Recent content by BrummieGeoff

Good find Viv .... I'm not surprised that James wanted to get rid of that lot before moving!

It's very difficult to be sure Viv. Wrightson's 1823 Triennial Directory of Birmingham shows Samuel Dore - Boot & Shoe Maker - at #54 New Street .... so #53 may be the building annotated as "Sheldon Metal Warehouse" in the 1814 sketch. However, the street numbering appears to have changed by the...

Mike: I think it might be the "school-like" building indicated in the photo below .... so it could be the Board of Education Stores in Grosvenor Street.

I've been doing something similar Viv. I think this updated image shows the street numbering from an 1849 directory, and also where Bennett's Hill and Christchurch Passage were cut. By that date the Panorama site had been taken over by the "Society of Arts & Government School of Design". I...

Viv : I think the surname is Gottwaltz .... but it's not a common Brummie name and it has been misinterpreted (by me and others).

A very interesting annotated sketch of the top end of New Street dated 1814 that shows the Panorama and Post Office .... and other buildings in that part of the street. The sketch is from the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists collection, and is currently on display in the "Mapping the Archive"...

The Buckler & Webb building was at 45 Church Street .... here's a 2021 view of the building now on that corner.

A great photo of the Buckler & Webb building from 1901 (with a bobby on the corner).

In the early 1970s I bought most of my rock albums from Heavyhead Records at 803 Stratford Road, next to the Municipal Bank. It was owned by Bev Bevan (ex-Move). He invited a few famous faces to the shop opening in February 1971.

I remember shopping in the Springfield Coop in the 1960s .... with my Mom's divi number written on a scrap of paper.

Yes Viv, I used to go there in the mid-1970s .... the huge Mixed/Mick's Grill was legendary. There used to be an annual pub crawl race around Selly Oak for students competing in pairs .... drinking in 10 (I think) pubs and finishing with a Grill in Mick's Cafe. Not a pretty sight!

A prominent site in Springfield is the junction of Stratford Road and Springfield Road. In 1922 the southerly corner was occupied by George W Halford's outfitters shop at 797 Stratford Road, with Springfield Social Club above. A Sparkhill branch of Birmingham Municipal Bank was opened a couple...

Springfield became the terminus for the Sparkhill steam tram service on 5 May 1899, when the service was extended down the Stratford Road past the previous terminus at St Johns Road. A depot was built near the College Road junction, just before the River Cole bridge. The service was converted to...

A photo of the H G Turner shop at 836 Stratford Road, Springfield dated 1950s. I remember going in the shop in the mid-1960s to buy dried peas .... to fire from a spring-loaded toy gun. The shopkeeper made me promise that I was buying them for my mom to cook.

Yes devonjim .... I was a client of the school clinic for tooth extractions in the 1960s. I can still remember the smell of that rubber gas mask.