Mike will probably be able to pin this down but it seems to me that the identity of the modern, 4-storey, apparently undamaged building to the rear, right, is crucial. It bears the sign "NFS WATER". The picture was taken from the same vantage point as several other newspaper images of the time. Obviously convenient for the photographers. My gut feeling is that it may be looking away from New Street, probably from about the third floor. Somewhere around the Odeon cinema or nearer the corner? Would the Times building be too far along?
Or is Viv correct, and IS that New Street with its tall buildings along from the Odeon, on the extreme left? Did Marshall and Snelgrove's building stretch a long way back from its facade in New Street and so is the NFS Water building part of that? The blank wall, centre left, looks like the start of the row of partly surviving buildings going down to the junction with Corporation Street, in which Horne's survived and Marshall and Snelgrove didn't. It all looks increasingly likely. In which case, the vantage point? A building a bit further up High Street - damaged, unscathed??
Chris