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Bull Ring 1930s - 1950s

Vivienne14 said:
A 1950s view showing the Bull Ring as popular as ever in recovering post-war Birmingham. Viv.
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I think the Bull Ring was the real heart of Birmingham. I can remember it like this photo with crowds of people and all the stalls and barrows with their goods and produce. If we were going up to town this was usually where we were going. Off on the bus with Mum or Dad. Nan or Gran or Aunties. Watching the sheets and towels being sold or the baskets of china. All watched over by Nelson!
 
Nice photo. I think it's a post office letter box Lyn. And I think a VR (Victoria) one. Viv.
 
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Astoness said:
hope this is a new one...dated 1940s...looking closely does anyone remember the net shopping bags...lady with her back to us has got one...not very practical ..i remember them in the early 70s

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I remember those net bags, what a blast from the past! I always wondered why? Nothing I ever put in them stayed and they seemed somewhat fragile, the holes always too big for what I was trying to carry.
 
Richard Dye said:
I remember those net bags, what a blast from the past! I always wondered why? Nothing I ever put in them stayed and they seemed somewhat fragile, the holes always too big for what I was trying to carry.
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apparently richard you can still buy those net bags...not for me as apart from anything else people can see what you have got in the bag lol

lyn
 
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Probably just before the Bull Ring was hit during WW2. Looks quite peaceful, but chaos would soon descend on this part of the City Centre following, not only the bombing, but the subsequent rebuilding and road redevelopment of the 1960s

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Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
The damage to st martins April 1941.
 

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I am a Pimm researcher. Recently on the U+Yesterday Channel 27 (Incorrect) on the footage detective there was a clip about the bustling market in the Bullring. In the clip they showedin the background a shop called Pimms which I believe was a pet shop. Is the owner of the shop family related to the Midland etcher Joseph Frank Pimm (1900-1970) who did many sketches in the Birmingham area. You can see his works online. If so I have a family tree made up of this family.

Correction - The channel is 82 on Freeview called Talking Pictures. The programme is called the Footage Detective and was broadcast on Sunday the 26th of October at 1700. If you go on the Talking Picture site you can see the programme again
 
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pimmresearcher said:
I am a Pimm researcher. Recently on the U+Yesterday Channel 27 (Incorrect) on the footage detective there was a clip about the bustling market in the Bullring. In the clip they showedin the background a shop called Pimms which I believe was a pet shop. Is the owner of the shop family related to the Midland etcher Joseph Frank Pimm (1900-1970) who did many sketches in the Birmingham area. You can see his works online. If so I have a family tree made up of this family.

Correction - The channel is 82 on Freeview called Talking Pictures. The programme is called the Footage Detective and was broadcast on Sunday the 26th of October at 1700. If you go on the Talking Picture site you can see the programme again
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He doesn't appear to be. His father was from Droitwich, whilst the founder of Pimms was from Oxfordshire.

This old thread may be of interest to you...

M

Thread 'Pimms - Icknield Port Road'

Here's a long thread starter....but I hope that something might trigger a memory or two, or three.......!!!

My dad, Bill Burton, worked at Pimms the Pets and Gardens Suppliers based in Icknield Port Road for all his working life, apart from his national service in the RAF. My mum, Phoebe, worked there too for about 15 years, as did I, part-time and during some of the school holidays. We lived at 166 IPR opposite the Pimms HQ. They also had big storage unit and vehicle parking and maintenance yard at the back of our house, accessed by a narrow drive off Summerfield Road (always referred to...
 
I used to walk up Hurst Street to the Bull Ring, to watch the workmen during the 1958 rebuild. Of special note was the telephone boxes, opposite St. Martins. As the hill up to New Street go slowly levelled, these boxes were left until last, which meant that they stood high on their own for quite while; nobody could climb up to them. Does anyone else remember that?
I am trying to find colour images of the work being carried out back then; the earthmovers, workmen and lorries etc.

cheers,
Mike
 
Catkin said:
Bull ring

Mike thats a super picture thank you and look at all of those wonderful street sellers, what a pity we don't have more of them. Catkin
Does any-one remember pimms the pet shop?
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Was it a pet shop that sold animals? I have a vague recollection when I was small in the late 1950s walking across wooden slats with my Nan looking at all the animals being sold in cages at the back of the Bullring markets.
 
Lemonella said:
Was it a pet shop that sold animals? I have a vague recollection when I was small in the late 1950s walking across wooden slats with my Nan looking at all the animals being sold in cages at the back of the Bullring markets.
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I remember Pimms Pets in the old Bull Ring Market Hall, my mother used to love going to have a look there, I think she bought one of the tortoises we had from them. I can't remember exactly what other sorts of animals they had.
 
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