historicaldennis
knowlegable brummie
Hello to you all, and today is my first day with you, and its the history of Temple Row I would like help with.
As you are aware, Temple Row is mainly the office area of Birmingham, with a few shops, but did you know that people actually lived in Temple Row ?
There are very few left now, as the only way you could live there is if you were or are caretakers of the office blocks.
My family, grandparents, lived at 55 Temple Row, looking after Temple Court, which saddly has long disappeared, pulled down to allow the building of the Pallasades.
They moved in to Temple Court in 1949, and had the penthouse right at the top of the building, overlooking St Philips cathedral, and for us grandchildren of William and Olwen Williams, no better or more exciting place to live could be found, an old building, full of character, and hidden away staircases and office facilities, and we loved it.
When my grandfather died in 1956, my father, James Mckenzie Gunn moved in as the caretaker, and we loved it even more, especially as we grew older and into our late teens.
I want to enlarge this post with you at a later date, but just giving you our history at the moment, of just one of the families that lived in Temple Row.
A bit of trouble though explaining to people who asked me where do I live, and I had to give the answer, "Back of Rackhams" but always taken with a laugh. But I'll tell you something, in all the years we were involved in looking after office blocks in Temple Row, I never actually met any young ladies who were using back of Rackhams for their trade, hard to believe isn't it ?
We stayed in Temple Court just a few more years after my father became caretaker, because we moved next door in the early 60's to become caretakers of Union Chambers, which was on the other corner of Needless alley from Temple Court. Can you remember the bridge that crossed needless alley at the cathedral end, well that carried us across from Temple Court into Union Chambers.
I will put a photo on when I can to remind you what Union Chambers looks like, as it still remains a valuable office location in Temple Row.
My father was caretaker there for 17 years, before he passed away with a sudden heartattack in 1971,
and I, Dennis Mckenzie Gunn then became the caretaker for another 18 years before being made redundant in 1989, and lost my home. My wife Veronica and 2 children had a wonderful life in Union Chambers, and it broke our hearts when we had to leave home, but we then moved to Cornwall to where my wife had been brought up, so for 21 years we have enjoyed our life here.
Now to business. Although we lived here as a generation of families for 40 years, I have so little photos to remind me of home, so can any of you help me please with any photos you know of about Temple Row, and I would so love one of Temple Court itself, I do not even have one to remind me of our life there.
As a clue, the door next to 55, was the Conservative club, so do you know of any photos for the club, as we looked after that as well, as part of our job as caretaker. Your help would be so gratefully accepted.
Well, thats my introduction of myself to you, and I hope as the weeks go by that we can make this project of Temple Row really come to life as I go through a few more memories with you, and you remind me of what you remember about our Row.
Looking forward to hearing from you, and thank you for your time in reading my introduction.
As you are aware, Temple Row is mainly the office area of Birmingham, with a few shops, but did you know that people actually lived in Temple Row ?
There are very few left now, as the only way you could live there is if you were or are caretakers of the office blocks.
My family, grandparents, lived at 55 Temple Row, looking after Temple Court, which saddly has long disappeared, pulled down to allow the building of the Pallasades.
They moved in to Temple Court in 1949, and had the penthouse right at the top of the building, overlooking St Philips cathedral, and for us grandchildren of William and Olwen Williams, no better or more exciting place to live could be found, an old building, full of character, and hidden away staircases and office facilities, and we loved it.
When my grandfather died in 1956, my father, James Mckenzie Gunn moved in as the caretaker, and we loved it even more, especially as we grew older and into our late teens.
I want to enlarge this post with you at a later date, but just giving you our history at the moment, of just one of the families that lived in Temple Row.
A bit of trouble though explaining to people who asked me where do I live, and I had to give the answer, "Back of Rackhams" but always taken with a laugh. But I'll tell you something, in all the years we were involved in looking after office blocks in Temple Row, I never actually met any young ladies who were using back of Rackhams for their trade, hard to believe isn't it ?
We stayed in Temple Court just a few more years after my father became caretaker, because we moved next door in the early 60's to become caretakers of Union Chambers, which was on the other corner of Needless alley from Temple Court. Can you remember the bridge that crossed needless alley at the cathedral end, well that carried us across from Temple Court into Union Chambers.
I will put a photo on when I can to remind you what Union Chambers looks like, as it still remains a valuable office location in Temple Row.
My father was caretaker there for 17 years, before he passed away with a sudden heartattack in 1971,
and I, Dennis Mckenzie Gunn then became the caretaker for another 18 years before being made redundant in 1989, and lost my home. My wife Veronica and 2 children had a wonderful life in Union Chambers, and it broke our hearts when we had to leave home, but we then moved to Cornwall to where my wife had been brought up, so for 21 years we have enjoyed our life here.
Now to business. Although we lived here as a generation of families for 40 years, I have so little photos to remind me of home, so can any of you help me please with any photos you know of about Temple Row, and I would so love one of Temple Court itself, I do not even have one to remind me of our life there.
As a clue, the door next to 55, was the Conservative club, so do you know of any photos for the club, as we looked after that as well, as part of our job as caretaker. Your help would be so gratefully accepted.
Well, thats my introduction of myself to you, and I hope as the weeks go by that we can make this project of Temple Row really come to life as I go through a few more memories with you, and you remind me of what you remember about our Row.
Looking forward to hearing from you, and thank you for your time in reading my introduction.