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Then & Now

As I said before the statue won't come back until after the new Symphony Hall foyer is completed.

Centenary Square at the weekend when the Big Wheel was taken down.

I remember Prince charles making a comment about the old bullring shopping center, say it was like a concrete jungle. The whole of the new birmingham center is much more like a concrete jungle. I much prefer the old birmingham as it was, with all it character & history (unlike the buildings of today).
 
Michael you'd be glad to know all the concrete has gone. Well from the Chamberlain Square area any way. The new buildings are much better, opening up the view to the Big Brum clock tower, which was hidden behind Madin's library for decades.

The City is going Forward, attracting more people from all over the world.

Yes Mr Wicks pressed the "like" button a lot of times.
 
Is something stuck in the software, I'm notified that michaelwick #54 has hit the appreciate button for my post in this thread 20 times.
Hello Eric. I did not realise I had hit the appreciate button that my times. I am having a few problems with my computer at the moment where if I click appreciate, it is not showing up, though I have had lots of posts to catch up on from october time onwards. It does not help as I am having problems with my eyesight too.
 
Hello Eric. I did not realise I had hit the appreciate button that my times. I am having a few problems with my computer at the moment where if I click appreciate, it is not showing up, though I have had lots of posts to catch up on from october time onwards. It does not help as I am having problems with my eyesight too.

I thought wow its great to be appreciated :laughing:
 
'Wires in the sky' outside the entrance to the Arthur Street tram depot on the Coventry Road in 1948.
View attachment 139930

The wires have gone but the old roof ladder is still there and the depot sells tyres.
View attachment 139931
I worked at Coventry Rd Garage as a conductor then driver 1969-1973. When I first came out driving, the buses used to exit via that Coventry Rd gateway. It was always a risk that someone would come tearing round the bend and collide with you. That's probably the reason we changed to coming out of the back into Arthur St around 1971.
 
I have been a member of BHL for just over a year now. For me the site is awkward to navigate round and as always photos are a pain. Mostly the experience has been enjoyable but sometimes it has made me remember past times and tears have been very close. Possbly my favourite part of BHL is Then and Now.

The photos are often wonderful but the comments are some times odd. Those that seem to yearn for the past. I have just been reading a book my father bought, Birmingham – Fifty Years On by Paul S. Cadbury. Basically it compares the Birmingham of 1952 with the past and dicusses possible plans for the future. I was 16 in 1952 so the photos of then still resonate with me. In 1952 both the buildings and the people look dull and shabby. There was a feeling that things ought to be better. Change was what was wanted. So if you were alive in 1952, Birmingham now is, to some extent, what you expected it to be.

Below are some photos from the book. They are all, effectively, Then and Now. Only some times the Now is 1952 and the Then is 2002. Those proposed tunnels are interesting. There would have been no need to ban through traffic.

5202Aa.jpg5202Bb.jpg5202Cc.jpg5202Dd.jpg5202Ee.jpg5202Ff .jpg5202Gg.jpg5202Hh.jpg5202Ii.jpg5202Jj.jpg5202Kk.jpg5202Ll.jpg
 
A friend of mine, who is a Blue Badge Guide put on a talk in 2002 using the examples in that book. It was quite interesting making a comparison as to what was then and how it would be now (2002).

The 1952 book certainly predicts the demolition of several buildings to give the city a futuristic space age look. Did I also recall that there were quite a few, over one hundred road deaths involving children? The prediction was that this would rise, but in fact it has fallen dramatically.
 
I have been a member of BHL for just over a year now. For me the site is awkward to navigate round and as always photos are a pain. Mostly the experience has been enjoyable but sometimes it has made me remember past times and tears have been very close. Possbly my favourite part of BHL is Then and Now.

The photos are often wonderful but the comments are some times odd. Those that seem to yearn for the past. I have just been reading a book my father bought, Birmingham – Fifty Years On by Paul S. Cadbury. Basically it compares the Birmingham of 1952 with the past and dicusses possible plans for the future. I was 16 in 1952 so the photos of then still resonate with me. In 1952 both the buildings and the people look dull and shabby. There was a feeling that things ought to be better. Change was what was wanted. So if you were alive in 1952, Birmingham now is, to some extent, what you expected it to be.

Below are some photos from the book. They are all, effectively, Then and Now. Only some times the Now is 1952 and the Then is 2002. Those proposed tunnels are interesting. There would have been no need to ban through traffic.

View attachment 141069View attachment 141070View attachment 141071View attachment 141072View attachment 141073View attachment 141074View attachment 141075View attachment 141076View attachment 141081View attachment 141078View attachment 141079View attachment 141080
We are all entitled to our opinions and if people do yearn for the past I think a lot of that is because loved ones that were in their lives at that time are no longer with us. That is the case with me anyway.
I really don't agree with you that people alive in 1952 would have expected it to be like it is today. For the most part Birmingham is almost unrecognisable from those days, and in my humble opinion not in a good way.
 
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