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City Centre Photographs

mossg said:
I think it shows the corner of Edmund st and Margaret st. May be they used this plot of land to display their wares. Moss
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I would think that's the Edmund St workshop, couldn't imagine them transporting that amount a work just to display it.

Nick
 
Carolina. There are horse trams in this picture which would date it to 1887 to 1904 when horse trams did run along Curzon Street. By this time New Street was well established as the main Birmingham station although Curzon Street did continue to be used for excursion trains up till 1896. The size of the crowds would imply some sort of excursion. I don't recognise the building as it is not the building which still exists in New Canal Street.

As to your question about the route of HS2, the use of the name Curzon Street is a red herring. This was the name given by Andrew Adonis, the transport minister under the Labour Government, to the Birmingham station. In fact the new route will run alongside the existing railway line to the south of this area to make a terminus on Moor Street Queensway.
 
David my mistake I thought it looked like Curzon Street. Do you think its New Street? It was on the news last night that 'the committee' will be in Brum next week to view the station and also to Washwood Heath (??) to look at where the rolling stock will be.
 
I've never seen that picture before. It certainly doesn't look like Curzon st. Lawley St was used as a passenger station for a while, mainly by the Birmingham & Derby Junction Railway, but have not seen a picture of what the station hten looked like , though its frontage is described as "elegant design with a fine central block of offices".
 
Looking at the photo again I don't think it can be Curzon Street because the orientation is wrong. Curzon Street Station ran parallel to Curzon Street whereas this is at right angles to the road. Checking through the books I have horse trams did run along Curzon Street whereas the station faced New Canal Street which never had trams, horse or electric. Again Mike I don't think it can be Lawley Street either because the Midland Railway moved into New Street long before the horse tram era. I think that I have seen this photo on the forum and it was showing the Midland Railway Parcels Office at the junction of Queens Drive and Station Street opposite the back entrance to the Market Hall.
 
I don't think it is Curzon Street either. Curzon Street was a portico fronted building, just the same as is stands today, but with buildings either side, which have been demolished. At one time there was a picture on the net of Curzon Street in the 1840's a painting by David Cox? Not sure if I have the name right, but it was a lovely painting.
 
Yes Carolina, If I could explain. The building shown in the picture on the Library of Birmingham website and which is now standing in splendid isolation faces on to New Canal Street and fronted the train platforms which ran away behind. There were never any trams in front of this building. So do you see why I said the orientation is wrong?
 
Definitely not Curzon Street, nor for that matter any other station in Birmingham nor possibly England. Brum really only had one terminus for a short period at Vauxhall before the line from London was extended to Curzon Street which was soon extended to New Street. Suffolk Street was goods only and the street was quite sloped.

Certainly a south/south west facing terminus station from the short hard shadows cast by the bystanders, perhaps in a warmer climate, white hats worn by men and sun screens on the electric tram, not horse drawn see trolley pole and overhead wires.

People in right foreground carrying large bales of something...

Screen resolution not high enough to resolve what is on the tram blind but there is a N and a J in the destination. Lots of telephone wires...

Train shed timber panelling and arched opening more Northern European, tall hipped roof clerestory maybe Holland, Belgium or Germany perhaps...even the brickwork appears not domestic.

An enigma for sure
 
GOT IT. Louisville and Nashville Railroad Station, Morris Avenue & 20th Street South, Birmingham, Alabama. Thanks Speedwing for giving me a clue
 
paul stacey said:
Would #1499 be "Birmingham Alabama USA"?, as I have never heard of 20th Street in any UK City.!!
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Sure thing!

Trip back to Carolina's posting #1485 to see why we are talking about somewhere at least 4,000 miles away, one of two instances of Birmingham in the USA, this one in Alabama and the other not far from Chicago in Michigan.

Which reminds me of a mad day in November 1995 when I was working in Caldwell Idaho and presented myself at Boisy airport for the return trip home. It was the day before Thanksgiving and all planes were fully loaded with folks going home for the holiday so i was given a boarding card for a flight to Portland which was odd because it was westward.

Arriving at Portland I was bundled aboard a flight standing on the tarmac bound for St Francisco, southwards now where on arrival I was bundled onto an Illinois bound jet. (East at last)

On arrival they told me there were no outbound flights to Birmingham but I could take a Greyhound bus!

That is when the penny, or dime, dropped! The clerk on the desk at Boisy had punched in BHM as the airport locator and thus my journey so far.

No matter BHX was entered into the booking system so now off on the relatively short hop to Atlanta (South East) where they had found me a seat on the red eye to Manchester as the Gatwick flight was full and where the car was parked.

Not taking any further risks I caught a National Express back do Brum then on to Gatwick.
 
Carolina

It's easy to make a mistake, it's even easy to buy a whole book of postcards on line thinking they are of Birmingham UK and they turn out to be Birmingham Alabama. Here is a photo of the LN Depot and of the mentioned 20th Street with some text.
 

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Yes, I bought a book on e-bay some years ago, thinking it must be quite rare, as I'd never heard of it. Soon got rid of it. Don't know if Oxfam ever persuaded anyone to buy it.
 
carol dont worry about it i thought the photo could have been moor st so what do i know lol...i have also got that birmingham alabama book..cant recall who gave it to me but i shall be passing it onto my american son in law who as an architect may find it interesting...

lyn.
 
Mike, Lyn & Carol,

It seems we all agree that it is an easy mistake to make, I'll post an image of the Birmingham Postcard book so nobody else will make the same mistake and think the cover photo is of a Birmingham UK park.
 

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Phgil
I suppose the clue is in the american stamp on the bottom corner, f you notice it, but to be honest, I did not realise Americans used postcards . I thought it was a european thing
 
Mike,


Knowing me I probably looked at the photo and thought I haven't got that in my collection so I'm having it not stopping to look at the rest of the advert, but I know it didn't say Birmingham US anywhere.

Still I suppose I had better get us back on topic with this 1939 photo of the Bull Ring. I see Woodleys are advertising a clearance of the last of the 1938 designs (looks like 1968) Did fashions really change that much in those days? I can also see an advert for Christmas, poor people Christmas 1939 they didn't realise that within a few short months the face of the Bull Ring would change forever.
 

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Astoness said:
smashing photo phil and so clear
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Lovely Bull Ring photo, with atmosphere. Man in bowler hat just going into the old market hall. Lost its roof in the bombing around 12 months later. Policeman, in white coat, directing traffic from Digbeth into Moor Street, where I started work in January 1949. The folk standing behind Nelsons? statue remind me of how we used to watch the Houdini escape artist, who gave us all such pleasure, after the war. Was he there in 1939, Does any one remember him?
 
I remember the escape artist in the Bull Ring. He was just outside Woolworths - was he by Nelson's statue? He always seemed to be there trying to get out of his chains when I went with my Dad as a little girl in the 40's. Always a fascinating sight to watch. Dad and me would be going into the market to buy chicks, which I loved to hold, as we kept chickens in our garden in those days, or shopping for food usually shellfish which we both loved.
 
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