if this is clear, but hope it is. Viv.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top