Search results

They most certainly are - when I was a boy they were so large you had to take them down to a Kwik-Fit Tyre place for them to get the wrapper off for you. They should be rebranded as Dinky Car Wheels.

I know you are probably looking for views of Walter Street from decades ago, but you can see it as it is today and "travel" along it in Google Street View.

Hi Carol T I lived at one of the shops opposite the Capitol Cinema from 1945 until 1956.

Yes, I remember going to cinemas in the 40s and 50s and seeing messages put up on the screen, while a film was still showing along the lines of "Will Joe Smith go to the ticket desk - there is a message for him" I used to look round the audience to see if I could see whoever it was and try...

Further to the earlier dating of the photograph of the Capitol Cinema and Alum Rock Road I can now give an earliest year for it. The third shop along from the left was my father's. It was a hardware shop and there were petrol pumps on the pavement which are in the photograph but difficult to...

Yes, Alf and Rowan, I think you must be correct about it being post 1951 - the A30 came out for the Motor Show in late 1951, so it has to be after that. I can't think why the Capitol, which was not considered to be a flea-pit cinema and which usually got the next showing of new films after they...

Many thanks for that photo, pmc1947. I lived in one of those shops opposite the cinema - I can see my old bedroom from when I was a boy! The lorry in the left foreground is being served petrol from some kerbside petrol pumps that belonged to my parent's shop (third shop in from the left) but...

Yes, I remember Hawtins. I lived next door - my father owned the hardware shop with the petrol pumps on the pavement. Jack and Mary Hawtin owned the music shop. As a young boy, I used to be invited into the lounge behind the shop and play and eat cakes and fizzy drinks. Physically, they were...

Yes, there was a milk bar close to the Capitol cinema. It was owned by a lady called Mrs Ball and, you're right - the milk shakes were delicious. That row of shops had Arrowsmith's (sweets and tobacco), J House (bread and cakes), the Milk Bar, Home & Colonial Stores and Freeman Hardy & Willis...

Roy, Ted Haynes also had a large double-fronted shop on Alum Rock Road near to the Capitol Cinema. We had a shop almost opposite and, as a boy, I was always being sent across to Haynes' for some item of fruit or veg. It used to amuse me that the staff had a way of referring to their fruit and...

I've always hated swimming. I can't stand the water in my eyes, up my nose, over my head. The hate stems from my school days, when we were taken to Woodcock St. Baths for lessons and we had to sit along the side of the water, in a line, and jump in one after another. When it came to my turn...

My grandfather and then my father had a shop on Alum Rock Road from about 1935 until 1956. No 757, opposite the Capitol Cinema. I lived there as a boy for 10 years, until 1956. If there is anything you want to know about that part of A R Road, let me know. I can remember it vividly...

The main reason for the price hike in petrol over the last six weeks or so (from 82.9 to 88.9 approximately where I live in Yorkshire) has been the fall in the value of the £ against the US $. Oil is traded in $, so when sterling is weak you get less oil for your money.

My family lived at one of the shops on Alum Rock Road, just along from the Pelham in 1940-1950s. My grandfather, Edgar Galpin, was a member of the bowling club that was based there. The bowling green was behind the pub. At the age of 8 or 9, I was often sent down to the "Outdoor" or...

When I was a small boy during the second world war, we lived with my grandparents in Tile Cross Road, Marston Green. The buses from Birmingham stopped at Kitts Green in those days so we had to walk the length of Mackadown Lane to get home. I used to hate that walk, it seemed endless to me...

Doger asked :" Did anyone go to Thornton rd primary school from around 1954-1958 ? I remember a very strict old teacher there, called Miss Hamer. " Yes, I went to the infants and primary schools from 1950-1956 and can just recall Miss Hamer's name. I cannot remember her face, but I do recall...

We were on holiday in Turkey, walking along a sea front with restaurants and bars, open to the road. As I walked past one, I saw on the television inside, a shot of one of the towers being hit by a plane and remember thinking it was a disaster movie being shown. Of course, this clip was repeated...

My father, who worked in the motor trade from the 1920's, said that nobody was ever complained of being cold in a car until they started putting heaters in them!

I knew a Tom Parton who had a radio and television shop in Alum Rock Road opposite the Pelham Arms. He would have been born around 1910-1920 but I don't know where. He lived at (79, I think) Imperial Road, Bordesley Green and had a brother but I can't remember his name. His wife's name was Mabel...

Perhaps you also remember the fashion contests in The People newspaper. In his autobiography, Robert Robinson (he who used to be on Ask The Family) tells of the time when his first job was on that newspaper and he had to judge the fashions! Actually, he didn't judge them at all - he collated all...