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Area bound by Temple Row Cherry St Corporation St Crooked Lane Bull St

Aidan

Aidan

master brummie
Edit. Please note this thread is for comments about the history of the area bounded by Temple Row/Cherry St/Corporation St/CrookedLane/Bull St.

Comments about Rackhams, the store can be found at

Rackhams Store

Edit. A thread discussing the area surrounding Rackhams/House of Fraser site is now here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/area-bound-by-temple-row-cherry-st-corporation-st-crooked-lane-bull-st.48877/page-3 What is Rackhams - I think it is called House of Fraser now...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk

unfortunately many images have been lost from this thread and some links may not work.



First – where is the back of Rackhams? Well I suppose it depends on your perspective but for the purposes of this thread I suggest the block bounded by Temple Row, Cherry St, Corporation St/Crooked Lane and Bull St https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&...2.481317,-1.896858&spn=0.002868,0.007886&z=17

Second - Rackhams, (now House of Fraser) before that, Cobden Hotel before that, (medical college), high-class housing for Birmingham's professionals before that, (Cherry Orchards)....

What else about the area? Who lived or visited there? Interesting pictures, maps, facts, stories welcomed.....


I’ll start with what I know of the Temple Row side:

* Picture 1 is from 1732 and shows the rather smart houses, second only perhaps to those of The Square, to the left of this view of St Philips.

Replacement image, may vary from original
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*Picture 2 – Phylis Nicklin captured this I think of the same area in 1957 (Replacement image)
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* Picture 3 – Blue Plaque of Dr Ash https://www.birminghamcivicsociety.org.uk/johnash.htm who obviously occupied one of the houses
Replacement image, may vary from original.
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* Picture 4 - Reynolds portrait of Dr Ash with Hospital & St Philips behind (replacement image) symbolism explained further at https://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/aliens/access/messages/drAsh.htm

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* Picture 5 - Today (in a sympathetic light)
 
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* Cherry Street - I think this was named for the path to the Monk's cherry orchard (?) https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=31707 - there also seems to have been a Wesleyan Chapel along here in Dent's time (?)

* Cobden's Hotel & Coffee Palace https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32686&p=337431#post337431 (be nice to see a non-copyright image, was it a posh one, anyone interesting stay there?)

* Crooked Lane (corner with Bull St) - https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=31233&p=315357#post315357 not sure if Corporation Street swallowed this up, any map experts please...

* Bull St - https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8484&p=335235#post335235 - I love this pic with Lewis's on the right (anyone have access to The Illustrated London News, 2nd April 1887???)
 
Cherry St Methodist Chapel which is the same building as in the picture from Dents Old & New Birmingham in post 1. I am not sure if this was the 1782 or 1823 version so if anyone can clarify or provide a better copy than this flat picture that would be very welcome.
Thank you for starting this thread, Aidan.
 
Thanks BordesleyExile - the existence of a Chapel here is a new one on me and would love to know more about it.

Slight correction, on consulting my Westley 1731 it seems the Cherry Orchard was on the other side of the street and belonged to Walker (although I am sure the Monks had it originally). There is a strange structure further over in the orchard - possibly a dovecote? - anyone know more?

You can also see that each of the grand houses had a formal back garden or Parterre, and you can also see each had a slightly different layout - a world away from later developments over the road where you were lucky to have a communal yard...
 
Excellent - sharpness in the 1910 postcard (any idea what the pointy buildings are on the left?) - and so that is where Cadbury started....Thanks
 
The area looked very nice back in 1731, Aidan.

The later Victorians certainly had a way with brick & tile.
 
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Before Walker, in 1553 anyway, the Cherry Orchard appears to have belonged to Thomas Gibbons. I think the dotted line to the right of his name is the track that will become Cherry Street leading into the crook of Crooked Lane and the Well at Welch Market. Segewick's Old Bull from which Bull Street eventually takes its name over Bell Street (from the Priory) is also shown as is the laying out of land in stripes off main roads, owned by freemen or Guilds, which had probably been the same since Norman times and the start of Birmingham itself.

Managed to find a couple of pics of Cobden's but I am sure there are better out there...
 
Aidan said:
... anyone have access to The Illustrated London News, 2nd April 1887??? ...
Click to expand...

At your service, Aidan (thanks to my new National Library of Australia reader's card).

"Bull Street" from Illustrated London News (2 April 1887) "Queen's Visit to Birmingham" issue. (Sorry about the spurious moiré pattern, which actually looks rather atmospheric!)

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Aidan said:
Lovely photo but I don't recognise the location - is that Corporation St running down on the left?
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I went off line (bed) just before you posted - the photo looks as if it was taken from the pavement in front of Lewis's in Bull St looking down towards Corporation St. It seems to be on the corner of Temple St.
Most of my visits to the area were to the Model Aeroplane shop at the top of Cherry St.:)
 
oldMohawk said:
.. the photo looks as if it was taken from the pavement in front of Lewis's in Bull St looking down towards Corporation St. It seems to be on the corner of Temple St.
...
Click to expand...

I was wondering if, as per Shortie's post, that it might be Bull St on the left which I think slops down there rather than Corporation St which is kind of flat there?
 
Here is a pic of Bull St 1888 showing some of the same businesses in the Illustrated London News picture.

Replacement image from the Shoothill site. May vary from original posted.
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Lovely pic of Bull St from a year later, with a better shot of Reece Bros "ye oldest Tobacconyst shop in Bermyngham"
 
Always thought it a lovely area of the city,all the shops were so nice, the Cathedral added to the nice feel of the area, and going through to Colmore Row, as a child i was surprised at so many bus stops, and yes we had the usual jokes of,she looks like she's been round the back of Rackhams. Great photo's
 
Where Rea, the sacred river, ran
Through bustling central Birmingham,
Round the back of Rackhams.

[Traditional]

[The picture's from an edition of Jakob Grimm's Hansel and Gretel and Other Stories on archive.org.]
 
Aidan said:
<sigh> Hope you're satisfied Dennis - you've woken Thylacine from hibernation...

Here is a present day streetview of Bull St from junction with Corporation St - https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&...uL5JKNhovduSAj34WLXVzw&cbp=12,295.55,,0,-15.9 a few changes....
Click to expand...


Ah Yes, The Tasmanian Kraken wakes... and wasn't it old Alf that sacredly ran? Him from Sussex?

Anyway, just to show a modicum of Thread relevancy, here's my favourite building (at the side of Rackhams it has to be said) in Brum, and I'm amazed to note it is still there. Exhibit A & B M'Lud.... This where Harry Parkes sold me umpteen Tennis and Squash racquets and mucho clobber. The old swine actually beat me at squash in the B'ham League 5 when I played for the Morris Centre, in spite of being very much older than me. No. I'm not telling by how much. Some lots as my daughter once said. Then next door was Murdochs. Where you had those listening booths on the wall and you could preview the latest 10" LP of Lonnie Donegan or Tommy Steele before parting with 5/9 for the platter....heaven...
 
Actually Dennis, Dr Ash's hospital was not the General in Steelhouse Lane, but the General Hospital in Summer Lane, It was demolished in around 1899, when the new one opened. I have a photo if anyone would like it scanned in.

Shortie
 
I think that would be nice Shortie, please. Especially as it is represented in his portrait that hung in the Boardroom (post-1)
 
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