Yes Mike, I did speak with the Ikon, they were pleased I went and made contact, from that contact there was a story in the Guardian Weekender magazine I did about the photo and then I did a interview on a TV programme called Doorstep History. There are a couple of other things in the pipeline also. Would love to meet up n chat about it and also some of your photos.
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birmingham 1969-73
- Thread starter mikejee
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master brummie
Jax: Lovely that one of Mike's photos is so personal to you - and that you feature in Janet's Varna Road project. Living in London, I didn't get to the Ikon show, though the catalogue was stocked in the Tate Modern bookshop. May we have a link to your piece in the Guardian Weekender mag?
Sorry do not have a link it was featured in the weekender mag dated 2/4/16. will try n find a link this evening and also post the link to the tv programme
Jax. I to went to the exhibition, and to the Ghosts of Balsall Heath event before it and had the opportunity to very briefly meet Janet, as you say, a wonderful person. The link to the article is https://www.theguardian.com/artandd...sohn-photograph-balsall-heath-birmingham-1968., which I saw, but did not connect to a member of the forum. It must hav given you goose pimples when you saw the photo in th exhibition for the first time
thank you so much for the link
....and now you get to meet the much older me
https://tntnews.co.uk/doorstep-history-s3-ep8/
https://tntnews.co.uk/doorstep-history-s3-ep8/
lmr3103
master brummie
The next four shots show in, succession, the houses nos 68-74, 66-69, 61-66 and finally the whole row, though in the last shot the larger numbered houses are not very clearly shown.
No 74 is actually being demolished. In the last 80 years of its life it seems to have been just a domestic house, though it is recorded as a general shop in the 1880s.
No 73 was a pawnbrokers from the early 1870s till around WW1, but then also was just domestic housing.
No 72 was a ladies hairdressers in the 1960s, but from the mid 1930s till the late 1950s was occupied by a saddler, Robert Shelton, and previously from about 1890 by another saddler, Joseph Lomas. Previous to that it had been a butchers. a hardware dealers and a greengrocers.
No 71 had a wide range of occupants, watch & clock dealer, cabinet maker , Mac Motors (whatever they may be), but mostly general shopkeeper. For a few years at the end of WW1 no 70 was the home of James Davies , bird dealer, and before that was a general shop, haberdasher, and for over 12 years from 1880, a staymaker (John Cartledge). For the benefit of Eastenders fans, in 1879 it was the home of greengrocer Arthur Woodyatt. (for non-fans Adam Woodyatt plays Ian Beale fruit & veg stallholder).
No 69 seems to have been largely non-commercial, though has been occupied by a wood-turner and a sign writer.
No 68 again was largely just residential.
No 67 was lastly a secondhand clothes shop and previously for 10 years a tailoress, with previous occupants being a general shopkeeper, hardware, dealer, newsagent, and painter & decorator.
No 66 was initially a haberdashers, then a general shop for some years, but around 1910 the site was taken over by the Gunn family, initially by Thomas Gunn as a tripe shop, which was carried on by Sarah Gunn. However in the late 1920s, perhaps because of a lack of demand for tripe, she changed to a drapers, which did not last long and from the early 1930s until WW2 it was a printers, latterly The Calthorpe Press.
No 66 was a general shop for much of its life, though a newsagent for a while in the 1880s and a drapers at the end of WW1, but after the early 1930s seems to be residential.
64 was residential for most of its life except for a period in the 1880s as a general shop and in the 1920s when it was occupied by a laundress.
No 63 was a tobacconist and then a boot repairers in the 1870s, and then a general shop till around 1910, when it was briefly a fried fish shop, then a secondhand cloths shop for a year or so.
No 62 George Pettitt was a shoe & boot repairer here from 1881 till about 1932, when Miss Kate Pettitt took over the shop , who was at first just described as a shopkeeper, but then from about 1942 till about 1956 as a grindery dealer, which I gather means she sold the tools and equipment of shoemakers and leatherworkers.
Finally no 61 was the off license. The first licensee was probably Henry James Gardner Riome, ale and porter dealer from around 1876 . He was only there for a few years, and was followed by a succession of other licensees .
lmr3103
master brummie
Hello Mike,
I wonder if you have any pics of Mary Street, Balsall Heath? I was born at the Sorrento and lived at 3bk/102 Mary Street until the mid sixties. I've never seen a photo of it or visited the area since. Apparently our house was a cycle shop until we rented it.
lmr3103
master brummie
Thank you Lyn, it's much as I remember it, even though I was only four when we left.
Funny how your memories start at such an early age, I can remember the inside of our house very well.
My Mom told me there was a small factory down our entry that made baby items of some sort.
Best regards.
Funny how your memories start at such an early age, I can remember the inside of our house very well.
My Mom told me there was a small factory down our entry that made baby items of some sort.
Best regards.
Phil
Gone, but not forgotten.
Mike
If you have a photo of this back house, then it will be on the roll of film that also has Harry Monty dress making factory in Alliance Place that ran up to Pearson Street, as the house was just adjacent to Alliance Place. Though looking at the photos I have of yours it looks as if all the houses fronting Mary Street around the factory had been demolished at the time you were around there.
If you have a photo of this back house, then it will be on the roll of film that also has Harry Monty dress making factory in Alliance Place that ran up to Pearson Street, as the house was just adjacent to Alliance Place. Though looking at the photos I have of yours it looks as if all the houses fronting Mary Street around the factory had been demolished at the time you were around there.
Lynn
Your house is marked 3 back 100 on the c1950 map, but this must be it (marked in red). I do have a photo which I have not definitely identified, but think is probably in Mary St, and it fits in with what is shown on the map as possibly showing the entry to your houses . Could the entry to the far left of the photo be your old entry?
Your house is marked 3 back 100 on the c1950 map, but this must be it (marked in red). I do have a photo which I have not definitely identified, but think is probably in Mary St, and it fits in with what is shown on the map as possibly showing the entry to your houses . Could the entry to the far left of the photo be your old entry?
Attachments
lmr3103
master brummie
Mike,
That map has really helped me get my bearings with the location of our house, very interesting after all these years of wondering
!
I've got a photo of our back garden, which shows the buildings it backs on to. I'll try and upload it on to here tomorrow and see what you think,
Goodnight for now.
That map has really helped me get my bearings with the location of our house, very interesting after all these years of wondering
!I've got a photo of our back garden, which shows the buildings it backs on to. I'll try and upload it on to here tomorrow and see what you think,
Goodnight for now.
Phil
Have looked at that roll, but definitely not on it. My visits were not in very good order, and I have (apart from the roll you mention), two rolls with mary st photos on. the one I posted had mary st earlier and I think that one also was. If so, it seems to be the only place on the street with a wide access entrance (as on photo), and with a house and then an entry on the left of it
Have looked at that roll, but definitely not on it. My visits were not in very good order, and I have (apart from the roll you mention), two rolls with mary st photos on. the one I posted had mary st earlier and I think that one also was. If so, it seems to be the only place on the street with a wide access entrance (as on photo), and with a house and then an entry on the left of it
lmr3103
master brummie
Mike,
I don't think the photo I mentioned of the back garden will really help as it just shows a wall and what looks like a garden shed.
I think the gardens were actually at the front of the houses anyway, with a yard at the back.
What makes you think the photo you posted might be the right location? Is it to do with the big arched doorway? Would that have been a factory?
Lyn
Yes. On the roll of film there were some of Mary St followed by some which I have not identified, and think may be mary St. Looking at the 1950 map (part of which is in previous post) I can see no other place in the street which has a wide doorway like that . But I am not absolutely certain that it was Mary St. (You may have read at the beginning of the thread that I lost all the notes I made when taking these pictures in a sewage flood). If it is the right place then the doorway would have been Grubb Engineering in 1950 to mid sixties, who made immersion heaters, and then Barrimatic engineering, who made domestic appliances
Yes. On the roll of film there were some of Mary St followed by some which I have not identified, and think may be mary St. Looking at the 1950 map (part of which is in previous post) I can see no other place in the street which has a wide doorway like that . But I am not absolutely certain that it was Mary St. (You may have read at the beginning of the thread that I lost all the notes I made when taking these pictures in a sewage flood). If it is the right place then the doorway would have been Grubb Engineering in 1950 to mid sixties, who made immersion heaters, and then Barrimatic engineering, who made domestic appliances
irene floyd
master brummie
Hi Mike.Love the pic's.When I left school I worked at a place called S Rose's and Son in Lionel St 1971 it was a wholesale clothes warehouse have you any pic's please.Irene
irene floyd
master brummie
Ok Thank's
Hi Mikejee a lot of these pics are very familiar to me I used to work in hylton street as a jewelry finisher at a firm called r j smith I started there as part time errand boy at fifteen years old , later started full time after leaving school , worked there until moving to Tenby street . Think it was about six and a half years working for ray smith . then went to the Austin plant for more money.32. The Empire Works of Griffiths, Gilbert & Lloyd, according to Kelly’s, manufacturer of electrical, and motor accessories, screws, bolts, washers, metal screw wares, hollow metal balls , engineers studs and Capstan workers ( I assume they didn't manufacture people to work on capstans). They did have two other factories as well to do all this in.
34. A familiar site, the Jewellers Arms, still recognizable, though under a different colour scheme
35 and 36. Two pictures that run together at the bottom of Northampton Street. The H.C.Whitehead is at no 34A.
37.Junction of spencer st & Hockley st.
mike
Hi again Lyn yes mikes pictures are fantastic how he had the foresight to take all those pic is a godsend even memories would fade without a nudge from these pictures . what kind of time frame did you work at staintons . Its strange we lived so close and also worked so close to each other were you stalking me lol I cant remember the number of r j smith I will see if my references have an address on them by for now take care .
ha ha cowper kid...i dont think i was stalking you 
but yes its a coinsidence how we lived and worked so close to each other...i have always said that without the old photos this forum would be nothing...the written word is ok but as you say photos give us a nudge so thanks again to mike...i was at staintons straight from school..my first job in 1970 ish...was there for a couple of years...if mike spots this post he maybe able to look up in kellys for the number of r j smiths...what years were you there from
lyn
but yes its a coinsidence how we lived and worked so close to each other...i have always said that without the old photos this forum would be nothing...the written word is ok but as you say photos give us a nudge so thanks again to mike...i was at staintons straight from school..my first job in 1970 ish...was there for a couple of years...if mike spots this post he maybe able to look up in kellys for the number of r j smiths...what years were you there fromlyn
Yet again mikejee you are spot on , I worked for smiths from about 1968 to 1976 , its hard to pick out the building it was pretty none descript from the front but it was only two levels ,most of the buildings were three or more .
hi cowperkid well fancy that....we were working a stones throw away from each other at the same time...chances are our paths crossed..is this the building..cant quite make out the numbers on the blue door
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4...4!1sHTS3qaNbCDp5UwNt02aDZg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
lyn
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4...4!1sHTS3qaNbCDp5UwNt02aDZg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
lyn
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