• 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...

Status
Not open for further replies.
Tried to sharpen up a bit, and the items look all different sizes, so possibly potatoes?
 

Attachments

  • GPO victoria square A.jpeg
    GPO victoria square A.jpeg
    85.6 KB · Views: 35
Thanks Mike. They're very neatly displayed, so they must have been sold on that spot in Victoria Square. Viv.
 
They look as if they are about to push the cart so whatever is on it stacks without rolling off and my guess is they are bread rolls or cobs. I also get the impression they did not want to be photographed and perhaps should not be selling anything in Victoria Square ... but I suppose they could be on their way to somewhere else !
 
Although I mainly look at the people in this thread it often leads me to look again at the surrounding buildings and those corner turrets on the GPO building are amazing. I presume the only way into them was through a trapdoor and they were built just to make the building look good. I've just had a look on GE and see they are still there, so hopefully the building will survive all the city centre redesigns.
 
It's Corporation St in 1964 and a man is running wearing sunglasses, did he try them on in a shop and then did a 'runner', probably not, because no one is chasing him and he's running towards the law courts ! Maybe he is just 'jogging' but it's a strange place to jog.
attachment.php
 
jogging hadn't become fashionable yet in 1964, there was a chemist opposite the law courts, used to go to Matthew Boulton college in the 1980s
 
A day in their lives when a photographer arrived outside their homes in No 5 Court, Newhall Street. They maybe wondered why he was there, but probably never saw the photo in which we can look at them all these years later. That women in the top window has plant pots for a bit of greenery.
5courtnehall.jpg
Still in No 5 Court looking in the opposite direction, probably the same girl and women. Some very tall brickwork behind that end house.
NewhallCourt5.jpg
 
Last edited:
This young girl in Court 7, Newhall Street has a small cart which if we wanted one like it these days would probably cost a lot of money to buy. What could she have been doing with it ?
Her clothes look nice and clean and I like her hat. The house behind appears to have graffiti on it's door and wall, so I could imagine that the people living there could have been out of favour with their neighbours.
court7newhall.jpg
 
Last edited:
I think the cart is full of clothes or linen. I wonder if she's off to sell the items? Or maybe she's trying to sell them door to door? Viv.
 
She could be collecting laundry.
I'm still looking at her cart, with it's decorative springs and even the handles are shaped rather than being straight simple shafts.
That lamp post looks a work of art !
 
From a window above the girl seen in post#1840, a man leans out and I could almost imagine him shouting something at the photographer.
Court7windowman.jpg
The full picture on that sunny day in Court No 7, Newhall Street is shown below and another high brick wall behind the houses.
C7NewhallStreet.jpg
The image is from the Library of Birmingham collection on Shoothill, (link to it here).
 
i have moved this thread to the streets section of the forum folks...its more suited there

lyn
 
Hi mike
The bottom of his long table was horses and the toy at the top with the men one being the market trader with the hat on and the other one was a suspect bogey customer whilst the others being punters
Meaning any potenional buying customers
The bottom is horses and I believe it to be a game by waddintons toy makers
In those years and its on a table with a green material fabric
And it was a wind along horse and jockey racing game where one operator winds the handle
Continuously till the horse reach the winning post at the end of the board
And that fabric or card was green in colour just like a real race track
And there was several horse and jockeys mounted on them in a variety of colours
That's the bottom of the table possible called the racing game by waddintons toy manu factors
Best wishes to one and all Alan,, Astonian,,,
 
Hi Mowhawk
Yes he probably had a bad day of takings and cheesed off it ain't no game when you think you
Get up like the crack of Dawn and taking are down its a bit like doing a modern days car boot
Stand there from 6 am until midday and selling was rubbish you only if you are Lucky
To get your entrance fee back yet alone getting your petrol money back
Its a hard way of life and a game being a market trader
My relatives was market traders in the Birmingham markets in the bull ring and corporation square
Oppersite the old Beehive on the ramp there as well there father was the Jones from
Catherine street Aston whom married my 1 st Cousin Christine from 10 park street Aston
Next to the vine Lichfield road he used to have ladies in the beehive below ground producing
All sizes towels of every description the lads had there own ware of goods to sell
They served all over the country at different markets
I hope the admin,do not mind me just adding this line in because I know there is a couple
Of members whom have previously mentioned they was very good friends with my cousins
Sheila Christie and val from Park street when they was young and even now Chris
Lives in king standing I just would like to mention that Chris is in a very bad way
She does not have much time left as she is terminal cancer weighing four stone in weight
The lads father from Catherine street died many years ago he was tony
But any way getting back to the photography great picture
If he was warned out he should have sat on those baskets but then again what was in his baskets
I asked myself he seemed different postion from the rest of the traders
After all in those days and that period there was a lot of animals they would be selling
On the markets in those days so perhaps he NAD chickens or etc
Have a nice day everybody best wishes Alan,,, Astonian,,''
 
A man and a pram from the 1940s mysteriously appears in 2016 on the pavement near the Beeches Pub ! (read on)
1940s_Man.jpg
When he first walked that pavement there was no M6 motorway across the fields behind him and the estate was only about five years old. The trees he first saw as newly planted saplings were now grown large although a few had disappeared from the central reservation. Perhaps he would be surprised to see the pub still there but not as he once knew it, and he might have marvelled at those sleek modern cars on the car park.

He could also see some people holding what looked like thin cigarette packets to their ears and excitedly talking about something called 'uploads' and 'youtube'. Other people pointed these strange things at him and then the future suddenly faded and he was back in the 1940s with the outcome of WW2 to worry about.

You can see him back in the 1940s in post#1 .... he started this thread !
 
Last edited:
In the past a brewery decided to build a pub on the corner of William Street and Bishopgate Street and ensured it had all the decorative building features fashionable at the time. The users of the pub probably thought more about the quality of the beer rather than the decor. In post#230 some of us commented about the little lad standing on the corner and maybe his sister walking up the middle of Bishopgate Street. At that lad's age (and older) I don't remember giving the decorative features of buildings in Brum a second glance. ...:rolleyes:
1Kings_Arms.jpeg

I suppose the users of the pub moved away when Birmingham was redeveloped in the 1960s and 1970s and the pub declined and was eventually demolished. Looking at the corner today shows 'The Pavilion' student accommodation and with a £650 monthly rental for a room seems rather 'up-market' and maybe only for 'rich' students. One of the selling points claimed in the brochure is 'close proximity to Broad St' and various academic facilities are also within walking distance.
To me the new building looks attractive (apart from the coloured trim strip) and makes good use of the site. It looks a 'good' redevelopment ... maybe others think differently ...
2WilliamSt.jpg
 
Last edited:
Last edited:
I remember my father taking me to see the Heinkel lll at the Hall of Memory. I was gobsmacked to be so close to a real German bomber especially as it had been shot down by our wonderful soldiers. I never forgot that visit despite being so young at the time. Regards. willey
 
Hi Willey, I remember seeing an almost intact ME109 fighter on display there during WW2. I suppose we will never know what was in that hole ... just another old pic to puzzle us ! If a similar photo was taken from that spot today, the new library would probably fill the view.
 
Possibly remembering completely wrong here but the angle of the photo (bearing in mind what looks like the end of the old colonnade on the left) seems as though it looks across at the area where the Copthorne Hotel is now?
 
Possibly remembering completely wrong here but the angle of the photo (bearing in mind what looks like the end of the old colonnade on the left) seems as though it looks across at the area where the Copthorne Hotel is now?
I'm not sure what that building is but I looked on an aerial view from 1949 and marked where I thought the photo was taken and it's direction.1HallofMem1949.jpg
oldmohawk
 
Ah yes, I see what you mean.
I was thinking the colonnade also ran at a right angle towards where Baskerville House was.

Would one of the members with an old Kelly's be able to look what was there before the car park?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top