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Birmingham Films And Videos

Thank you ragga, fascinating stuff. I was young at the time and can't recall this major demolition/reconstruction project. It certainly made a mess of the city centre for a whle didn't it? Not much fun shopping around there then.

I love watching the film of the old buses - I used to virtually live on them. We thought nothing of jumping on and off the platforms of moving buses, swinging out on the pole going around roundabouts etc. There must have been accidents but I don't recall any.
 
Me too Roy , unfortunatly the fleet numbers couldn`t be read , yes your right they were a pleasure those open backs
ragga :sneakiness:
 
I come on this site this time of the year for some nostalgia and this film was nostalgia i dont remember all the places personally but it showed all the wanton destruction of fine buildings that the middle ring road created a road that did not last .
If the destruction had been caused by the war then it would have been acceptable as was coventrys history! but these where birminghams forefathers and planners and i dont think they would have been allowed to have implemented in todays environment ! my one memory of the film is the old lady on the film looking over the hoarding at all the concrete that covers the buildings that she possibly remembers!
Anyway i've had my gripe and a merry christmas to all my readers.
ps where was the clock "Little Brum"

phil
 
Brilliant, Ragga! I shall capture and play these back often at my leisure.

I was 21 that year - my grandmother died on my 21st birthday so that was a non-event - and still at BCT HO. We didn't think there was any point to it all then and I still regard much of it as sacrilege. 'Loo Bloom', 'Brooks' 'ROAD UNDER REPAIR' - they took me back a bit (or rather a lot!). Thanks very much for the link.

Maurice :peaceful:
 
You might have seen this video or got it in your collection but i have just watched it and it is an excellent portrayal of brummies and birmingham life presented by carl chinn and malcolm stent

phil
 
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Heres another from the 50's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGgsrBGjXCA

I was between 5 and 15 in the 60's and can remember playing at my grandfathers house in Holliday St, eating fish and chips from William St.opposite the pub (White Lion?) and playing on the bomb site the other side of the aquaduct before you got to Suffolk Street. Brew house, zinc bath hanging on the outside wall, coal cellar....

Thankfully my mum & dad moved to Longbridge, when he got a job at the Austin, right up by Grovelly Lane so I had open countryside 100yds from the house and the Lickeys and Cofton Park down the road. I feel privileged to have know both places though. So much of the soul seems to have gone out of Birmingham now as the old communities have been broken up and their generation passed away.

And heres another - courtesy of YouTube - a beautiful video of the Pageant of Birmingham 1938. We will never see the like again I'm afraid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6maYmkjOqYo
 
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i would like to know what Birmingham was like in 1964. I want to know how big a city Birmingham was in 1964(especially that) what life was like in Birmingham in 1964 the atmosphere feeling flavor and vibe of Birmingham that year. I really would like to know about Birmingham in 1964 from anyone who lived there. Please don't be upset at me for asking this - I'm from california and don't know of anyone from Birmingham,) thanks again
 
There's actually a you tube video called "Birmingham 1964"..much of the city centre had begun to be redeveloped just at this point in time but the shots of New St and Corporation St haven't changed that much but they are now closed to traffiic.The population in 1961 was 1,107,187 it's remained pretty static as it's just around 30,000 less than that at present but is rising.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFGLNvBMmBo
 
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Hi Mapledurhamfox

In the mid 1960s Birmingham felt a very modern city - a lot of old buildings had been demolished and a lot of new ones had been built including a new shopping centre over New Street railway station. However, some people were not happy, as the city seemed to be designed more for cars than pedestrians. Perhaps that is not surprising, as in the 1960s a lot of cars were made in and around Birmingham, probably more than anywhere else in the UK.

But can I ask why you are so interested in Birmingham in 1964?

Paul
 
Howdy,daddy-o(Paul). thanks for the info and from the other bloke about Birmingham. I'm curious about Birmingham as some of my favorite bands came from there(Moody blues Black sabbath,etc) and the year 1964 beacuse some of the things i liked were from 1964(the tv series Bewitched the Munsters the Addams family Underdog and the christmas special Rudolph the red nosed reindeer all aired in 1964) and these are things I dig from that year. Hope this explains everything and thanks tremendously for the info from both parties. mapledurhamfox. also I've been on Brumbeat and find it fascinating ,too
 
You may remember Telly Savalas, he did a video also..

 
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Just to say how lucky I was to be a teenager of the 60s living in Birmingham. The city was young and vibrant the development after the war was in full swing the slums were being demolished and modern housing estates being built (some of these turned out to be a disaster ). There was full employment I was offered 3 apprenticeships when I left school aged 15 teenagers had plenty of money in their pockets and there where new fashion shops appearing everywhere. Life entertainment was almost everywhere with groups playing in nearly all the local pubs. That was looking at life through rose coloured glass's
 
High Five mapledurham fox,, nice handle or even nom de plume,, Birmingham UK population in 1964 was approximately 1.2 million the second largest in England after London, this is approximately 4 times the present population of your home city Stockton, Northern California but actual acreage (size) would be only twice the size due to B,ham's very condensed housing including lots of "Slum" inner city housing still remaining, Mid 1960.s B,ham was indeed a very vibrant "Pop Culture" scene with our home grown talent & of course the wonderful Beach Boys + influence of Surfin sounds so thanks for the music from across the pond, Cheers J
 
Hi mapledurhamfox Birmingham was and still is the second biggest city in the UK , it is a city built on manufacturing and was centre of the UK car industry in the 60s and known as the city of 1000 trades. In the 60s there was full employment and people especially young people had more disposable money than ever before but Birmingham itself was in transition , the city centre was being rebuilt , most of the housing had been built at the end of the 19th or beggining of the 20th centuries . There was very poor housing and a big shortage of it , the baby boom after WW11 and the bombing had not helped the situation .A huge scale of redevelopment spread over around 12 years saw big new housing projects built . The good news if you were young was that most pubs , that were big enenouh
and lots of clubs had live music so there were hundreds of bands around
https://brumbeat.net/ here's a site that takes a look at the local music scene in Birmingham in the 60s Here's another one https://www.unsignedcity.com/forums/ The original recording of Go Now by Bessie Banks her husband wrote the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPhNsGaaS4M
 
i agree its a wonderful piece of history with excellent quality for its day...i have searched the british newspaper archives to try and find a report about this event but so far i cant find anything which i find strange

lyn
 
What an excellent film. The ground was the subject of discussion somewhere else on the forum but can't remember where it was. I recognise it from this shot in the film. There's advertising for the Curzon Theatre and the Colonnade Hotel in the film didn't think they did that at sports events in those days. Wonder why the men had to stand up to drink from the bottle! Also the crowd seem mesmerised by the camera and some seem unsure as to whether they should stand still for it, so compromise by just staring at the camera! Thanks for posting. Viv.
 

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I have come across the site via my son and found this piece about the redevelopment of Ladywood and thought how lovely it would be if someone spotted themself on the film. It is just a short 6 minute film.

https://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-ladywood-redevelopment-1965/

Apologies if it has been mentioned previously; I did a search, but couldn't see it.

There are also short films about other areas to watch if you use the search engine on the home screen.
 
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Bewdley

I had not seen this clip before and found it quite interesting, although I didn't know Ladywood well there were some easily recognisable places, I found the interview with Canon Norman Power especially interesting as what he said certainly has proven to be true over the years and now they are trying to regain some sense of community by demolishing the high rise flats and building houses again with a community centre on every corner.
 
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Took a few stills from the film. Some I'm not quite clear as to where they are. I assume the power station is Nechells, but not sure about where it was taken from. Any suggestions ?

end_of_day_at_factory_1930.jpg


gasometers_1930.jpg


Birmingham_power_station_1930.jpg
 
Filmed in Birmingham: Came across the list below on Wikipedia. There'll be a new one to add to the list as Stephen Spielberg was filming there (Digbeth) in September. But sorry can't remember the name of the Spielberg film. Viv.


From Wikipedia : Birmingham has not been especially prominent in British cinema, however there are a number of films that have been filmed partly or wholly in the city:

 
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