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Then & Now

The Italian style tower behind the old crown in Deritend in the modern photo is not there in the 1903 photo oldMowhawk
I thought it was older than that, when was it built?
Otherwise building wise its much the same.
 
Phil said:
Standing in the Bull Ring looking down Spiceal Street from outside Woolworths, the times I have stood there taking in that view and not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined such a change in my lifetime.

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phil as i have said about many changes...dull...drab...and soleless now...they have ripped the heart out of brum now

lyn
 
Banjo said:
Looking up Snow Hill from Summer Lane junction late 50s.
View attachment 138068
Such a difference in 2019. Only the two buildings on the right, although modernised, still remain.
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hi banjo i posted that photo looking up snow hill many years ago and it still remains one of my all time favourites....so full of life....as for the now shot...looks like a ghost town as is much of the city centre...i often wonder what visitors now see in birmingham...

lyn
 
oldMohawk said:
The joys of moving to a newly built estate as shown at Clover Drive, Westfields Park Estate, Bartley Green, 1968.
View attachment 138131

And today the houses look much the same in these times of scrap iron men and white vans ... :)
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It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with the before picture ?.
No road ! of course I see that young mom shoving the pram through the mud and my heart went out to her.
She has done a days work just getting down the street that's not there, then the other thing no trees.

Then just to make us all feel better that little one in the pram could well be a grand parent today.
 
There were many un-made up roads during WW2. They were usual;y in new housing areas and not very high on the priority list - if on it. In fact I knew a road, that due to WW2 housing was halted and none built along it. Consequently even as late as the early 1950's it had no houses nor made up road.
 
I had a pal who made good use of those unfinished new builds, he bought the first one to come on the market, he and his wife then laid out the gardens and did a general tidy up of the area around then sold it on at a profit before doing the same again along the road.

After the third one he was mortgage free and in a rising market made a substantial profit on the next two.
 
On a rainy day in 1938 they are crossing High Street. Henrys shop behind them was on the corner of Martineau Street. Luftwaffe bombs demolished Henrys in WW2 and they traded from a temporary store built on the site. Henrys moved to a permanent building on the corner of Union Street c1957 and the temporary store was demolished in 1958.
Henrys1938.jpg

Martineau Street does not exist now but the old Henrys shop would be approximately where the Deichmann shop is in this image.
WhereHenrysWas.jpg
 
Robert Ensor (bob) said:
It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with the before picture ?.
No road ! of course I see that young mom shoving the pram through the mud and my heart went out to her.
She has done a days work just getting down the street that's not there, then the other thing no trees.

Then just to make us all feel better that little one in the pram could well be a grand parent today.
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That’s quite a funny quote bob.
 
Astoness said:
hi banjo i posted that photo looking up snow hill many years ago and it still remains one of my all time favourites....so full of life....as for the now shot...looks like a ghost town as is much of the city centre...i often wonder what visitors now see in birmingham...

lyn
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Hi Lyn, yes, I also find that many of the "now" photos seem desolate compared to the photos of familiar (almost cosy) looking places we knew in the 60s.
Barry
 
Radiorails said:
I recall the temporary Henrys place, it did look temporary.
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Henrys temporary store being demolished ...
Astoness said:
couple from the 50s...
high st/martinea st 1958 demolition of henrys to make way for littlewoods
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and the temporary store before demolition.
Phil said:
Two photos here one of Henry's store in the corner of Martineau St and High St and the other later store next to the tax offices in Union Street. I think there was another store on the High Street before the one in the photo, but it might have been in a slightly different location.
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Those very long timber ladders, the last I saw of a similar length were in Cambridge in the 1980's, had very stout strings (sides) which were far more sturdy than the extension ladders of recent times, hence their good rigidity. The fire services used, in the past, timber ladders with trussing to maintain stability.
 
Hi I know we have a very knowledgeable group of members when it comes to old buses ..So could I ask for information about the bus in picture# 1.101..What make ? is it running on pneumatic tyres.. years in service etc..etc Thanks.
 
Radiorails said:
Not really. I remember many of the unpleasant things that have happened in the past; it is simply that we try not to dwell upon them if we have of a positive outlook.
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I have very little recollection of unpleasant things in the past. I can remember absolutely nothing of my Mother, Father & brother`s funeral, hence it causes me no emotion. Yet i vividly remember my dog dying on May 12th, & it often brings a tear to my eyes when i think about it.
 
True, Smudger, I remember taking our old ginger tomcat to the vets to be put down due to kidney failure and, I believe, a number other organs.That was definitely an unpleasant experience. I think a lot depends upon the exact circumstances of the incident as to how it affacts you and whether it is one of the things that you never forget. Both my father and mother died in hospital when I was not at their bedsides. My father was buried at Brandwood End when I was 13 years old, so I well remember the funeral and standing at his graveside. A cremation, particularly in adult years, is much less memorable, so I can barely remember my mother's funeral in 1996. Memory plays strange tricks.

Maurice :cool:
 
robroy said:
Hi I know we have a very knowledgeable group of members when it comes to old buses ..So could I ask for information about the bus in picture# 1.101..What make ? is it running on pneumatic tyres.. years in service etc..etc Thanks.
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From the information I have the bus is O 264 a Milnes-Daimler. It was the first of six (some say five (O 264 - O 268/9) buses bought by Birmingham Motor Express Co. in April 1904. The buses route was New Street to the Bear Hotel, Bearwood. The photo is dated 1904 so the bus, with solid tyres (1924 saw pneumatic tyres in buses in Birmingham), was new. The BME became the B&MMO in 1905 as far as I recall.
 
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