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Subways

philbee

birmingham born and bred
hi all
just finished watching the grand prix (good result for lewis and jenson) but what i want to know is does anyone remember the carpark entrance that you used to use coming up digbeth and went under ground to the car park on the right above the outrigger pub i ask this question after seeing the pit exit at abu dabi race circuit , used once or twice but not at the speeds they were exiting!
when was it last used ?
phil
 
hi all
just finished watching the grand prix (good result for lewis and jenson) but what i want to know is does anyone remember the carpark entrance that you used to use coming up digbeth and went under ground to the car park on the right above the outrigger pub i ask this question after seeing the pit exit at abu dabi race circuit , used once or twice but not at the speeds they were exiting!
when was it last used ?

It,s not there any more long gone when the new Bull Ring was rebuilt I have seen photos on this forum but they would be lost when we were hacked. Dek
 
I remember the car park well, I think you came out in Park St or Rd, where the pub was on the corner, don't know if its still there
 
Liz, that's right, but all looks very different now! Used to avoid using the subway as it was dark and there was usually a vagrant in there, harmless I'm sure but worrying for a young woman alone!
 
Good news, bad news, first the good news, Some where in my collection I have a photo of the road that led to the car park it is a shot of a Midland Red D9 on the X92 in the rain (early 1980,s) now for the bad new I cannot find the photo so will have another look, it may well be on a film wot I shot (sorry) the film was shot from the top of the car park in the snow, at one point I point the camera down towards Digbeth, to see the buses struggling to get past St Martins, I must try to see if I can find it, now where did I put my collection,


hi all
just finished watching the grand prix (good result for lewis and jenson) but what i want to know is does anyone remember the carpark entrance that you used to use coming up digbeth and went under ground to the car park on the right above the outrigger pub i ask this question after seeing the pit exit at abu dabi race circuit , used once or twice but not at the speeds they were exiting!
when was it last used ?
phil
 
I suspect that the entrance to the old car park is not that far from the new entrance to the (new) car park, I must try to find the footage shot from the same spot at the top of the car park, the3 down side is that the quality is not that great
 
Most City Centre subways of the 1960s have been filled in. These became a necessary part of the Ring Road system. But they weren't just pedestrian subways like those in the suburbs. The City Centre ones had shops, seating and wall murals. They weren't just a place to access different sides of the road. Now these have almost all disappeared. Viv.
image.jpeg
Smallbrook Queensway

image.jpeg
Subway below Rotunda at New Street and High Street junction.

image.jpeg
Colmore Circus.

Viv.
 
There was an escalator down to the one in the second picture but it didn't work very well.
I seem remember watching the Investiture of Prince Charles on a television in a shop window in that subway!!
It was a handy way to reach the Bull Ring. My friend's mother used to work in the tiny little shoe shop which is just behind the Queen.
rosie.
 
cant be certain but i seem to recall a pub under the colmore subway called the brown derby or something like that...could be my memory playing up though lol

lyn
 
no its not your memory lynn, but bang on yet again,as always
i only went there three times to meet some one, I personaly found it vert sparce inside
it was most certainly not my cup of tea thou
 
of the escalator up to New Street that was previously mentioned and yes it did spend a lot of the time broken down, but didn't I read it was one of the first to be used outside?
 

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When this subway under Smallbrook Ringway on Hurst St / Hill St was built at that time it must have been one of the biggest in Birmingham.
 

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I remember the Colmore Circus subway very well and passed this mosaic every day when I worked in Steelhouse Lane. But I never worked out that it was a tribute to Boulton, Watt and Murdoch. Image from the Shoothill site. Viv.

image.jpeg
 
Don't know the official title of these two subways, but I think maybe the first is "Smallbrook" perhaps? image.jpegimage.jpeg
 
I do wonder if one of the reasons the subways have been filled in is that, unless they are in a busy area they tend to become run down and dirty and not particularly welcoming to walk through. If I remember rightly, this is what happened to some of them - I would have rather risked crossing the road than going through at night!
 
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