• 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

Old street pics..

dennis howell tries out his loud hailer at the back of his coventry road committee rooms dated 1961

and 2 pics of church lane aston dated 1969

View attachment 117413
Yes I remember good old Dennis Howell , I remember he got the nickname a man for all seasons when he was in Parliament one minute he was the minister for rain after a good downpour for some weeks . Or after a bad snowfall somewhere he was minister for snow, he had to have a hat for all weathers
 
cuckoo road nechells dated 1967..note the old anderson shelter in the garden..

View attachment 117455

hingeston st dated 1967..showing the rose and crown pub where our dad was living from a few weeks old..this street was also used in the shooting of the docu/film cathy come home..
,
View attachment 117456
As a nipper I used to call it Indegestion St , before I knew how it was spelt
 
I've walked along St Peter's Place and Ledsam St qiuite a few times
Attachments 117397 brings back so many memories, when my son was four I had to take him to what was then the children's Hospital Five ways, we walked past that cobbled stoned oldy worldly what became a antique shop, with different sellers, renting space, as I'm saying this, in front of me is an original solid pine chest with three large drawers and two at the top, no nails all lined drawers, on the way back from the children's, l couldn't resist going in and fell for the chest bought for the pricey sum of £48.00. then the small shop by the telephone box, the lady who ran that also had a stall in the old rag market, selling pottery glassware and nicknacks, nice lady. Thank you for the memories it brings back.
 
Fantastic photo's, I've said it before but these photo's show a lost world where you could walk around and find local shops for everything you wanted, a cafe a short walk from anywhere. Lots of interesting family owned shops, antiques and junk shops everywhere and now gone for ever and sadly we will never see the like again.
This is the world I saw and still remember vividly when starting work for shopfitters in 1961 so travelled all over B,ham and the black country.
We refurbished every single Dewhurst's and other well known butchers shops, Withers and Finlay's Tobacconists and countless shops and offices right in the town centre such as Zissman's, George Hull, Lloyds bank and many more.
Happy days but to see the concrete mess that replaced it all is nothing short of criminal and the planners are still at it even now wanting to get rid of the market.
 
could not agree with you more izzy...i cant remember the last time i went into the city centre...sadly it holds very little historical interest for me now..another reason why i have spent the last 15 years amassing thousands of old photos before demo..the written word is fine but to my mind its the photos that tell the real story

lyn
 
Ah memories of Saturday Morning at the Villa Cross Cinema in the 1950s. "We come along on Saturday morning, greeting everybody with a smile. We come along on Saturday morning, knowing it is well worth while..." (shouted rather than sung) Roy Rogers; Flash Gordon; When it was your birthday you got in free and went up on the stage, infront of the screen, for a gift. Some of my mates had three or four birthdays a year!!! (Not me, of course.) I remember the talks between the films and one lady trying to tell us all about 'germs', with giant cardboard cut-out drawings of germs, and having great difficulty being heard over the noise of hundreds of kids. But you could hear a pin drop when the serial film was on!
I saw Davy Crockett on here in the year dot.
 
I think its a later photo too. The JCB is too modern. With the Cinephone on the right the digger is off-road anyway, preparing the way for the "new" Bristol Street Motors later become Monaco House and the Volvo dealership. Would put it early 1970s?
I reckon it's early to mid 60's making room for the housing that would include Rickman Drive , I moved away around 69. My mate moved into Rickman Drive around 66/67
 
this is the one i was talking about....just a solitary figure walking down an entry maybe coming home from the pub..looks like a ciggie box thrown on the floor..cant explain why this one fascinates me either...

entry leading to granville st...ladywood..

View attachment 117612
Lynn when this entry was still standing , the Evening Mail ran a story saying if there was a fire in the houses in the yard, the entry contravenes the fire regulations for escape .
 
its great to see this thread picking up now..thanks to everyone for posting their old street pics...

residents of granville st (off broad st) after a campain to get them re housed has proved successful..oct 1965


View attachment 117613

rear of st martins st ...edgbaston dated 1965

View attachment 117614

birchfield road...perry barr dated..1967

View attachment 117615
Lyn that Granville Street pic has that eerie looking entry that took your attention behind the washing line. Believe it or not there was only four houses in that entry where some of thse people came from was just for the camera I think there were only about 10 lived up that entry
 
hi viv..yes you are right it is the library..if you hover over phils pic it gives us the location and i also had no idea there was a library on constitution hill..wonder where abouts it was...looked to be a nice building..the hen and chickens pic 3 is still standing and open i believe..

lyn
Best pint of Brew X1 in there , I could have drank that all afternoon without a tea break
 
Ah memories of Saturday Morning at the Villa Cross Cinema in the 1950s. "We come along on Saturday morning, greeting everybody with a smile. We come along on Saturday morning, knowing it is well worth while..." (shouted rather than sung) Roy Rogers; Flash Gordon; When it was your birthday you got in free and went up on the stage, infront of the screen, for a gift. Some of my mates had three or four birthdays a year!!! (Not me, of course.) I remember the talks between the films and one lady trying to tell us all about 'germs', with giant cardboard cut-out drawings of germs, and having great difficulty being heard over the noise of hundreds of kids. But you could hear a pin drop when the serial film was on!
Astoness, just another quote from Joni Mitchell. You take paradise and put up a parking lot.
Similar memories different cinema, ours was the Bristol cinema off Lee Bank Bristol rd Edgbaston, my brother and I every Saturday morning, we are the Oveltinies little girls and boys, Flash Gorden, a Cartoon good atmosphere, on the way back we bought a frozen jubbely and meandered back home. Found in Google a picture of the Bristol cinema, looking at now it was pretty impressive, at least buildings had character back then, instead of a square box, good memories the Saturday matinee.
 
All kids in the 50's, had this magical experience, every Saturday Morning, for 6d, another world, mine was the "Royalty " Harborne!! later the "Oak Cinema," selly Oak!!
For me it was either walking to the WOB :D in Weoley Castle where I lived in the 1950's or getting the 22 bus to Selly 'Oak' cinema and walking back afterwards, someone used to walk along the waiting line handing us a picture card
 
Hi izzy, I remember the WOB, in Barns Hill, well mate, it had a faulty, rear door, where you could sneak in when you were under age for a film showing, saw Dracula, and Sat Night Sunday Morning, that way, but when about 6 or 7 lads, tried it once,got caught, they repaired it, about 1960/ 61 time!!
And those were the good old days (at least it seemed), sneaking in without paying regardless of the picture!
 
Hi izzy, I remember the WOB, in Barns Hill, well mate, it had a faulty, rear door, where you could sneak in when you were under age for a film showing, saw Dracula, and Sat Night Sunday Morning, that way, but when about 6 or 7 lads, tried it once, got caught, they repaired it, about 1960/ 61 time!!
Yes, I did the same, aged just 11 :innocent: we were told by older kids to say we were 16 and worked at the BSA and even with our squeeky voices they still let us in :joy:
Us kids got up to all sorts of tricks back then, climbing over the gate at the Raven pub and getting an arm full of empty bottles and taking them back into the outdoor to get the money :D nearly got caught as they had begun marking the bottles and we did a runner and never went near for months o_O
 
Last edited:
The 'Blitz' had not started when at least two of these photos were taken, so I've put them here.

Margaret St in the months before WW2 a fairly cheerful looking crowd filling sandbags and placing them untidily against the walls of the Education office.


Still Margaret St in the opposite direction. The trams had to squeeze past the busy scene. Would those sandbags protect the building?



Perhaps a little later the sandbags look more uniform in size and placement, but what about the upper windows? Note the 'Keep Left' bollards had light shields fitted.
I wonder if those young men standing in the doorway were school leavers , I seem tp remember going there in August meny years ago to collect my cards so I could start work ?
 
hi maggs...thing is as kids we usually stuck to the picture houses near to where we lived...by the time i was old enough to go up town by myself a lot of them had gone or if not i was then into going to the pub lol...here are a few more from me..

westley road..acocks green..dated 1975

View attachment 117626

not exactly a street but a nice one..
christchurch passage with new st in view..dated 1970..not long after this pic was taken the buildings on the right were demolished..

View attachment 117627

cattell road/coventry road...dated 1973

View attachment 117628

hockley hill...dated 1960..love this one as it shows both the trees pub and the duke of york...sadly both now gone..ive walked past them both many many times on my way to work in vyse st..

View attachment 117629

albert road..stechford....dated 1975

View attachment 117630
The good old Duke of York When I was in the Winson Green & District Darts League we played there and won .
 
Back
Top