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William Street...Lozells
- Thread starter Astoness
- Start date
Joy Johnson
Brummie babby
Thank you so much for the repost of William Street photos. Can't believe the memories.
Joy Johnson
Brummie babby
In this photo I think that is the corner shop on the far left. That side of the street would be odd numbers and do you think number 36 could be opposite the shop?
Making that road Gerrard Street?
Joy Johnson
Brummie babby
Sorry Lyn, just read this post after I posted. It confirms the corner shop for me thanks so much. I'm very grateful for your efforts.
Joy Johnson
Brummie babby
Wow thanks so much Mike, it's just what I needed to know.
Joy Johnson
Brummie babby
Thanks again Mike. I am so grateful for all your efforts. I love maps and street plans. I hope to put a collage together of all the places my ancestors lived and worked but finding these online is so difficult. Then when I do find them I can't identify the house numbers. I have all the address from the census and what they did for work. They are all back to back houses in Birmingham centre area and main industry was brass casters and pearl button makers.
If I send you another couple of addresses do you think you could help find the relevant plans from 1900 back to 1850?
Davidsteam
BSA owner and rider
I have just spent the last hour trying to find 61 William St, Lozells, using various online maps, only to find it is underneath the Holte leisure centre. (I hope the link below works). This address in 1891 had my branch of the Turley family living there, all 9 of them, and my gt, grandparents Frank and Mary Smith and a lodger, this must have been a bit of a squeeze!
My question, from the c1960s photo above with the children,van and Hillman Imp in the distance, there appear to be houses with an entrance to a court yard behind, so front door, passage, front door.
The above picture the houses seem to be of four styles, looking at the lintels, number of floors etc, so were they built at different times, and the courtyards are something I have not come across in London, either in photos or still existing.
I cannot identify No 61 from the map extract, do we know what numbers in William are shown in the photo ?
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sid...=52.5014&lon=-1.9002&layers=168&right=BingHyb
David
PS the UKcensusOnline has the Turley transcripted as Tusley
My question, from the c1960s photo above with the children,van and Hillman Imp in the distance, there appear to be houses with an entrance to a court yard behind, so front door, passage, front door.
The above picture the houses seem to be of four styles, looking at the lintels, number of floors etc, so were they built at different times, and the courtyards are something I have not come across in London, either in photos or still existing.
I cannot identify No 61 from the map extract, do we know what numbers in William are shown in the photo ?
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sid...=52.5014&lon=-1.9002&layers=168&right=BingHyb
David
PS the UKcensusOnline has the Turley transcripted as Tusley
Estates like this were often speculative building projects (spec built). A builder or several builders, or an investor would buy up plots of land and design and build a number of houses on the plot without an actual sale. They would speculate that a certain style of house or building would become in demand at some stage in the future. Hence all of the different styles and designs.
You can see that as demand for workers increased, so did the demand for housing. Land owners in developing cities had quite a lucrative time. I don’t know who the original land owner was in the area around William Street, it should not be too hard to find out. But the Holt estate at Aston Hall was apparently 40,000 acres.
I live on St Agnes Road which is now a conservation area. This was a speculative building scheme. I cannot remember who originally owned the land, it was an estate and farm that was divided into plots. I have seen the original plans. The roads were put in first and even a church built. Then the houses started to appear over several years. I have a feeling tat my house stood empty for a couple of years after being built. Quite common with speculative buildings.
If you look at the development of industrial towns, the wealthier people would move to the south of the town as it developed, away from the air pollution and industry. A potential speculative building opportunity.
Next time anyone’s on holiday in Yorkshire, go and visit Ravenscar. A classic example of a speculative building project that failed in a spectacular way
You can see that as demand for workers increased, so did the demand for housing. Land owners in developing cities had quite a lucrative time. I don’t know who the original land owner was in the area around William Street, it should not be too hard to find out. But the Holt estate at Aston Hall was apparently 40,000 acres.
I live on St Agnes Road which is now a conservation area. This was a speculative building scheme. I cannot remember who originally owned the land, it was an estate and farm that was divided into plots. I have seen the original plans. The roads were put in first and even a church built. Then the houses started to appear over several years. I have a feeling tat my house stood empty for a couple of years after being built. Quite common with speculative buildings.
If you look at the development of industrial towns, the wealthier people would move to the south of the town as it developed, away from the air pollution and industry. A potential speculative building opportunity.
Next time anyone’s on holiday in Yorkshire, go and visit Ravenscar. A classic example of a speculative building project that failed in a spectacular way
Davidsteam
BSA owner and rider
I found this article about William Street : https://brummiefamilytree.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/story-of-mary-ohagan.html,
It seems incredible to have survived a further 80 years after being described as, In 1886, William Street was specifically cited by Birmingham‘s Medical Officer as having overcrowded courts, sodden yards and dirty houses where babies and children regularly died of cholera, scarlet fever, malnutrition, diarrhoea and suffocation from overlaying (too many people in a single bed).
According to the Medical Officer, William Street had all of the familiar ingredients of slum housing: dirt, damp, dilapidation, sickness, misery, want of ventilation and want of light, resulting in dirty habits, low health and debased morals.
You only have to look at the Booth poverty map to see the parallel with London, surviving properties are now gentryfied and command high prices.
It seems incredible to have survived a further 80 years after being described as, In 1886, William Street was specifically cited by Birmingham‘s Medical Officer as having overcrowded courts, sodden yards and dirty houses where babies and children regularly died of cholera, scarlet fever, malnutrition, diarrhoea and suffocation from overlaying (too many people in a single bed).
According to the Medical Officer, William Street had all of the familiar ingredients of slum housing: dirt, damp, dilapidation, sickness, misery, want of ventilation and want of light, resulting in dirty habits, low health and debased morals.
You only have to look at the Booth poverty map to see the parallel with London, surviving properties are now gentryfied and command high prices.
david if you look closely at the death cert on the blog you will see it was in the parish of st martins so it is not referring to the william st in lozells..william st st martins parish was built many years before william st lozells and was indeed an awful place to live in...the conditions were apalling...i have posted many photos on this thread of william st lozells in fact one photo shows from numbers 33 to 69 so no 61 is on the photo albeit in the distance..see post 52
lyn
lyn
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brummy-lad
master brummie
brummy-lad
master brummie
I'm really struggling with the location of this one and any help would be greatly appreciated. The ghost sign above the antique shop is "G. E. Griffin" and they seemed to sell dog food, fishing tackle etc. The only Griffin I can find is around 1890, Charles Griffin (florist) @ 109 William Street and this could well be the location but I can't find the antique shop or shoe repair shop in the Kelly's I have access to i.e 1955, 1964 & 1967/8.
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brummy-lad
master brummie
This image is named as William Street, Newtown, I can find no reference to this company on William Street and no suitable location on that street. Directories seem to refer to 33 New Summer Street, thoughts/ideas would be appreciated.
EDIT: Just realised it is William Street North (the other entrance to J. F. Metals) there is a number 4 on the house door.
The gates and the damaged pillars can still be seen on google streetview.
EDIT: Just realised it is William Street North (the other entrance to J. F. Metals) there is a number 4 on the house door.
The gates and the damaged pillars can still be seen on google streetview.
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brummy-lad
master brummie
brummy-lad
master brummie
William Street (Lozells) has been added to the map:
www.leroux.co.uk/aston
If the the images do not show immediately please allow some time for the numerous images to load.
www.leroux.co.uk/aston
If the the images do not show immediately please allow some time for the numerous images to load.
This is my house 102 where the lady is walking past. We were still living there whilst all around was being demolished. The houses either side were eventually knocked down before we were allocated a 4 bed new house in Newtown with indoor bathroom. 2 toilets and a kitchen. A palace!
That was in 1967
Davidsteam
BSA owner and rider
So where there appears to be 3 doorways, is the middle one access to a courtyard?
Hi, I lived in this street growing up in the fifties and I remember the sweet shop just down the road from our house, I remember the factory called Jarvis in lower part of street where my house was on the opposite side of the street. There was also a shop at the end of lower William street on factory side. I once took one of my brothers home made up bikes for a spin and went wizzing down the street on it but couldn’t pull the brakes as the bike had cow horn handlebars on it so I ended up going into the wall between a house and the shop window and fortunately I only had badly bruised hands but my brothers bike had a figure eight front wheel plus other stuff. My mother used to go up to the gough arms pub to the outdoor to get my dads beer bottle filled on a regular basis. Does anyone remember the place we called the bomb peck at the bottom of Clifford street. I attended Alma street school and the Lozells secondary for girls. My brothers went to Gower street boys.
Welcome Bona. You have lots of good memories. There are more memories from members - and photos - on the thread link below.
Threads combined
Threads combined
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Thanks for brilliant pics that has brought back childhood memories and the shop at the bottom of lower William street was there when I had my incident on my brothers big bike. The factory was Jarvis Bros. As a kid growing up in the street I used to hang around with my brothers in their gang and play marbles, thunder and lightening and lots of other games like Cannon, hide and seek up the entry’s. Lots of innocent fun games, I used to ride on my brothers home made go carts too down the gulleys, the bottom gulley gave you access gate to alma street infants and juniors which had a great big playground for top and bottom gates then.
Thanks for the welcome, I have lots of good childhood memories of William street I left in 1966 to move to Erdington when I was 16 I was born in a back to back house in Brealey Street Hockley then moved to William Street as a young baby/toddler. Looking forward to hearing from anyone who lived in the street as a kid. I always had a big grin on my face when my mom used to give me a penny when doing jobs for her in our busy household and I’d run down to the sweet shop a few doors down from our house and ask for the sweet tray to select some yummy delights as that penny gave you a good choice of sweet things off that magical sweetie tray I used to gaze in that sweet shop window everyday at all the yummy things on display. I worked hard to get my penny reward as I was the only girl in the house and the boys just made a mess and went out playing leaving me to keep house tidy ready for our stern father to come home from work.Welcome Bona. You have lots of good memories. There are more memories from members - and photos - on the thread link below. Viv
William Street...Lozells
This thread is about William Street in Lozells. Please note. For William Street in the City Centre please see the thread via link here: https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/william-street-city-centre.48367/#post-606191 Edit. See post #8 below. couple of william st...birminghamhistory.co.uk
I think that factory is Jarvis Bros which was on opposite side of street to my house in lower William Street and that wall below the street sign is my bike incident wall. Clifford Street runs across bottom going down a hill slope. Facing the street was another factory company but I forget its name, then going up Clifford street there was a gulley and after that was porchester street if I remember rightly.
