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City Centre Photographs

Shortie said:
The only good thing that came out of that destruction was the Ceylon Tea Shop. I used to meet an old school friend there - it was the height of sophistication, being able to choose one's tea. Up until then I had only ever had Co-op 99 Tips and possibly Typhoo. My grandmother used to be a caretaker in 'the offices' as the family called them. Just down from old square, a butchers shop was on the ground floor and Farmer Giles Milk Bar opposite My grandfather was ill for many years with TB and then cancer, so she was the breadwinner. I remember going with her (I must have been all of seven) - she had her little cubby hole in the basement, where there were also offices. Those offices were scary to me - the window in the door was black as coal. The cubby hole also was slightly scary - it contained a boiler for the heating of her water and the washing of the dusters. She did that for quite a few years until he died in 1957. Old square never had the same atmosphere once the bulldozers moved in.
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Ceylon Tea Centre remembered, Shortie
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Oh thanks Richie for the Ceylon Tea Centre photographs. Oh how civilised that was!
 
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The Edmund St. photo is from a direction not seen before here possibly. Looking east towards Big Brum I think. A view showing the buildings on the right...great....I wondered what was there. Good one Lyn.
 
forgot to say that the caption says that you can just see big brum on the left of the pic..think that must be it in the distance..
lyn
 
the market hall stands defiant as the bull ring redevelopement is underway..dated 1960

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i agree with you 100% eric..although i could use stronger words because lessons were not learnt then..they have not been learnt since nor will they in the future...

lyn
 
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oldMohawk said:
New Street 1950 - Anyone remember the Picture Post ? At least it's advertising hoarding helped to partially hide a bomb site.
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I was just looking at some of these old photographs, I was wondering when the building at the front of this photograph had been knocked down. The building had streched all along the strip with the wooden fence and had been called the Post Office Building because that was where the old Georgian post office had been. The bit that is still standing had been a fire station before being converted to a shop with folding doors for the fire engines. Was it definitely bombed?
 
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Looking towards New Street Station from Holloway Circus, the Queensway under construction. 1959.
 
The Ceylon Tea Centre.Oh,this reminds me of school visits.with a film about tea pickers,booklets and a free tin of tea to take home.Never drank the stuff myself.
 
My mum and Step-dad said that there was a cinema in the building to the right, my mum went on her first date there and I think my s-d went to see Star Wars there.
 
I do remember that cinema but not the name, The Jester pub was very close to it as well.
 
Do you mean the tall building towards the right? If so, I think that's the Times Furnishing building, now Waterstones (?) book store.
 
Stitcher said:
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I am sure we are all familiar with this location.
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It's views like this that remind me of some of the happiest times of my life. Keep 'em coming Stitch. Incidentally, I remember the frog-eyed Renault Dophine in that shot - a great cncept of four doors in such a small car but a right shed to drive. And, from recent experiences with Rrenault the haven't improved much over the years. :-(
 
I know what you mean about being happy in those times Oisin, jus the thought of %99.9 of people of all ages being nice and caring, children acting like children, ooh don't start me off.
 
Yes defintely the Times building. I had my first dining room suite from that shop. I also had some Ercol chairs which I still have to this day.
 
There's also an interesting building - Burtons- next to Times Furnishers. It looks like its gone on Ell's up to date photo. There seems to have been a little cluster of art deco/1930s buildings along High Street. Viv.
 
Pity Burton's has gone, I expect it had an interesting interior. I never went inside the building. M & S looks good. We rarely look above a shop frontage and miss so much. Thanks Ell. Viv.
 
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Looking towards the Town Hall from the junction of Corporation Street and New Street.1890
 
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