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I'm so sorry to read this news, condolences to Chris's family.

Your grandfather commissioned Ernő Goldfinger, a leading architect of the Modernist movement, to design the company offices in 1955/6. 'Goldfinger House' is a grade 11 listed building and currently refurbished and maintained. photo 2010.

I've been lucky enough to see two concerts at Birmingham Symphony Hall this year. The folkie Roy Harper now in his 80s. And last night, Simon Rattle conducting his new band the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra playing Schumann's second symphony and the highlight for me, Stravinsky's ballet...

The Imperial War Museum's site gives basic information only.https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/17324

'Witton Wall' was constructed after the First World War, with 12 names being added after WW2 to 'commemorate those Second World War casualties buried in graves that could not be marked individually.' Most memorials were constructed in the 1920s. You can read about the memorial on the...

Happy Birthday Lyn, and thanks for all your work here! Derek

I'm happy to celebrate the life and work of Baskerville. No one is suggesting using his type universally, but it can produce beautiful hand printing. As for Eric Gill, Typeroom makes sorry reading...

Caroline Archer-Parré is a printer and type historian. She is part of a team researching the punches used to create Baskerville's type. At her talk she said there are about 20 different digital interpretations, many ill-formed. One of the aims of the new research project will be to produce: 'A...

Yes Viv, it seems Baskerville certainly wasn't an atheist, but a rational deist, a free thinker. Many printers are associated with radical thought and often viewed as seditious. Baskerville's beautiful type lives on in our computer age. http://idsgn.org/posts/know-your-type-baskerville/ Prof...

A recent account of Baskerville's death and subsequent reinterments: Caroline Archer-Parré (2022) Inhuming and Exhuming: John Baskerville’s Death, Burial and Post-Mortem Life, Midland History, 47:3, 274-291, DOI: 10.1080/0047729X.2022.2126238...

Happy Birthday to you!

Keith Swallow's The Hagley Wood Tree Murder (Reviewing the Case of Bella in the Wych Elm) – with Rachel Joy (2023) makes an interesting read. All the spy stuff appears to be a fabrication of the journalist Wilfred Byford-Jones. Alex Merrill with Pete Merrill's Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm vol 2...

Home grown or bought from a mate? I was thinking of the cost compared to cheap turkey. There's not a lot of meat on a goose, but a good one is a quality bird. £20 per Kg they grow slowly fed on grass.

A tip for roasting goose or duck is to prick the skin then roast on a wire rack or trivet set inside a roasting tin. Pour off the fat during the cooking. The legs should be covered in foil or or cut off and cooked separately. Keep the fat as it makes wonderful roast potatoes. Geese are...

The Shakespeare Memorial Room at the top of Birmingham Library. It was in store after the destruction of the old library and installed here in the new building. Pictured Jan 2022. Whoever took the decision to store the material from the old library did a good job.

The Shakespeare Memorial Room at the top of Birmingham Library. It was in store after the destruction of the old library and installed here in the new building. Pictured Jan 2022. Whoever took the decision to store the material from the old library did a good job.

Some of the timbers and cabinets from the Shakespeare Memorial Library were stored and can be seen on Floor 9 of the current Library of Birmingham. The book collection isn't displayed there as this room is neither climate controlled nor large enough for the Shakespeare collection. It is worth...

Ecco occupied 42A from 2019 - Aug 2024 Gail's opened Jan 2025

I'd say that the fire door was inserted after the date of the plan. Very likely when Ecco the shoe shop was converted into Gail's. There's only the public exit onto New Street otherwise and because of the counter the ground floor of Gail's is rather cramped. You can see the door with the green...

I'm pretty sure that's a fire exit. Looking at #262 it would lead to Needless Alley via the blue dotted passage. Needless is I'm afraid pretty rough these days, the back doors of bars and cafes- staff tend to come out for a smoke. But I agree not a place to hang around in.