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Archway Of Tears

took this book to Goa to read and thoroughly enjoyed it a very enthralling story with great research.
 
Re: Old street pics..

maggs said:
Rosie, I also remember old people who were very frightened of going into Western Road Infirmary. It was always considered to still be the workhouse. It wasn't possible to get too close to the building, as there were metal standings around it, hiding most of it from view. The chimney stacks still look in reasonable order, and at the stage it is now it could be restored. I could just about see the Arch of Tears, and it was still possible to walk all around the outside of the building. I can't believe the Birmingham City Council have allowed this piece of history to be so neglected. Where was the plaque Rosie?
Click to expand...
Hi All,

I am confused as I understood the old workhouse had been demolished. Certainly the 'Archway of Tears' no longer exists. In its place is a plaque on a pedestal which was opened by Carl Chinn a year or two ago. This plaque is at the entrance to the car park in Western Road. I have used this entrance many times recently to attend the Midland Eye Centre which has been erected on the site. I cannot remember seeing any very old buildings except perhaps parts of City Hospital (formerly Dudley Road Hospital)

Old Boy
 
Now I'm confused! Was there more than one Archway? The one I've always known as The Archway of Tears is still there, the rest of the Workhouse was demolished and replaced by the Eye Department though.
rosie.
 
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Re: Old street pics..

Old Boy said:
Hi All,

I am confused as I understood the old workhouse had been demolished. Certainly the 'Archway of Tears' no longer exists. In its place is a plaque on a pedestal which was opened by Carl Chinn a year or two ago. This plaque is at the entrance to the car park in Western Road. I have used this entrance many times recently to attend the Midland Eye Centre which has been erected on the site. I cannot remember seeing any very old buildings except perhaps parts of City Hospital (formerly Dudley Road Hospital)

Old Boy
Click to expand...

You can see the Archway here with the eye hospital a good distance to the right..
https://goo.gl/maps/QBePp
Not sure the Hospital have any real plans for the building that's left as there are plans to build a super hospital in Smethwick that will replace much of this site i should think...
https://www.nhslocal.nhs.uk/story/smethwicks-new-hospital-gets-go-ahead
 
These images must have been posted somewhere before, they are in the image host.
Some links to other threads about this topic. (links not fully working since Xenforo)
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=14233&p=105018#post105018
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=37926&p=415961#post415961
ps. I've just noticed the archways look different !
Birmingham3_redo.jpg

Archway_of_Tears.jpg
 
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Edit. Moved to this thread from another.

Hi All,

The mystery continues. The photographs in [Post 24] which seems to me the original "Archway of Tears" is much different to the archway to be seen via Post 23. All I know is the plaque dedicated by Carl Chinn is immediately inside the Western Road entrance whereas the arch in the photo at Post No 23 is a good way in from Western Road.

I will try to contact Carl to see if he can help.

Old Boy
 
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I am fairly certain that we used to drive through the gateway that is still standing and then through an archway and turned left and then reversed up to the reception area.It was a very tight turn and the ambulances just managed to negotiate it. There used to be a man sitting in the archway recording the number of all the vehicles that passed through the gate
 
Looking at the two images in the earlier post the lower one does not seem to be anything like the buildings shown in other images. The lower image was a scan from from an old Birmingham Mail and first appeared in a forum post here but was lost when the forum was hacked in 2011. There is a similar very small image in the heading of this site https://www.winsongreentobrookfields.co.uk/save_workhouse.htm
A close up of the present archway is shown in https://www.birminghamconservationtrust.org/bct-finished/archway-of-tears-2/
 
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My memory of the archway is not that good even after working in and around the archway and old workhouse and infirmary many times, but is it not possible that the two different views are from the front and the rear?
 
The tiny image on the Winsongreentobrookfields site seems to show a archway building stand alone and a tall chimney to the right.

The left image below is https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw062659?search=brookfields&ref=1 dated 1939 from the britainfromabove website.
At the middle of the left side of this image is what appears to be an archway building on Western Rd . Behind that archway is a light coloured drive leading to what looks like another archway, so maybe these are the two archways. The tall chimney can also be seen in this image.

The right image is from a Google Earth image dated 1945 and appears to show two buildings (marked with red lines) separated by the drive which corresponds to the 1939 view.
Could this be the explanation about the two archways shown in post #24 ?

Please note - to see enlarged images without pins on the britainfromabove site it is necessary to register and sign in.
arches1939.jpg________arches1945.JPG
 
Hi Bo, oh blimey time has passed so quickly and lots of connected people will have no doubt died. Would it be possible to let me have the names of the daughters of Harty Hake and William Arthur Edmunds please. And I would love to know any details about the parents of Sarah Ellen Larney (my grandmother) and anything about the parents of William Arthur Edmunds.

You may not get this message but worth a try. the link seems to have become unused!!
 
Thank you for the link Viv, I thought The Archway was listed but it appears it isn't.
There was some renovation done on the roof and chimneys, obviously not enough!
I wonder if the plaque is still there?
rosie.
 
Thanks for the link, Viv, but I'm afraid that I find such articles somewhat depressing. It just confirms, as I have always thought, that this city and its institutions, like many, is run by a load of bean counters for whom history is the last item on a long list of priorities, the first on the list being to make money. The only alternative is to take as many photographs as you can and ensure that these photographs and digital copies of any associated documentation are placed on a website where they are available to all. I no longer have faith in places like the Library of Birmingham where, as we have seen, access can be restricted within a couple of years of the place being opened.

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice, I hope you are feeling better!
We go to City Hospital (formerly "Dudley Rd.") regularly and we often park near the Archway. It's difficult to get near because of the barricades, I would love to go and have a closer look.
My 3x great grandfather died in the Workhouse Infirmary.
rosie.
 
Hi Rosie,

Yes, much better, thank you for asking. I'm not really that familiar with the area, though of course many ancestors have been! Barricades and hoardings in the name of safety are frequently a problem and it's difficult to know who to approach that would agree to allow you access for the purpose of taking photographs. The jobsworth över my dead body" attitude is prevalent everywhere. If we can't do it legally, maybe we should ask one of the urban exploration people to do it illegally! Like mysterious fires at places wanted for development, these sorts of demolitions generally take place over a weekend of a bank holiday to minimise any objections!

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice,

Yes it would be good if the urban exploration people could do something, I'm hopeless with a camera!!
The Archway is on the edge of the car park by the Western Rd. entrance/exit, not too far from the pub on Dudley Rd. that "fell down" recently with the weight of scaffolding.
rosie.
 
The guys that used to post on the Forum haven't been around for some time, maybe they just got too old to climb fences! I haven't seen them on 28 Days Later either. So many restrictions, understandably, on the use of drones too.

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice
Here is a couple of picture to start with on our topic of Archway of tears, and Tears of hell
 

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There was the 'old' workhouse in Lichfield Street and a 'new' workhouse on Western Road. Is this why we have images of two archways? Have they been mixed up? Just a thought - sorry no evidence. Viv.
 
Hi Viv, I've just had a thought, perhaps the white coloured building was an entrance on the road which was at some time demolished. I can see a building on Western Rd on a 1892-1905 map and perhaps they wanted a 'nice' looking entrance. It would be interesting to know when it was demolished.
Phil
 
Hi Maurice, the pictures on that website show the building which I can see on GE and which was one of my pics in the other thread. The 'Archway of Tears' in the captioned pic below looks very different.

Linked Pic from Alan's post#32
index.php

(only visible if logged in)
 
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I don't know the area but if you look on here https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Birmingham/ then the two views are both there but one is labelled view from the east and the other from the west so that seems to suggest that they are opposite views. In other words one as you went in and one as you came out. If they are building houses then I would have thought the gateway could have been left s an entrance, either pedestrian or car. Then it would be preserved in situ.
 
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