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They Were Caught In Our Old Street Pics...

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farmerdave said:
In the set of negatives I found yesterday the one taken after the paper-seller is higher up Corporation Street looking back towards New Street. A 52 bus to Perry Beeches via Walsall Road is shown as well as the Nathan Clock. Can't quite see Ratners as it is obscured but there is an advert for Rolex watches. Lloyds Bank and Laskys (radio and electronics sales?) can also be seen. Some of the car registrations start with a letter D (1987?). Some Christmas decorations can be seen on the right hand side, higher up. Interestingly, there is a tree on the left hand side of the photograph, which is probably the one featured in the paper-seller photograph. Congratulations to those who said the newspaper-seller was located in Corporation Street. Dave.
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Interesting the front parked car on the left hand side is a consular car judging from the number plate.
Bob
 
A crowd busy shopping in the Bull Ring in 1960. It was often noisy and chaotic, some liked it, some didn't. Woolworth's Cafeteria was very popular. This was the Bull Ring I remember but I suppose it could not last. It was a bit untidy for a modern city and the city council were already planning to replace it with something big and impressive !
Bullring1960.jpg
 
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A lovely picture bringing back great memories. Always look to see if I'm in a picture like this if the date seems right.
What a shame that this kind of traditional market is killed off in the name of progress.
Cheers Tim.
 
tim eborn said:
A lovely picture bringing back great memories. Always look to see if I'm in a picture like this if the date seems right.
What a shame that this kind of traditional market is killed off in the name of progress.
Cheers Tim.
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One of the great things about the picture is the way the Woolworth sign stands out and everyone seems to be going about their business, no loiterers or beggars. Obviously 60s from the cars and the way people are dressed, only one trilby, but what sort of hat is the guy with the tie, carrying his make wearing? Was this to early for baseball caps? Answers on a picture postcard please.

Bob
 
Is it an engine driver's cap ?
One thing I noted in the photo was people carrying their own shopping bags, perhaps shops had not started giving them out in 1960.
 
oldMohawk said:
Is it an engine driver's cap ?
One thing I noted in the photo was people carrying their own shopping bags, perhaps shops had not started giving them out in 1960.
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It actually looks like a school cap, but probably not as his age. Regarding baseball caps, they have been around for ever on this side of the pond, he may have got it from travels or maybe he was in the merchant navy. I left the UK in '66 and people still used their own shopping bags. Not sure when grocery stores gave out bags, but I visited in '68 & '71 and it was still the same.
Dave Sr.
 
Many will remember the earlier Woolworth logo (similar to the one in post 2132) but which made the proud proclamation of being the 3d. to 6d. store. Younger members who did not know the old coinage should know that 3d. was roughly one and a half pence and 6d. was two and a half pence.
 
The photographer had arrived in Court 29, High Street, Bordesley, and chalked the address on a house wall as he often did. It is a sunny day and the babies have been brought out to be in the photo. Unusual object on the wall above the doorway.
29Crt_HighSt Bordesley.jpg
 
#2132 Bull Ring pic. What a wonderful photo, just how I remember it, what a great pity it was all destroyed in the name of 'progress' (?) - that was the real Bull Ring and should have been kept. Other cities retain their heritage, why can't we ?. Eric
 
I agree, Eric, a great pic and it was taken the year before I left Brum, not to return for many years. By then the place was unrecognisable, both city & suburbs. Tunnels replaced many well known roads, and you knew exactly where you wanted to get to, but it was impossible to do it so many years later. If that's progress, leave me out.

Maurice
 
Two options regarding birds come to mind. Pigeons or a couple of hens?
It appears to have been a lovely warm, sunny day if those open windows are any guide.
 
Radiorails said:
Two options regarding birds come to mind. Pigeons or a couple of hens?
It appears to have been a lovely warm, sunny day if those open windows are any guide.
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It doesn't seem big enough to be for pigeons or fowl, more likely canaries or linnets.

Ps. what did you use to get the photo so clear?
 
As Eric and Maurice have commented so much of what we knew has been lost.

So much of the 'progress' seems to get reversed only a few years later. We had the inner ring road 'Queensway' built in the 1960s so that you could drive round the city centre without have to actually enter the central streets. Good you might think. Then what did they do? They closed off St Martins Circus to all but buses so now I would not have a clue how to get from where Masshouse Circus used to be to Smallbrook Queensway.

Look at the work now going on at Paradise Circus. Paradise Circus was built to replace the block formed by Edmund Street, Congreeve Street, Paradise Street and Easy Row. Then they rebuilt it to lower the junction of Broad Street and Paradise Circus. If they had thought about it before hand they could have laid the road above the Queensway Tunnel and saved space. Now they are rebuilding the junction again.
 
adap2it said:
It actually looks like a school cap, but probably not as his age. Regarding baseball caps, they have been around for ever on this side of the pond, he may have got it from travels or maybe he was in the merchant navy. I left the UK in '66 and people still used their own shopping bags. Not sure when grocery stores gave out bags, but I visited in '68 & '71 and it was still the same.
Dave Sr.
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Yes, it could be a school or college cap. Alternatively, it could be a cricket cap to my view.

Regards, Ray T.
 
Eric Gibson said:
It doesn't seem big enough to be for pigeons or fowl, more likely canaries or linnets.

Ps. what did you use to get the photo so clear?
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I use a free program GIMP2 (Google it)which can do much of what Photoshop can do but it is NOT user friendly until you get used to it.
I first mentioned it on the BHF in a post#52 in a thread here showing what it could do.
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/just-trying-something.38017/page-3#post-537000
It's layout on my Windows screen and being used is shown in post#57 same thread and some more in post#59 and #64 same thread.

Back to this thread, using my iPad to look at the pic in #2142 I think I can see a bird sitting on the bottom of the cage and it looks a bit big for a canary !
 
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Regarding the bird, seem to remember my paternal grandmother was said to have had a magpie as a pet caged bird in Brill ,Buckinghamshire. A neighbor out here in Oz had an aunt that also had a magpie that was a good talker so maybe !
Cheers Tim
 
Keeping birds in outside cages is still quite common here in Crete, generally canaries or lovebirds.

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice, I suppose your weather is a bit better than over here. I think a canary would feel the cold winds blowing up Court 29 in the pic.
Phil
 
Good afternoon Phil,

Certainly today, about 23/24C near the coast, though I wonder how most caged birds would fare outside in northern Europe, even those born there, when their ancestry stems from warmer climes. Of course, a few escape as they do in the UK and seem to survive.We had a noisy parakeet sitting on our electricity supply cables for several days last year, but there are plenty of holes in the walls of old stone buildings that they can take advantage of when the weather turns cold. Not quite the same for a bird captive in a cage and the people that keep caged birds here don't leave them outside when the weather is cold.

Maurice
 
oldMohawk said:
Hi Maurice, I suppose your weather is a bit better than over here. I think a canary would feel the cold winds blowing up Court 29 in the pic.
Phil
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That was how I see it Old Mohawk. Small cage birds would not find the climate of the Midlands that suitable for a good part of the year - cold and rain at the least - and would attract the more aggressive wild birds and cats who, I believe, would try to attack them. Unless they were brought indoors of course.
 
As was normal in those days, they form an orderly queue in the road to board a tram in Erdington High St. The tram platform was almost 2ft above road level so quite a climb for them and one woman is carrying a toddler.
BoardingTramErdington.jpg
 
I note the advert on the lower front of the car cab advertising evening classes. I don't recall seeing that before. The platform and car floor level was indeed high above road level and there were some folks who needed a push up to get on the car. Of course today that would be unlikely to happen: the intention might well be misconstrued or used as a pretext to litigation. ;)
 
Radiorails said:
I note the advert on the lower front of the car cab advertising evening classes. I don't recall seeing that before. The platform and car floor level was indeed high above road level and there were some folks who needed a push up to get on the car. Of course today that would be unlikely to happen: the intention might well be misconstrued or used as a pretext to litigation. ;)
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One of my favourite photos of folks boarding public transport is in a forum post here ...
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/when-everyone-wore-a-hat.41994/page-13#post-568102
You could probably help by pulling a lady on board but not allowed to push ...:)
 
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There you go, a slightly different angle. I thought for a moment that it was the Cross Keys, but that doesn't have a bay window upstairs. Was this once a pub? The architecture looks right.

Erdington.jpg
 
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