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Bull Ring 1930s - 1950s

So much of the Bullring atmosphere must have been lost to modernity. This is a lovely 1937 photo; inter war, Christmastime, people looking forward to a family Christmas, busily shuffling past the stalls and shops, turkey's ready for plucking, shoppers wrapped up in furs and scarves on a misty December afternoon. Just look at the expression on the boy's face as he's admiring the turkey's on offer (there's something very 'Where's Wally' about him don't you think? ). Very nostalgic. Viv.

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578 posts to this most interesting and fascinating thread. Indeed the Bull Ring was a very exciting place for a youngster to be. It was far more than just shops and people: it had a charisma all of its own. The other streets, whilst interesting, were, in the main, shopping places.
Looking back through some if the pictures reminds me of the crowds and bustle of the place. How we changen our attitudes. Having lived in a quiet sort of place now for sixty years I must admit that I hate crowds.
 
Don't think you'd like it on this shopping day Radiorails. So many people. Looks about 1940s/50s. Seems odd to see Nelson's statue from this angle tucked in amongst the buildings. Viv.

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#579 & #577. Two super new photo's. Yeah, dates are right I think. #579 is what many on here will remember and flat side of the building...up the hill to the right was what was left after the clean-up of bomb damage. I seem to remember that from there down to Moore St was levelled and remained like that. Nelsons passage oposite the Market Hall dissapeared. None of it was ever built on again untill it was concreted over...and then the buildings on the left became history. Still, it's all built on now and like it or not; it's better than what came in between by a long shot I think.
 
Well. Vivienne, being in my lower to mid teens when I lived up that way I did love the crowds and bustle of the city. Not these days however. The most I can live with is the occasional visit to Torquay town centre - once very two years - and more frequently to Paignton. But I am always glad to get home again.
 
I NEVER TIRE OF LOOKING AT THE OLD PHOTO S OF bRUM Its where I grew up and town was me and my friends stomping ground.The Bull Ring, The Art Gallery.
Used to get the no 7 bus from nechells .Saturday was C and A day when we left school tights skirts and spiky heels Then to the pictures memories
 
Post 579 is a new one on me, it's fabulous!. Must admit I've never heard of Sagion Stuffing on the billboard. Thought it said Saigon stuffing for a minute, sounds a bit too dangerous to google that one.
 
Took the bull by the horns Brumgum and Googled it! Nothing. It's looks like a play on 'sage' and 'onion' but no mention of it anywhere. So maybe it wasn't around for long, or maybe people kept asking for Saigon in the grocers and they never sold any ... I too thought it was 'Saigon Stuffing' at first. Viv.
 
Viv
They are tips on how to correctly pronounce it in Leeds !. It is a Leeds historical website.
 
Ha, ha Mike.

This sketch of Oswald Bailey's shop opposite the Market Hall must include some of the buildings in view on photo # 579 (i.e with the Sagion sign on the side). Except the end building with all the windows (or even Oswald Bailey's too) has disappeared in the later photo - must be the bomb damage mentioned earlier by Rupert. Advert is the early 1930s.Viv.

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Vivienne14 said:
Ha, ha Mike.

This sketch of Oswald Bailey's shop opposite the Market Hall must include some of the buildings in view on the photo (i.e with the Sagion sign on the side). Except the end building with all the windows (or even Oswald Bailey's too) has disappeared in the later photo - must be the bomb damage mentioned earlier by Rupert. Advert is the early 1930s.Viv.

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The "Saigon Wall" (or 'Sagion' wall) appears clearly in this IWM picture of war-time Bull Ring, after the Blitz damage referred to by Rupert had been cleared. It's a 'no display' at this period of time

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205196881
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205196881
To get Oswald Bailey's shop AND the Saigon Wall we can refer to this Daily Mirror shot immediately after the blitz in 1940

https://mirrorpix.com/webgate/preview.php?UURL=8d637f15d5f76120afdf1a3a6c5e4cb0&IMGID=00443790
https://mirrorpix.com/webgate/preview.php?UURL=8d637f15d5f76120afdf1a3a6c5e4cb0&IMGID=00443790
The shop immediately next left to Oswald Bailey in the advert had by then become a branch of WOODHOUSE furniture which must have been a big incendiary bonus for the bombers. "Sagion' in those days was 'Booths Gin.'

Notice poor old Nelson. In the Mirror picture and then in the immediate post-war "Saigon' photo he's there for all to see, but in the IWM shot is that him all bricked up in case of further bomber damage?
 
Yes Rupert. Looks like it survived the war and into the 1950s - ironic that the bombs missed OB's army & navy stores?! From the Birmingham.gov.uk site this photo shows it still there in 1950 - to the left.

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OB started out in Newtown Row. Here's a quote from the B'ham. gov site:

"One of Birmingham's well known and historic company names, one which still survives today, can be seen on a shop front at the left side of the image. Oswald Bailey's Army and Navy stores arrived in Birmingham in 1906 when Mr Bailey opened his shop on Newtown Row selling miscellaneous second hand goods, the company grew, opened new stores in other towns and moved around near High Street as the area around St Martin's was re-developed, never moving far from its founding site. Eventually they moved to the Pallasades, where you'll find them today, when the area around the first Bull Ring shopping centre and St Martins Circus was cleared. Oswald Bailey's celebrated their centenary in 2006"

But don't know where they are today since the further re-development of the Bullring. Viv.
 
Thanks Jenni, there's a little bit of OB history on that link too under the 'About Us' tab.

This top photo shows the WW2 damage from another angle (compared with Richie's linked photo post #590). The end of the building to the left must be either Wood(alls?, ies?) or the start of the Oswald Bailey shop. Viv.ImageUploadedByTapatalk1372653749.468453.jpg
 
Vivienne14 said:
Thanks Jenni, there's a little bit of OB history on that link too under the 'About Us' tab.

This top photo shows the WW2 damage from another angle (compared with Richie's linked photo post #590). The end of the building to the left must be either Wood(alls?, ies?) or the start of the Oswald Bailey shop. Viv.View attachment 87124
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Think the name is WoodHOUSE, Viv. The famous High Street furniture store that lasted in many town centres until the 1970s.
https://www.mirrorpix.com/webgate/preview.php?UURL=dc5de0e2293e257d6cef3994491c0755&IMGID=00467553

Here's the place close-up from the same album. Can't seem to copy images very well from Mirrorpix.

I think the store features in Alton Douglas, wartime book but will be tomorrow earliest before I can check a copy
 
Thanks Richie. Woodhouse and Cavendish furniture stores were bought up by Great Universal Stores in the 1940s. Some stores later became Times Furnishers, so I wonder if Woodhouse moved up the street to the Art Deco building on High Street? Viv.
 
Two more drawings and a photo to add to this thread. I like the first drawing because it has a hint of 'Tintin' about it in style (but with less moustaches!). Afraid I don't know the date. The second drawing's from 1948. What a lot of Midland Red buses lined up there. I don't think the third (photo postcard) has been on before, although could be wrong on that. It gives a good view of the pre-1960s modern Woolies. The photo's possibly about 1940s/50s. Viv.

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There would always have been many Midland Reds by the church as this was the terminus for the Coventry Road, Warwick Road and Stratford Road services
 
Thanks David. Also, re-posting the photo as it doesn't seem to be loading in post #627. Viv.
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The old and the new Woolworth buildings stood side by side for a short time 1962 until the new Bull Ring Centre was completed next door to the new Woolworths.
 

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Viv

As your photo is on Digbeth just down from what is now the Bull Ring Tavern, the reflection in the window is more likely to be that of the buildings that were replaced by the cold storage or eve G Makepeace's emporium.
 
This makes it all look jolier and friendly Rosie. It's a Bluebird Toffee tin with scenes from the Bull Ring. No idea why they chose the Bull Ring to feature on the tin. Didn't think Bluebird were a Birmingham company. The tin is a 1950s tin but the images depict a much earlier scene. Nostalgic. Viv.
 

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I don't believe that is the Bull Ring, if it is it is a stylized view as the view is different to St. Martins. Blue Bird was a Worcestershire company so it has a definite Midlands connection. I think they, like many other confectionery manufacturers portrayed town and village scenes on their packaging. So much of the packaging/containers etc. of yesteryear was delightful and is highly collectable today.
 
I wondered that at first Alan, but it does seem to be St. Martin's and you can just make out Nelson's statue above one of the stalls. But as you say, very stylised. Thanks for the info about Bluebird. Always imagined it to be a northern company, don't know why. Viv.
 
Harry Vincent Ltd traded as Blue Bird Toffee in Hunnington just outside Birmingham with the same idea as Cadbury to give their workers a nice setting in which to live and work. They were taken over by a company in Hull which would explain Viv's idea that it was a northern company. The Black Country Museum owns the collection of historic Blue Bird packaging materials.
 
oldMohawk your post #694 shows the Bull Ring as I remember it, what a great pity they had to destroy it, so friendly, so full of life with a wonderful atmosphere. Gone forever so sad. Eric
 
This'll be familiar then Eric. 1949 and a very busy scene it is. Buses and cars making their way up and down through the market. People out enjoying the sunshine, looking for bargains. And someone has opened the window at Woolworths. Maybe it was a warm day, although most seem to be wearing coats and hats. Viv.

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Another quite interesting pic. I suggest the window opener might be the person taking the picture!#
Of the buses the nearest one heading up the cobbled hill in a Daimler COG5 either on the 29 or 29A service. I don't think any other routes went up to New Street as the others all turned into Moor Street. The trolley bus is about to make that turn. There appears to be three Midland Red buses, two saloons and a double decker which will all go down Spiceal Street and onwards to points south of the city. There is full foliage it seems on the trees so it may well be summer, but a cold day.
The bomb site on the left I believe was fenced off with hoardings. If that was so then maybe the rebuilding of the site has commenced.
 
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