• 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

Wheeler Street lozells

quick update about the pic on post 49 showing dad in the acorn..mirrorpix have emailed me the full pic plus article about the pub that was once a morgue...i do hope that someone may know the names of the other customers... its not a good copy as the central library do not have a scanner suitable for scanning glass plates but its hoped that later on this year they will have and i will be sent a better image....dads name should read harrington not hallington but im not that bothered as i really thought i would never see this pic...

lyn
 
Great to see those pictures . Just above Crabtrees was the Ponderosa cafe .? my husband came from a little way up from there, towards gower st.
 
hi topsy..you are quite right about the passageway...it was called memory lane ..i guess because the acorn was once used as a morgue...and you could enter the acorn either by wheeler st or wilton street....

lyn
 
As a young lad I was often asked by my grandmother to make a special trip for her to Wheelers St. We lived on Wilton so it was just a short walk down the road to Clifford St and then left along to Wheelers St. At the junction of Wheelers St and Cifford St there was the Butcher's Shop which I remember as always being deep in sawdust. Diagonally opposite was a Coblers Shop and on another corner was a Pawn Shop, very useful in my neighbourhood! My destination, however, was a little radio/electrical shop just down Wheelers St on the Butcher's side where I would exchange my grans lead acid battery for a newly charged one so we could listen to the radio again. If distant memories serve me well those batteries weighed a ton for a little guy. I wonder if parents today would allow their little ones cart a heavy glass battery filled with acid up and down the street. I guess guardian angels worked overtime in those days.
 
hi david..was the butchers shop called marshes..i know ive got a pic of it somewhere..just trying to locate it for you....

lyn
 
pretty sure david that this is the butchers shop you talked about...i well remember going shopping down wheeler st with our mom...

lyn
 
You are absolutely correct Lyn it was Marsh's Butcher shop I remember. Thanks, I will save that picture. The 'battery' shop was about 4 store down the hill below Marsh's. Marsh Butchers was where my mother bought the 'Sunday Roast' that somehow lasted in some form or other until the following Wednesday.
 
hi dave..glad thats the one..in those days i think food had to be stretched out like that..nothing was wasted...

lyn
 
As a young lad I was often asked by my grandmother to make a special trip for her to Wheelers St. We lived on Wilton so it was just a short walk down the road to Clifford St and then left along to Wheelers St. At the junction of Wheelers St and Cifford St there was the Butcher's Shop which I remember as always being deep in sawdust. Diagonally opposite was a Coblers Shop and on another corner was a Pawn Shop, very useful in my neighbourhood! My destination, however, was a little radio/electrical shop just down Wheelers St on the Butcher's side where I would exchange my grans lead acid battery for a newly charged one so we could listen to the radio again. If distant memories serve me well those batteries weighed a ton for a little guy. I wonder if parents today would allow their little ones cart a heavy glass battery filled with acid up and down the street. I guess guardian angels worked overtime in those days.
Hi Dave , Re the cobblers shop , I used to take my shoes there & the guy would change them in into wedge heels and he always polished & cleaned your shoes before we picked them up.
Jean.
 
my legs have gone to jelly just looking at that window cleaner sitting on the ledge 3 floors up....
 
That looks very close to where my gran lived, to the left of the picture; no 169, on the left of the street going upwards
 
mike..i will see if i can get a better pic of it as that one is not very good..i have to take a pic of it with my camera and i think it slipped off the setting for this one...

lyn
 
hi all...here is the full pic of our dad in the acorn pub wheeler st may 1959..as some of you know this pub used to be a morgue.....dad is sitting down reading the paper...dont know how our dad mangaged as it says no writiing of betting slips is allowed lol....this one is my pride and joy....

lyn
 
lol phil..dad said he was either picking horses or checking the results from the previous days bet...mind you he could have been dong both...the clarity on that pic is so good i can even see how filthy his hands were after a stint cleaning windows..phil this is the pic i spent hours upon hours searching for at the central library...dad thought it was in the paper after 1960 so i checked reels and reels of mercurys from 1960 to 1969 then i gave up and if it was not for richie finding it on the mirrorpix site i would prob not have it now...the date as you can see was 1959 lol

lyn
 
Last edited:
Thats a lovely photo of of your Dad sitting in the acorn reading his paper
Thanks lyn for sharing it with us , no lager in them days was there ?
ragga xx
 
my legs have gone to jelly just looking at that window cleaner sitting on the ledge 3 floors up....

I remember people doing that, if you had sash cord windows, you would push the window up, sit on the ledge and clean them quiet easily, no need for a window cleaner.
 
Back
Top