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Bull Ring 2003

Loads for me!

Was there always a Upper Dean Street and Moat Lane?

Moat Lane as it is today



Bull Ring Tavern



Is this where Woolworths used to be in Viv's pic above? #627 picture 2
 
Jamaica Row must be where the Wholesale Market is now.

The 2003 Bullring sits on the site where Bell Street used to be!
 
Some new night shot pics of the current 10 year old Bullring!


Christmas in St Martin's Square - Spiceal Street. Quiet



An unusually quiet Edgbaston Street at 9 in the evening




Selfridges and Moor Street Station



 
Think I remember the buses going down Edgbaston Street until 2000 or 2001. Then they moved them to Upper Dean Street!
 
Is there any one else beside me who has not visited the 'new' Bull Ring or the new Library. I guess I don't like change, silly I suppose as you cannot halt 'progress'. Eric
 
Bullring opened in 2003. While the Library of Birmingham opened in 2013. Both need maintenance, escalators breaking down etc.

A couple of photos from the last year or so.



 
I am sure that there are many on this forum like me who are now on their third Library and third Bull Ring.

My route home from St Martins Church used to be Bull Ring, Bell Lane, across Worcester Street, Queens Drive, up on to the New Street Station foot bridge, Stephenson Street, Pinfold Street, Victoria Square to the bus stops in Paradise Street. Only Stephenson Street and Pinfold Street is still do-able today.
 
Actually you can go through either the unpaid part of New Street Station, or up the ramp and into Grand Central. Although you can walk through the Bullring, and over to Link Street (near Debenhams) and straight into Grand Central.
 
Some recent photos of the Bullring.

Rotunda Square



St Martin's Square



Johnsons Coaches buses on Park Street outside of Selfridges.

 
The Post 694 (Old Mohawk) sums up why I used to cycle or travel by bus or train to Birmingham. What a tremendous interest the place had, the bustle and activity was all part of a youngsters window into the big world.
Whilst I am not a great fan of crowded places anymore the modern pictures look a quite uninteresting to me. To be fair, when El took the photo's it was raining, so they may be portraying a quiet day.
The name Rotunda Square brought a smile to me; is there a Rotunda Triangle the other side? ;)
Apparently the exterior stonework of St. Martins was cleaned in 2003, but the lichen is on a NW wall it seems. so nothing unusual there. When it was 'black', from industrial pollution, the lichen probably did not get too good a foothold. I did not realize that the present building is relatively new, as far as churches in ancient towns go, in that it was rebuilt in 1873.
I was also curious to which St. Martin it was dedicated. It is Saint Martin of Tours, a former Roman Army conscript who became an early conscientious objector. He was born in the 4th. century AD and died just before its end. His birthplace was in what we know as Hungary to day, spent a good while in Italy, became Bishop of Tours (France) and died at Candes (Gaul).
 
Radiorails said:
The name Rotunda Square brought a smile to me; is there a Rotunda Triangle the other side? ;)
Click to expand...

No but think the area round the back is called St Martin's Gate. Between the Moor Street Link Bridge (near New Street Station), and the pedestrian ramp up to the Bullring and New Street.

Or Rotunda Service Area

 


From the Grade II* listing

Tower and spire restored by P C Hardwick in 1835-5 and the rest
of the church in 1873-5 demolished, rebuilt and enlarged by the addition
of transepts and an extended east end under the direction of J A Chatwin.
Restored, after bomb damage in 1956-7. Inside, 2 recumbent effigies of the
C14 and one of circa 1400 in the north transept and a fourth of circa 1500
in the south chapel; also the south transept window designed by Edward Burne-Jones
and made by Morris, 1875-80.
Click to expand...

https://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101075690-parish-church-of-st-martin-ladywood-ward
 
Was on the Digbeth Branch Canal earlier, and exited the Curzon Street Tunnel (south end) to this view of the Bullring. St Martin's Church spire and Selfridges. I think that's one of The Sentinels tower blocks on the left (they are near Holloway Circus).

 
A true 'Sea Dog' would be uncommon I guess in landlocked central England, but his fame was well known I am sure. No really navigable rivers - other than by small or flat bottomed boats. Then there were barges/narrow boats and at a time when most of the operating canals were actually in The Black Country, those in the Birmingham area were being built or improvements to them were still to come. His visit, as the plaque describes, was not long before his death.
Curiously the Birmingham Navy exists today in many parts of the country - ask anyone who has a marina in their area. :D
 
P9250106.JPG

Here is one from 2003 The man in the foreground looks like he has an imp hanging around his neck.

Dave A
 
I don't know what happened to my post. It (the imp) probably escaped from the carrier bag in his hand. More importantly what are those two poles, one red and one blue with all those attachments?
Bob
 
Some kind of tall lampposts I think. They are in Rotunda Square near New Street and High Street.

From 2010



In 2015

 
Bridge camera mostly. Sometimes use my phone camera. Zoom ins better with my bridge camera.

You can see them near the Bull. Seen at the weekend in it's 2017 Christmas coat.

 
Does anyone remember the big pint of beer advertisement that would light up from the bottom of the glass all the way up to the top, directly opposite the Rotunda? Manys a cold wet Saturday afternoon I've stood waiting for the bus to turn up and watched the beer glass slowly fill up just to pass the time :)
 
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