Turks Head Bloomsbury Street

[oldMohawk]

The double (close together) overhead cables suggests Trolley Buses running in both streets each side of the pub.

 

[Dave89]

Hi,

Can anyone decipher the licensee's name over the door to the left?

Kind regards
Dave

 

[JohnJames]

Original post copied here and edited to try to identify the pub in the photo below. References to an off licence relate to another building in the Herbert Road thread here: https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/herbert-road-small-heath.47432/page-3

Edit ..... new member, Toni Partridge, has kindly supplied me with a photograph ........My thanks to Toni for the photograph, which is reproduced below.

Maurice
View attachment 151108
[/Q

Original post copied here and edited to try to identify the pub in the photo below. References to an off licence relate to another building in the Herbert Road thread here: https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/herbert-road-small-heath.47432/page-3

Edit ..... new member, Toni Partridge, has kindly supplied me with a photograph ........My thanks to Toni for the photograph, which is reproduced below.

Maurice
View attachment 151108

Growing up in small Heath in the 1960s/1970s my happy memories of a corner pub in this area is the Regents Park Tavern where I learnt to hold my beer.. It was on the corner of Herbert Rd. This pub in the picture rings no bells with me sadly but looks likes it is on a junction?

 

[Vivienne14]

Thanks John. Yes I too think it was at a junction. And looking at the overhead tram/trolley bus wires, they run along the road to the left of the pub and along the front of the pub. That surely must narrow down the number of locations. Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

Re. The Regents Park Tavern.
Oldmohawk posted this on the Regents Park thread last year. It’s an image from 1934. The street furniture matches in some respects but not all. The trolley bus pole has ‘car’ signs attached - but maybe it was in the transition to trolleybus. The street lamp is slightly different. The lamps on the pub (right) don’t seem to quite match. Of course there could have been a refurb of the pub at some time ?

There are maybe too many smaller differences for it to match. Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

There was also a Regent Inn. Our late Phil clarified the locations here.

Viv.

 

[Astoness]

dont think the pub behind the trolly bus on post 6 is our mystery pub which has lower buildings on the left of it the one on post 1 does not also not convinced it the regent park tavern on the other corner

lyn

 

[Vivienne14]

In the absence of anything else, I’m going through the process of elimination! I think the trolley bus route is our key clue.

A personal view of the original photo posted by Sospiri is that the pub looks to me that it was updated (in the 1930s possibly?). I think it is an older pub which had the frontage upgraded to install leaded light windows. The bricks beneath the windows look newer too. The doorways look original. Upstairs seems to have been left as original too. Just a personal view.

Did this coincide with Ansells taking it on ? Viv.

 

[Nick Phillips]

Some older pubs did have an off-licence within the building, I remember the Black Eagle at Hockley did.

Would it not be correct that most pubs in 50/60s would have had off-licence?
I think if you look at some of the pubs of that era that have had an refurbishment they have a door that may have been the off-licence.
I was a young child in the 60s, then a child could purchase alcoholic or cigarettes which I did at an off-licence, for either parents or neighbours
How times have changed.

Nick S Phillips ‍♂ .

 

[paul stacey]

I remember that most of the older pubs I knew in the early 60's had a separate "Offy", built in, there were some, looked like shops, which were "Off Licences", Paul

 

[oldMohawk]

Some thoughts !
The left side of the photo looks as if a copyright notice might have been crudely edited out. Also a question for tram experts 'did Birmingham City Transport have crests cast on the tram poles?'

Also there is a Herbert Street (not road) in Wolverhampton and they had trolleybuses.

 

[Nick Phillips]

I remember that most of the older pubs I knew in the early 60's had a separate "Offy", built in, there were some, looked like shops, which were "Off Licences", Paul

Paul, Pubs would sometimes have off-licence, we also at that time had out-doors we called (offy). They looked more like a shop. Again if my memory correct you were not supposed to drink on the premises.
At that time I was a young lad living in Hockley, We had an off-licence in George St West I remember sometimes you would see someone having a drink. Please remember that it was a long time ago and memories do fade.

Nick S Phillips ‍

 

[Jonob]

Some thoughts !
The left side of the photo looks as if a copyright notice might have been crudely edited out. Also a question for tram experts 'did Birmingham City Transport have crests cast on the tram poles?'

Also there is a Herbert Street (not road) in Wolverhampton and they had trolleybuses.
View attachment 151118

I think the street sign says "Saltley Rd" and I think the pub is the turks head. John.

 

[Vivienne14]

That’s absolutely great Jonob. Spot on. Thanks ! So it was a pub again by the 1950s/60s. Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

Here it is in place at the junction many years before. (No date). Photo posted by Oldmohawk on the “See Birmingham by postcard” thread. Viv.

 

[sospiri]

Now here is the ironical point and probably explains how Toni came into possession of that photograph. Emily and her husband, John George Sheppard had been the landlords of the Turks Head at 150 Bloomsbury Street in the mid-1930s before taking over the Stonebridge Hotel around the end of that decade. So I am still short of a picture of the Herbert Road off-licence and from Google Street View it appears that the whole of Herbert Road was demolished and rebuilt in recent times.

The Turks Head was demolished around 1960 from the other pictures of it on the Forum. Well done, Jonob. Had I ever visited these areas, I may have been able to put two and two together from the information I had in front of me. Alas, it took a REAL Brummie to spot this and I was only there for just under 24 years from birth! This one is also on the Forum:-

And now a little story for you. One of the young policemen stationed at Bloomsbury Street used to stop the traffic every day to escort a young schoolgirl across the road. Years later, the constable married the school girl, and who was that schoolgirl? Emily Sheppard's sister. Every cloud has a silver lining. Thanks all and the Jonob especially.

Maurice

 

[mikejee]

Kellys from 1936 till 1940 had landlord of the Turks Head as John George Sheppard.. He is not there 1932 or 1943. Could the name of the pub have been removed in c1940, like they did for signposts, in case of invasion?
Maurice. WE posted at same time !!

 

[Vivienne14]

Lovely end to that story Maurice. Shall now change the title of the thread, so we don’t lose the thread in all the other ‘Where is .... “ threads. Viv

Edit - thread title now amended.

 

[sospiri]

No problem, Mike, that sounds about right as he then took over the Stonebridge Hotel, but died on 14 October 1941 and is buried in the churchyard of St James at Great Packington. At what point she moved from Meriden to Herbert Road is difficult to ascertain due to the lack of Electoral Rolls during WW2. All the people in this saga are no longer alive. The older daughter married at Birmingham Register Office before her father had died and I assume that that was because she married a divorcee. The younger daughter married in Meriden in 3rd Quarter 1942, so I assume that she and her mother were most likely still at the Stonebridge as it was not the parish of her birth. One of those problems that I may never be able to resolve.

Maurice

 

[mbenne]

It looks a bit like XXXXet St or XXXet St

View attachment 151097

Stretched the image but not sure if its any clearer. It could be xxxLET? I filtered on 1891 census but only one ending in 'LET' was Violet Place. Maybe if someone has a list of more street names it might narrow the search? Whatever the name its quite short judging by the size of the plaque.

Just noticed - someone has already identified the pub

 

[mw0njm.]

Stretched the image but not sure if its any clearer. It could be xxxLET? I filtered on 1891 census but only one ending in 'LET' was Violet Place. Maybe if someone has a list of more street names it might narrow the search? Whatever the name its quite short judging by the size of the plaque.

Just noticed - someone has already identified the pub
View attachment 151125

saltley rd

 

[JohnJames]

There was also a Regent Inn. Our late Phil clarified the locations here.

Viv.

View attachment 151117

From my memory the Regent's Park Tavern was on the corner of Regent's Park Rd and Herbert Road a couple of hundred yards up from the Coventry Rd. A mosque now stands on the site.