Search results

Jonathan Green's Dictionary of Slang gives Monkey's Parade from 1879: Monkey’s Parade (n.) used of various urban walks popular with local young people in such London suburbs as Wanstead, Wimbledon, etc. and cities such as Manchester and Dundee but primarily a popular promenade in the East End of...

And in daytime. A section of T. S. Eliot's 'Burnt Norton' is inscribed on the rim of the upper pool: And the pool was filled with water of sunlight, And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly, The surface glittered out of heart of light, And they were behind us, reflected in the pool. Then a cloud...

Victoria Square October 2024 by night.

The Ringway Centre was completed in 1962. Andy Foster in  Birmingham: Pevsner Architectural Guide: 'The best piece of mid-C20 urban design in the city, and the only stretch of the Inner Ring Road built as a boulevard, rather than an urban motorway.'

Hope you had a wonderful birthday, Lyn! Derek

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00244xf 'Gardeners' Question Time' from Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Some snippets about the history and present development there. A place full of happy memories for me. The plant collector Ernest Henry Wilson trained as an apprentice there age 16, before...

Thanks for posting Rog's list. Can I point out that the late Octavia Butler is very much in print these days! Indeed I co-supervised a PhD on her more than 20 years ago. I'm pleased to see much more SF and fantasy in the general bookshops at the moment. I think the last SF event in Birmingham I...

The account of the Pageant explains that Gwen Lally used mime to music rather than have a narrator, or provide the actors with words. The first week was subject to rain and the pageant committee wildly underestimated the costs. 'The Pageant made a spectacular loss of £11835, despite a massive...

Pageant of Birmingham in the Historical Pageants database. https://historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/994/ Source: Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Pageant of Birmingham’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/994/

Pictures of 419 Wake Green Road on the virtual 'Prefab Museum' Website. (Taken July 2024) https://www.prefabmuseum.uk/content/new-contributions/restoration-of-the-wake-green-road-prefabs-july-2024 There's a wealth of information on Britain's prefabs on the site.https://www.prefabmuseum.uk I...

Fabulous photos Mark! My dad used to work for Coronet, but earlier than the stereoscope camera you posted above. These date from 1953 and use 127 film. I didn't realise they ever made stereoscopic cameras. Apart from two special open days, we can only visit Dolman Street store between set times...

Sadly no reply was ever received. I suspect that photographs are the only remains of the Copplestone bull forms, but they are still said to be 'missing' rather than destroyed.

Happy Birthday, Janice!

I guess not, but dogs are welcome apparently.

The Prince of Wales in Cambridge street is open. Beer and cobs, pork pie etc. Run by Black Country Ales these days. https://www.blackcountryales.co.uk/pubs/the-prince-of-wales

Video above dates from 2021. There is now the massive HS2 construction and partly built Curzon Street station here. I wonder if this area will be cleaned up? There’s still plenty of Victorian and Edwardian factories to see, but I think there will be development if/when HS2 is operational.

Richard, the courts or courtyards were sometimes given names or sometimes numbers. Both appear on maps and in addresses, like the census. The courts ceased to be part of the official address sometime in the early 20C. I'm not sure when though. There is a thread on the numbering of houses with...

Keith, the letters on your stone appear to be made of lead. They will have short pegs on the back which fit into drilled holes. I think plain water and a soft brush is the safest. Perhaps press any lifted edges carefully back? I wouldn't attempt to clean the background as the lichen frames the...

Welcome to the forum, Toothypegs! Generally houses were renumbered when the courts ceased to be referred to. But I think that the names and personal stories in 'Back to Backs' have been selected and arranged to form a representative narrative. They cover a wide time period and it would be...

Alice Beale née Kenrick was also presented with a steel key to University House on her 80th birthday in 1926. "Mrs. Beale was President and Chairman of the University House Committee whilst her Husband, Charles Gabriel Beale, was the University’s first Vice-Chancellor and Mayor of Birmingham...