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Where's This Shop?

Michael_Ingram

Michael_Ingram

gone but not forgotten
Here is a challenge. I obtained this photo some time ago; its a postcard photo and written on the back in pencil is 'Birmingham Post'.
Does anyone recognise the shop or the women. Any guesses where it may be. I have tried to enhance the sign to the left of the bedroom window but can't get sufficient detail
 
don,tknow the lady
but i think it was the lower end of green lane
just past what used be the old picture house
 
John
I'm not entirely convinced it is Stranger (or Strange) but there is the following in 1950 and 1963:
Strange Leonard & Beatrice (Mrs.), confctnrs. 462 College rd 22c (Erdington 0527) & newsagts. 97 Birchfield rd 19​
mike
 
well mike
i am querring this in my mind because inthe eary fiftys
when i first clapped my eyes on this shop walking past it
and as you walk towards the shop
yes he had news papers for sale which gave you the impression that it was a news agents
but passing the front door and passing the shop windows
you get the impression that it was a ladys hair dressers
and the ereason i say that it was because she had lotions and potionns resting in the widow top
with cut out pictures of ladys hair doos
and among that she had all bric a bac of all different items
and as i have just requested about kierons pub
it comes to my mind that was the particular shop was facing near enough on the oppersite side
so thats why i did say what i did on where is this
but as i am typing i am begining to think of an article in a paper many ,many years ago of the one you say it is
that is slowly coming to my mind which youre onabout some-where else
the more i think about it the more i beleive i am right
of because of what i seen in the window at that time
astonian ;;
 
Hello Mike,
I wasn't sure , but looking again I can make out the first two letters seem to be ER or BR .
I was quite familiar with Green Lane from 1953-64 having lived in the area at that time, even going to the Green Lane cinema, and I can't recall a shop looking any thing like this, it looks a lot earlier to me.
 
Looking at the photo I would date it around 1930, by the length and style of the ladies dress. The style of her shoes and light colored stockings. The photo's in the shop window of ladies in cloche hats also date it as the 1930 (Bonny and Clide style). The shop appears to sell jewelery, handbags, purses knitting patterns and news papers. I hope this is of some help.
 
hi wendy
thats excactly what it sell beleive me
and the paint work was still the same as i seen it
i was only a kid at the time and it was my first time around that area and more so on that road
i went up to alum rock to see a friend whom moved from the terrace of lichfield rd in the 1950s
they moved to a posh house up the alum rock
the side road of the alum rock pub
he took me up there with him we had to go on and an
errand for is mother
and as i was new and strayed from lichfield rd
i was looking at the shops as i was walking around
and as we was walking towards the shop
i seen the dirty door way and the news papers
and i said to myself oh thats a news agents. but as
we walked passed the step i emediatly looked
into the window and i seen all those things you had mentioned and as we carried on walking
i said thats a funny news agents and its a dirty shop
so it cannot be a news agentsi said to myself
because mr diggers shop back on the lichfield rd as toys in his window but they have alsorts of junk
i can recall to myself i will look into that shop door way on the way back and see inside but we never went to his house the same way went
but thats how excactly what was in that window
and by pictures of carboard pics of ladies i first thought
it must have beenanold ladies hair dresser and left those bits and bobs still in the window and could not be bothered to take
them out
but that is definately green lane in the era gone bye
between 50 and 54
roger craddock and is family lived up our terrace
and we celebrated the queens coronation before they moved to the rop ofthe rock
best wishes astonian;;
 
Can't help but I would love to know which of you scallies broke the window?
 
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Does that mean I was correct Mike as my friends aunt owned it?. Don't know her name but Ivy Price was my friend. Jean.
 
After driving myself nuts all day, have finally solved a bit of the puzzle.
The sign is the bottom right hand corner of a much larger sign, and I've made out the letters ER HANGERS,( the missing letters being PAP) with the elaborate scrolling and old english typeface for the rest of the sign it's probable that it belongs to a painter,decorator,grainer,maybe even a signwriter, as most painters in those days diversified.
Wish I could read the rest of the lettering.
It is definately.... ch & E ..... something.
Regards John.
 
hi surely mike
this picture must havehad acaptionon the front side
of the card they usaly do or a named st
to tell you where it is ?.
best wishes astonian ;;
 
it's not the complete sign I would say it's a scrolling advert bottom right you can see a dowel sticking out and the bottom is circular there are several different types of letters'
top line there is a & the next word looks like the beging of Young the last word looks like Deccorator
bottom line begins BR the last part looks like glass.
 
Hi John,
With all due respect the bottom line is certainly ER HANGERS.
you are probably right on the YOU bit, It's doing my head in ha ha.
Here's another look and I've roughly marked in what I believe are the right letters so far.
Regards John.
 
Many thanks for all of the suggestions so far. Astonion's memory seems to be pointing in the right direction. Great work on the sign; good analysis John. I made several guesses but couldn't get anything as sensible as paper hangers
 
hi mike
getting back to this shop the more i think back about it
i know i am one hundred percent sure its green lane
and when i think about the sign and the shop as it was then
the sign was above ,but there was a pathic little sign in
the door way just along from the paper rack on the panel of the door step when you walk in . and the writing was terrible and but readable covered by plastic but it was already fading
and the sign above was visable to read
and as i have stated it would have been1950 -53 at the most 54. because the craddocks family never left the terrace house
cromwell sqaure until then to live in alum rock
and thats when i vistied that area of green lane
also when i think back in time and by standing across the rd and facing the shop and walking along as if walking to munts street
there was big houses where you would have had to walk up about six steps to get into your front door
and it was the last one or two of that block was some kind of a society or club in it
but unfortuneatly i could not tell you the name and it was only a small plague on the out side by the front door
it was some kind of society
if you know of greenlane from the past and the side of the pub
which we have now established was and not kierons
but had been part of it and now called the vine .
is a road today with a no entry exit and the main rd on to green lane is where today the buses travel
but in those days the side by this house was only a walk through and was not opento traffic in those days
only a walk hrough to get to munts street
so what i thought oftwo thing to help establish this shop would be look for and old 1940-50 telephone directory and look for a decorator or the habbidashery news agents close to the numbers
of that shop or the other option will be i will travel to green lane and try and establish the number of the shop was i have a good idea where the shop was postioned and work out todays numbers
providing the council never redezigned the shop numbers
as they did with pershore rd
also alf mentioned the decorators but like i said about a make shift little notce in the door way and because it was a shop of allsorts including news papers it was more oftin pan alley
i have seen another shop like thisin years gone bye where people are trying to make money for a living
there was a guy named greens downthe sanpitts with a shop like
that ,alll sosome ome mentioned another shopdown by bromford that paticulr did not appear in the paper untilaround 59 60,s the state it was in when printed in the paper
any way mike i still maintain its green lane and i will pursue my self
to prove my conviction on this shop
have a nice day mike and every body else
best wishes astonian;;;
 
Hi Allm

It is not much help but I believe the club that Astonian refers to in his last post was The Ravenscroft Club. It was a sort of better class working mans club although I hate the word class in this context,

Old Boy
 
Have searched the 1905 and 1943 Kellys but to no avail, and without a name it's even harder, but I enjoyed doing it , any more for any more.Regards John.
 
Is this the shop Astonian is talking about ?
I think the number is 240.
 
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I doubt it, I know exactly where that is, because I did the My Cellars sign for M & B's as we did all the others in Brum.
That shop is opposite the Vine on the other side of Green Lane, on the corner of Muntz St. or the next corner along, time dims memory.
Regards John.
 
Astonian said:
don,tknow the lady
but i think it was the lower end of green lane
just past what used be the old picture house
Click to expand...

Hello John
Which is exactly where astononian says it was, the old Green lane picture house was on the opposite corner to the off licence.( I think)
 
hi postie
many thanks for the indication of the shop
and for trying to help us al to establish the shop no
there could be every possiblalty that could be the very no
in which case some-body on our forum ould do a swat back in time and may be just a name
and thinking with hine sight and looking at the picture there is a bit of a bomb peck ,[ pardon the expression] as you know thats what most kids called them in those days
could be the postion of the rd the shop was placed ,
if i am right thinking it,s the postion and the block the shop was on on . it could have been the shop
prior to those shops being remodernised that waste land stood a old shop it was an ols delapit shop
which one time was bits of old furtiture and it eventual
stood empty for years
then in the sisxtys some work was done on it and there was a big explosion of gas as some body tried to fit a cooker or a gas fire as i seem to remember and that corner had to be demolished
so may be that could be the waste land next to it
i am going to my daughters today around 4 oclock
whom lives in acocks green and i am going to take a
a look at green lane and this shop
i will take a bearing from the corner and to look towards the what i call a house in those days where the batch of about six houses with the high rise big steps going up
and try abd establish where the sign along side the door on the out wall was said it was a club in those days
when i think back about that house club if you like to call it
it must have been going back years
thirts or 40,s era when used
because in the fifty -they had built another building
on the other side of the road in that what i call a cul sac
you could park your on it but you could never drive thro' and get access to muntz st you had to turn around back to green lane and turnleft if you wanted to get to coventry rd or muntz st
postie; as you know the old saying ;
Curiosty killed the cat;
even thou you are bang on every time
have a nice day postie [ jim] best wishes astonian ;;
 
Hi Jim,
Not doubting Astonians word by any means.
I 've done a mock-up of the area as I knew it, but that was only from 1950.
Regards John.
 
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