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Broad Street

  • Thread starter Thread starter rianne1974
  • Start date Start date
Perhaps someone with a trade directory for the time (c1900) could give an address number for Sykes in sheepcote street? It might be on the site where the factory was built that later became the Midland Red garage.
 
Lloyd
there is no number listed for any of that group of buildings, but have marked it on the c 1914 map below.

mapc1914Sykestimberyardsheepcotest.jpg
 
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I do not have a date for this picture but I posted it because it looks so peaceful.
 
Thanks stitcher, how very true, just how I remember the memorial hall back in the mid fifty's, and was't every thing clean and tidy, you must have noticed with all your photo's you have.
regards
paul
 
Paul, I feel disgusted at the litter that is everywhere and as you say it is really noticable by its absence on the pictures.
 
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I have just come across this and posted it because the factory was mentioned a few posts back.
 
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Good one Stitch. Actually a lot of the well to do moved out to the Bournville area to be up-wind of the industrial smoke.
 
Yes Rupert, I have read about that before, as and when I find things I will post wherever I feel it is relevant. It is difficult because I can not put the scraps and papers I have in any sort of order because I never know which thread is going to be next to match something I have got. I will just carry on ploughing my way through them.
 
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Not quite Broad Street but pretty close.
The best I can read, decipher and imagine is 'The Theatrical Charity Sports procession passing along Easy Row in 1902'.
 
That's the start of the north railway tunnel to New St station, with St Vincent St over the entrance archway. The site on the left is now open parkland, and the tower blocks in the centre are Galton Tower, Norton Tower, Crescent Tower and Cambridge Tower now (did they have other names earlier?), the one on the right is the Crowne Plaza Hotel (did that used to be a Holiday Inn?).
The N. I. A. was built over the tunnel and in this view would block off sight of the hotel. The photo was taken roughly where Lighthorne Avenue is now.
 
Thanks once again for that information Lloyd, I know I have a later picture of the same site somewhere in my drawer, and again, when I find it I post it.
 
I remember the names of the tower blocks years ago as quoted by Lloyd so I don't think these are name changes.

Yes the Crowne Plaza used to be the Holiday Inn. Crowne Plaza is a more upmarket brand owned by the same group which owns Holiday Inn. I can tell you a story which amuses me. Back in 1989 I was involved with organising an international conference in Birmingham for which we used the Holiday Inn. The Americans refused to book into a Holiday Inn so they stayed at the Albany Hotel and spent a fortune in taxi fares between the two hotels. I think my greatest achievement at that conference was to pursuade a group from Miami that it was safe to walk between the two hotels. In visiting both hotels they realised that the facilities at the Holiday Inn were far superior to those at the Albany. The joke is that the Holiday Inn has been renamed Crowne Plaza and the Albany is now the Holiday Inn.
 
When building of the NIA it was soundproofed considerably as it was agreed that the infact the railway line would still run beneath it, which I dont think happened. When digging up the site ready for the construction a great many skeletons were found in the ground and permission had to be granted for them to be removed to consecrated ground. As there were so many skeletons it was thought it may have been some sort of plague in Birmingham at the time, hence the multi burials.
 
Looking at the old maps, particularly the Godfrey reprints, I think that the railway tunnel runs diagonally across Centenary Square and under the main entrance to the ICC. There was a suggestion that the Boulton,Watt and Murdoch statue could replace the burnt out Forward statue but then someone said no because the weight would be too heavy for the tunnel. A silly remark as the tunnel was designed to take the weight of buildings above it.

I understood that there was to be a station either under the ICC or near the NIA and the tunnel was widened to take platforms. Then the plan was changed for a station at St Vincent Street. Now I have heard that this has been dropped because Virgin Trains thought that stopping local trains would hold up their services.
 
I have been searching through my stuff because I knew I had somehing else about this area. I have some bits that have seen better times and I have found two more pictures and some text that I feel sure goes with them. I had to wipe them with a damp tissue to clean them up a little, then iron them because of the creases. I am pleasd with the results so I will post them.
 
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I am sure this goes with the picture in post 353.
 
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Again I have no date but Lloyd or one of the others will help with that.
 
Stitcher said:
Again I have no date but Lloyd or one of the others will help with that.
Click to expand...
A Midland Red 'D7' type on the 125 to Wolverhampton via Hagley Road and the "New Road" and Dudley, followed in the distance by a BCT "New Look" styled Guy Arab on the 10 service to Quinton Road West (Gorsey Avenue).
The parked car is an Austin A55, similar to the A40 and A50 models but with a larger rear window. Only 154,000 of these were produced between 1957 and 1959 when the more angular 'Farina' style replaced it. Reeve & Stedeford's garage opposite, on the corner of Oozells Street was a Daimler agent - it's a shame more isn't showing as if there were a Daimler Dart sports car in the window, the date would be after 1959 when that model was introduced.
So, it's between 1957 and the end of the 60s.
Incidentally, Sir Ivan Stedeford, one of the partners in the garage, was also Managing Director and Chairman of Tube Investments (TI) from 1944 to 1963.
 
Until fairly recently the Boots shops always traded as Boots Cash Chemists as that was the company name. All students of law will come across the case of
[h=1]Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain -v- Boots Cash Chemists (Southern) Ltd [/h]when the Court of Appeal inj 1953 held that the same laws applied to the sale of goods in a self service shop as in an ordinary shop. The layout of the shop made no difference.
 
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After WW1 finished, an ultra modern Civic Centre was planned for the cityand it was toi be built on Broad Street.
 
If the plans had been fully implemented this could have been a very attractive part of the city. As it was this area around Suffolk Street Queensway/Broad Street for many years had a very unfinished appearance. This plan would have achieved a more unified appearance to the individual buildings, something which Council planners unfortunately seem to have struggled with. Viv.
 
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Can't argue with that Viv, here is the text in case it blurs when you enlarge the picture.
 
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Picture No1, this is a model showing what would have been the Broad Street aspect.
Picture No2, showing the proposed view from Camebridge Street.
 
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The Roundhouse, a horseshoe shaped stables stood/stands at the bootom of Sheepcote Street. It was turned into a craft centre and a pub but this shows how it looked before the alterations.
 
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