No lyn I don't remember it being right on the bend but closer to vyse street I had no idea the buildings were still there I thought when we moved out it was for demolition , although it has been revamped it does not look the same the entrance door was on the left and front window on the right looking from the street I am confused now
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birmingham 1969-73
- Thread starter mikejee
- Start date
I think I found it 53 red door not blue the location on the street is perfect only I don't remember it being a three story building but we only worked on the ground level anyway
yep no 53 is the red door i should have looked more closely...thing is its a long time since you worked there...no 47 vyse st is still there as well..blue door..they had the whole of the top floor and the front room on the front which is now a florist..my little office part was at the top..i could sit at my typewriter and look out of the window on the top left..happy days..you and i were only yards away from each other
lyn
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4...4!1shIphIfTLj2LpyHJ4q7-MbA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
lyn
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4...4!1shIphIfTLj2LpyHJ4q7-MbA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Wow what a small world , I am still racking my brain about the third level all the time I worked there I never saw any stairs ,office workshop plaiting was all on the same level .where all the polishing and finishing was done was like an extension with full glass roof like a sunroom we used to roast on the hot days luckily not many of those lol I wonder could they have added a level during the referb . where the acid striping rhodium plating was done would have been a kitchen at some point in time . when ever I talk about it I can smell t6he polish and tallow . what did staintons do there I might have delivered there as a errand boy .yep no 53 is the red door i should have looked more closely...thing is its a long time since you worked there...no 47 vyse st is still there as well..blue door..they had the whole of the top floor and the front room on the front which is now a florist..my little office part was at the top..i could sit at my typewriter and look out of the window on the top left..happy days..you and i were only yards away from each other
lyn
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4...4!1shIphIfTLj2LpyHJ4q7-MbA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
cowperkid pretty sure i am right in saying that what is now parkers used to be a cafe...being office junior i used to have to go armed with a list of what sarnies everyone wanted...can you recall it?
lyn
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4...4!1ssLEFxCxLCXU2RHu4Nzo6Zw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
lyn
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4...4!1ssLEFxCxLCXU2RHu4Nzo6Zw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Think you are a little off there lyn think it was just a little further down the street there wasn't a flight of steps ,think it was by the ciggy shop I also had to do the sarnie run a time or two , tomato dip sarnie with brown sauce yum. Wasn't it called the jewel café ,but it was also a shop selling sweets chocolate bars even papers .
I am pretty sure that mike has a good pic of the café I am sure I seen a very nice pic of the café I too have had scotch eggs from there never had one since then ,they are hard to find in Canada lolyep i think you are right cowperkid...cant recall the name of it though...as i said earlier it was long time ago but i do remember they did lovely scotch eggs
lyn
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Lyn Mike is this not the café we were talking about17. Nos 110 – 111. here we have a ring of ringmakers, C Lucas at 110 and George Taylor and Wyatt & Green at 111. At least that’s what the signs say. The 1969/70 kellys, the last to list these buildings gives slightly different story – No 110 being The Feature Ring Co, CPS Jewellery, manufacturing jewellers, and H.W.Spencer, clock and watchmaker, while 111 is occupied by W Purslow, shoe repairer.
18. Nos 107-110. 107-8 occupied by Arthur Fenwick, listed on sign as Die-sinkers, medallists, stampers & piercers, but in the directory as diesinkers only.
109 is ESCO products, pressure die castings and also J Simkiss, gem setter.
20. Nos 106-108
21. Nos 104-106. All unoccupied according to the 1969 Kellys, but previously occupied by miscellaneous jewellery workers.
22.Nos 103-104. Obviously the Jewell Café, but also, less obviously, Wood Automatics (amusement machine manufacturers), Leslie Underwood ,diamond setter and E.A Barrowdale, die sinker
The picture of the café we were talking of is Mikejee march 21 2009 #23
hi mike it was cowperkid who thought you had taken a pic of the cafe i used to go to...i thought it was at no 51 ..as cowperkid said it did have steps up to it and if you look at no 51 those are new steps now and the cafe used the front of the building..mind you it was over 45 years ago and memories fade lol...either way it was a good cafe
cowperkid talking about cafes did you know that this cafe on the corner of hylton st and vyse street used to be a pub..before our time though ? here is a photo of ithttps://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4...4!1sBmonyTe97XRIE2fIbgwjUg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
lyn
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Brookfields Lad
master brummie
I worked at Albert Griffiths in Frederick st. as an errand boy in 1961.
I made more money working a couple of hours after school than I did when I started full time I was so upset . the office lady gave me half crown every day pluss what I earned
Agree so much I am try to locate a photo of my former home at 85 Bordesley Green a huge and historic house reduced to an open space now called Pit Stop
Lady Penelope
master brummie
Sheila43, I always feel that there was a lot of shady dealing when these homes were destroyed. I know that my husband's parents scrimped and saved to buy their house in Prince Albert St. Then the council put a compulsory purchase order on it, paid them a paltry sum compensation and moved them to Lea Hall. Life was never the same again. Some people made a lot of money out of this sort of thing I'm sure.
Radiorails
master brummie
My comment does not fit the time scale of the thread but it does echo the comments Lady P made about her in-laws.
I had some relatives that moved to the city from London (just post WW1) and settled in Spring Hill. As the family grew (large families in those days) they were moved to Warstock. I am not sure how long they were in Warstock, suffice to say that it was not a long time. Being city folks they did not enjoy the more rural - at that time - environment. probably missed their friends and had longer journeys to town, so they decided to move back into the area they were more familiar with. Interestingly as the family grew up only one or two remained in the inner city when married the rest moving into the suburbs. Warstock must have made an impression on them.
I had some relatives that moved to the city from London (just post WW1) and settled in Spring Hill. As the family grew (large families in those days) they were moved to Warstock. I am not sure how long they were in Warstock, suffice to say that it was not a long time. Being city folks they did not enjoy the more rural - at that time - environment. probably missed their friends and had longer journeys to town, so they decided to move back into the area they were more familiar with. Interestingly as the family grew up only one or two remained in the inner city when married the rest moving into the suburbs. Warstock must have made an impression on them.
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Lady Penelope
master brummie
Apparently the space where my in-laws lived was a car park for at least ten years. Then houses were built in Victoria Road, which backs onto Prince Albert Street, and they have very long gardens so the in-laws house was demolished to build gardens - something wrong there then!
I have to agree Lady P, what year span did your inlaws live in Prince Albert street I might have known them
I noticed on google maps that the left hand side there were now no houses where our shop and the neighbours houses once stood
Lady Penelope
master brummie
The Jennings lived in Prince Albert Street between 1956 & 1967 and the Johnsons were in Victoria Street before and after them.
Roger Baker
master brummie
Following on from the last photographs:
28. Douro Wine shops seem to be very alive and well on the corner of Lodge road and Ford st. An almost identical B&W picture is in David Harvey’s new Hockley book, dated 1966, and without the flats, but with the demolished building down the side and the same "temporary" sheeting down the side of the building behind.
29. It’s probably in the Lodge road area but we're not sure where Alf's Half Way House Cafe was. Does anyone remember having breakfast in it?
Note from Carolina: " picture No29 on 20/3/2009 the cafe is Ford street to the right and Park Road to the left. When I delivered papers for Peggy which was the papershop next to it, I used to fetch her a sandwich from there every morning."
30. One lonely corner shop on the corner of Whitmore st. The houses were knocked down first leaving the corner shops to rot. This seems to have been closed for some time, but hasn't been demolished.
Note added by Terryb 18: "Picture number 30 that shows a building on the corner of Whitmore St/Park rd used to be a cafe. I know because I lived right opposite it in the 50's. The pictures are of the same building. The first picture is the one in post 24 and in the second picture the shop where the canopy is down was a newsagent and we used to know it as Elsie's."
Added by Mikejee: The newsagent was Miss Elsie Smith, according to the directories, and (in 1965) the café was C.Doyle, dining rooms '
31. Unlike the last place this establishment at 135-137 Park Road seems to have been used to the end, and looks as if its only just been boarded up (all the windows are intact). When they were first built in the 1870s (and were then numbered 61 & 62) they were occupied by Edward Arch, butcher, and Frederick Moore, grocer.
mike
Roger Baker
master brummie
There was an Alf's Cafe on Soho Hill at then junction with Hamstead and Wretham Roads. Hope this helps.
Ann Richards
New Member
My dad Reg Hackett was a well known Tool Maker in the Jewellery Quarter working at 64 Spencer Street in the 60s and then moving to work in Albion Street until the late 70s.
Following on from the last posted picture in post 144
The next three were taken after the last one on the corner of Balfour St . They run together, the first to the left of the second which is to the left of the third. They would have been near Balfour St, but I have not been able to confirm exactly where.
The next three were taken after the last one on the corner of Balfour St . They run together, the first to the left of the second which is to the left of the third. They would have been near Balfour St, but I have not been able to confirm exactly where.
Next I must have just moved position slightly and pointed the camera to show the junction of Balfour St and Mary St (Mary St sign can be read).
It shows the back of nos 77-83, 85 & 87 being hidden by the building marked as sheet metal works on the map. the last use of this factory seems to have been by the firm Alloy Finishes, electroplaters. the building on the opposite side of Mary St with the street name palte would be no 86, which for a time was a greengrocers.
It shows the back of nos 77-83, 85 & 87 being hidden by the building marked as sheet metal works on the map. the last use of this factory seems to have been by the firm Alloy Finishes, electroplaters. the building on the opposite side of Mary St with the street name palte would be no 86, which for a time was a greengrocers.