• 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

When Everyone Wore A Hat...

maypolebaz said:
Is 1900 the definite year ? I notice there's at least two soldiers in the photo wearing what looks like WW1 uniform.
Those two kids peeping through the fence were living dangerously !
Click to expand...
Hi All,
The post at 262 suggests that this was after 1904. I think that there are far too many men of military age in the crowd for it to have been during the war. I suggest that it was just before the war and possibly many of that crowd did not return to watch a match after the war.
Old Boy
 
To what is this meant to refer?
The only photo I can see on that link is a mass of football supporters and nothing to do wth birmingham
 
mikejee said:
To what is this meant to refer?
The only photo I can see on that link is a mass of football supporters and nothing to do wth birmingham
Click to expand...
There was a photo inserted by me in post#261 showing people in the early 1900s when everyone all wore hats and the photo is a good example of everyone wearing hats. There has been some discussion about the date of the photo and the origin of the term 'kop'. I therefore showed the source of the photo.
 
oldMohawk said:
They are all wearing hats but this looks like a 'men only' Corporation Street where are the ladies ?
When I look closely I can probably see two but one might have been stopped by a policeman !
It is not the first time I have seen an unusual scene in that part of Corporation Street ...
CorporationStmodpic.jpg

Ref: Ivor's comment in post#265, I've moved the watermark to a less obtrusive position ...:)
Click to expand...
 
Hi All,
This photograph has fascinated me. Firstly the absence of traffic in what was and is the busiest street in the city. Allowing for the fact that it is the business end of the street there would still have been passing traffic on the way to and from the city centre. If the pedestrians had been office workers going to lunch there would have been several females among them. In my mind these are men on the home from an all male function. In view of the fact that women did not have a vote in those days I believe the men might have been to a political meeting possibly outdoors at the bottom of Corporation Street. I believe that it must have been a Sunday or perhaps a bank holiday
Old Boy
 
I think the traffic is consistent with the date of the photo which I think is early 20th century. There is a horse bus going down the hill just past the Law Courts and I think there is a steam tram coming up the hill just about to pass Central Hall. I am inclined to agree with Eddie (Norfolk Brummie) that this could be lunch time. Just how many women were there working in offices before WWI. A 'typewriter' in those days was a man who worked a typewriting machine.
 
Regarding Corporation Street in #264. Can we tell whether the first street lamp on the right-hand side is a gas lamp? Also, somebody seems to be looking up at the lamp. Can't work out whether it is a street-lighter. If it was, then the photo maybe would have been taken in the morning (putting the lamp out) or in the early evening (lighting the lamp). Dave
 
I would say he is looking up and it is definitely a gas lamp
 

Attachments

  • CorporationStmodpicenhancedpart.jpg
    CorporationStmodpicenhancedpart.jpg
    9.8 KB · Views: 22
I've just looked at the original in my computer (I had reduced file size of the one I posted) and no one appears to be looking up at the gas lamp. The men standing by the lamp seem to be poorly dressed compared to others in the photo. I've just used the 'sun app' on Google Earth to look at shadows from the sun and it appears to be due south which suggests the time is near mid day.
Capture.jpg
 
Has anyone mentioned the trestles and planks in the background, so the men could be decorators. Sort shadows definitely indicate noon.
 
Last edited:
Eric Gibson said:
Wanna play find the lady? There's definitely at least one in there.
Click to expand...
I can see a woman standing against the wall behind a policeman and could almost imagine she has been detained. There is another behind the policeman. I had originally thought that all the men were coming from a meeting at the Central Hall but looking at the group in the second image maybe they are discussing the outcome of a trial at the Law Courts from where maybe, all those men were coming from.
Twoladies.jpg Group.jpg
These old pics often lead me to look up information about things I see in them and I searched about Methodist Central Halls and find we have a thread about it on the BHF although the building cost shown there of £96.165 might be a decimal point/comma error.
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/birmingham-central-methodist-hall.39894/

Edited ref: info in post#286
 
Last edited:
My impression is they're something to do with the legal system. There were several restaurants around there for lunchtime refreshment, including the one on the corner by the ladders, there was one immediately across the road upstairs and I think there was a very early Veggie restaurant in or near the old county hall building.

I also wondered if the ladders/trestles were anything to do with putting up the fascia for the big chemists that was on that corner. It covered over all the restaurant/bar signs around that corner building. (They've since been uncovered again). Or was the Chemists much later than this? Viv.
 
Viv
184 Corporation st , on the corner was the Court Restaurant in 1900, and still that in 1950
 
oldMohawk said:
I can see a woman standing against the wall behind a policeman and could almost imagine she has been detained. There is another behind the policeman. I had originally thought that all the men were coming from a meeting at the Central Hall but looking at the group in the second image maybe they are discussing the outcome of a trial at the Law Courts from where maybe, all those men were coming from.
View attachment 107917 View attachment 107918
These old pics often lead me to look up information about things I see in them and I searched about Methodist Central Halls and find we have a thread about it on the BHF although the building cost shown there of £96.165 might be a decimal point/comma error.
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/birmingham-central-methodist-hall.39894/

Edited ref: info in post#286
Click to expand...
Hi All,
I first discounted Central Hall as it was a religious institution that I thought held church services only. Then yesterday I saw a quiz program which said that the first meeting of the United Nations General assembly was held at the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster in 1946. Google tells me that the Methodist Central Halls are sometimes let as Conference venues. I now think that this was possibly the end of a political meeting held at the Central Hall, Women could not vote so presumably would not attend the meetings. Also the suffragettes were very active in the early 20th century which may be why the police officer was questioning the woman.
Old Boy
 
I think this is just an every day scene at lunch time and I think people are reading too much into this. For example there are several men walking the other way outside the building which is, I think, the Coroner's Court
 
Vivienne14 said:
My impression is they're something to do with the legal system. There were several restaurants around there for lunchtime refreshment, including the one on the corner by the ladders, there was one immediately across the road upstairs and I think there was a very early Veggie restaurant in or near the old county hall building.

I also wondered if the ladders/trestles were anything to do with putting up the fascia for the big chemists that was on that corner. It covered over all the restaurant/bar signs around that corner building. (They've since been uncovered again). Or was the Chemists much later than this? Viv.
Click to expand...

I've got a feeling that someone (Mike?) said on a thread ages ago that, relating to something I'd mentioned, there was a vegetarian restaurant around there. Aplogies if I've got that wrong, Mike.

maria
 
Yes Maria, it was the Pitman restaurant - a very early vegetarian restaurant next to the Old County Court. See the red terracotta building left of the Old County Court marble building in the image below. The building was the Pitman Hotel, more info here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pitman_Vegetarian_Hotel#

Across the road on the corner of Newton St/ Corporation St was Lincoln's Inn restaurant above the Crown pub. There's still evidence today of the restaurant name on the building's facade. See second image below.

So lots of possible places fir those gents to eat at. Viv.

image.jpeg image.jpeg
 
DavidGrain said:
I think this is just an every day scene at lunch time and I think people are reading too much into this. For example there are several men walking the other way outside the building which is, I think, the Coroner's Court
Click to expand...
Hi All,
We are all entitled to our different opinions but, to me, there is something strange about this particular photo. Indeed, if it was just an ordinary lunchtime why was the photographer bothering in any case. One thing is certain we are never likely to ascertain the true facts whatever they are. In the meantime let us have some more of these intriguing photos. I think it was Mohawk who posted it in the first place so "Thank you our kid"
Old Boy
 
Hi Old Boy, I seem to often look at an old pic and imagine what people in them are doing. I suppose I could even have been in some of the 1950s/1960s pics if I had been there on the right day !
I have my favourites in the old pics and the lady below is one of them ... click her and see her in action ...

oldmohawk
ps. she is a bit off topic .... not wearing a hat ... but someone near her is.
 
Seen here are a group of people in Victorian clothes, all wearing or holding a hat. The photograph was taken at the Birmingham pageant in 1938 in the grounds of Aston Hall. The pageant was to celebrate the centenary of the granting of a Charter to Birmingham in 1838. Those in the photograph are therefore wearing clothes depicting 1838. A couple from the same group are shown separately.P1020698 (2).JPG P1020696 (2).JPG Dave
 
An excuse to look again at this earlier forum pic with it's busy scene at the top of Snow Hill c1912 because everyone in the pic is wearing a hat as was the fashion back then. That man in the centre looks in a hurry but the man pushing the cart is taking it steady.
index.php


pic only visible if logged in.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top