-
Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.
We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team -
HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
we are now using a backup solution
They Were Caught In Our Old Street Pics...
- Thread starter oldMohawk
- Start date
- Status
paul stacey
master brummie
#1770, Hi Nico, just seen your post, sorry if off topic, it means I served in the "Brigade of Guards", the ones who wear the red jackets, and tall black bear skins, the personal body guard to the royal family, 7 regiments make up the "Household Brigade", 5 regiments of infantry, and 2 cavalry. Foot Guards are Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish, Welsh, Cavalry, Life Guards, and Blues and Royals. I served in the Coldstream Guards, Paul.
Amazing that not only is it necessary to have a zebra crossing outside the Minories, but you need a police woman to make sure no-one is run over by oncoming buses along Bull Street! Viv.
Viewfinder
master brummie
Looks like a vast crowd in the background, outside Dunn's. I wonder if it was a special occasion, or routine Christmas Schwepping.
Radiorails
master brummie
That was a very busy crossing - my memory and the pic tells me so.
The police presence was needed to regulate the traffic and people flows as unmanned the crossing would be in continuous use and traffic consequently at a standstill for most of the busy shopping day. It was, after all the crossing between two extremely busy stores - Greys and Lewis - in Birmingham
The police presence was needed to regulate the traffic and people flows as unmanned the crossing would be in continuous use and traffic consequently at a standstill for most of the busy shopping day. It was, after all the crossing between two extremely busy stores - Greys and Lewis - in Birmingham
DavidGrain
master brummie
Yes a busy pedestrian crossing and I agree the date as 1954 as the Midland Red bus would have been still very new at that time. However I remember the crossing as being controlled by traffic lights and that would have been very soon after that date. The reason that it stays in my mind is because I remember arguing with my dad about it. He was driving up Bull Street intending to turn right into The Minories and stopped when he saw the lights. He would not accept my telling him that the lights controlled the pedestrian crossing not the junction. I would have been aged 10 at the time.
paul stacey
master brummie
A instant in time, captured for ever, just as I remember dear old Brum.Paul
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
The crowd would have been waiting at the light controlled crossing at the junction with Corporation Street. One way traffic coming in both directions to turn up or down Bull Street made it a very busy crossing. They eventually built a pedestrian underpass with a kiosk in the centre and I think an opening into the basement of Lewis's.
A 1952 photo shows traffic waiting at lights.
Last edited:
DavidGrain
master brummie
Interesting that the two photos of Bull Street should show Midland Red buses rather than Corporation buses. The Midland Red bus in Bull Street in post 1778 would have been one of the immediate post war buses as it has an open rear platform. The bus in Corporation Street in the same photo is of the same type but we cannot see if is had an open platform or was one of the later buses with platform doors. I can remember travelling on an open platform Midland Red occasionally as late as 1960-61
Viewfinder
master brummie
The buses in post 1778 are BMMO D.5 (with open platform) and possibly D.5B (with folding doors), with bodies built by Brush of Loughborough and first introduced in 1949-50. The bus in post 1773 is a BMMO D.7, built to a lightweight standard with body by Metro-Cammell, introduced in 1953. These cracking photos illustrate the vitality and prosperity of the city.
Well, Bull Street (and its junction with both Corporation Street one end and Steelhouse Lane the other) must have been one of the busiest streets in Birmingham-the second city-and potentially most hazardous. It would only take a child or an adult nit-wit to dash out and cause the snarl up of the century. If you look at the number plate of the Morris Minor behind the bus the driver may have a life history of crashing into stationary vehicles.
But these were the days when the police had a service of participating with the public to prevent mayhem, rather at the end of the phone nowadays to race up and create more drama.
I was just looking again at this Kingstanding Road photo from post#35 and wonder why there is, what appears to be, an umbrella high up above the notice board. Looks small in the photo and seems very out of place. Viv.
DavidGrain
master brummie
I think the consensus of opinion on the Forum is that the Corporation Street photo has been doctored to add the "running man". He also appears on a Five Ways photo. We were always told that the camera cannot lie but the problem now is that with computer programs like Photoshop, pictures can be made to lie. As an amateur historian looking at old photographs, I find this particularly disturbing. This reminds me of the Time Team TV programme in which they found an old sword above some later barbed wire which with other anomalies led to the conclusion that the site had been deliberately set up for them.
As for Viv's comment on the Kingstanding Road photo, I am wondering if it could be a kite or a balloon.
As for Viv's comment on the Kingstanding Road photo, I am wondering if it could be a kite or a balloon.
Radiorails
master brummie
Indeed, David, I recall the Time Team programme.
One issue that worries me, in the Heritage railway arena. is the switching of loco numbers and names purely for photographic and financial reasons. Yes. I know the big railways did it from time to time but those occasions were well documented.
Most historians , archaeologists etc. rely quite often on photographic evidence and to my mind any distortions can result in quite misleading results.
One issue that worries me, in the Heritage railway arena. is the switching of loco numbers and names purely for photographic and financial reasons. Yes. I know the big railways did it from time to time but those occasions were well documented.
Most historians , archaeologists etc. rely quite often on photographic evidence and to my mind any distortions can result in quite misleading results.
DavidGrain
master brummie
Alan, I once met Mick Aston from Time Team and he told me that that programme was actually the one that he most enjoyed, I think mainly because it was a challenge to work out where everything was wrong.
On railway matters, I remember one railway magazine showing an example of just what they did not want was a photo allegedly showing two HST power cars with freight wagons between them.
On railway matters, I remember one railway magazine showing an example of just what they did not want was a photo allegedly showing two HST power cars with freight wagons between them.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
These old photos keep my memories alive of Birmingham in the early 1950s. The Bull Street/Corporation Street junction shown in post #1778 seemed to be the centre of my shopping area and Lewis's sold much of what I needed apart from the latest teenage fashions.
The boundaries of my shopping seemed to be New St, High St, along Corporation St to just past Old Square, Colmore Row and about 200 yards down Snow Hill to a shop which did sell the latest teenage fashions. I occasionally went 'south' to the radio shops in Hurst St but that was about it.
I did also go into Brum to do other things rather than just shopping ....
The boundaries of my shopping seemed to be New St, High St, along Corporation St to just past Old Square, Colmore Row and about 200 yards down Snow Hill to a shop which did sell the latest teenage fashions. I occasionally went 'south' to the radio shops in Hurst St but that was about it.
I did also go into Brum to do other things rather than just shopping ....
These old photos keep my memories alive of Birmingham in the early 1950s. The Bull Street/Corporation Street junction shown in post #1778 seemed to be the centre of my shopping area and Lewis's sold much of what I needed apart from the latest teenage fashions.
The boundaries of my shopping seemed to be New St, High St, along Corporation St to just past Old Square, Colmore Row and about 200 yards down Snow Hill to a shop which did sell the latest teenage fashions. I occasionally went 'south' to the radio shops in Hurst St but that was about it.
I did also go into Brum to do other things rather than just shopping ....
should i ask what those other things were phil...maybe not lol
Cheeky! Well all those 'other' things us young 'ens did! Like the healthy pursuit of visiting museums - ah hem. Viv.
Last edited:
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Hi Lyn, I went to the ice rink, the museums, the City Health Office for a polio injection when there was a big panic, see Frankie Laine at the Theatre Royal, and to my favourite cinema the Gaumont.
Not much now I look at it ...
Phil
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
I remember the Spencer Davis group and their song. I'm one of the few on the forum who thinks the photo is genuine and the running man had not been added and cannot see why anyone would add him to that pic. It was probably a newspaper pic from 1964. Underneath the pic in post#41 is the link to the post which has the original pic on the forum but I'm not sure where that pic came from.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Hi Kimi54,
Welcome to the forum. I worked for a large company which supplied Ford and in 1969 I went to Dagenham and saw one of the first Capri's made ready for it's launch. Always remember that trip I got stuck in a snowstorm on the M1 for 6 hours on the way back to Brum. I always liked the Capri.
oldmohawk
- Status
