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Congreve Street

R

Rupert

master brummie
Extracted from the Landscape before the Town Hall thread

.... Paradise%20St%201822.JPG

....... a unique glimpse of the buildings that were demolished to build...the town hall. Sketch of course in those days was from a vantage point about where Christ Church stood.

The picture was labelled Paradise Street 1822 and in a way it is but Paradise Street leads off to the left of the picture. (Congreve Street) ...... leading up the hill and the houses behind the railing on the oposite corner stand exactly where the Town Hall was built. This must be a rare glimpse indeed, maybe even the only one...who knows. Just the corner of Allins can be seen on the right with the castelated roof line and just the letters 'ALL' of the sign.



(Picture is a replacement. the first I am sure is identical to the original)
 
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Copied from street views of Birmingham c1870 thread

The fourth view is of Congreve St, the part that was completely destroyed for the building of the Council House, nos 1-17, which disappeared from directories between 1873 and 1876. The view seems to have been taken between about 1868 and 1872. It shows the following businesses (preceded with the street number):
1. William Bryan , confectioner , shown in directories 1867-73
2. James Watts, tobacconist, shown in directories 1868-73
3. Was William Bozani, hosier in 1868, but Mrs Sophia Hargrove, modeller in 1872 but wax flower maker in 1873.
4. George James , hairdresser , shown in directories 1867-73
5. Mrs Esther Jordan, boarding & eating house, shown in directories 1867-73
6. John Johnson, confectioner (can just make out Johnson on fascia), shown in directories 1872-73
6½. Mrs Elizabeth Payne, dyer, shown in directories 1872-73 (William Payne , dyer in 1867)
7. Isaac Jennings, butcher in 1872-73, Henry Edwards, butcher in 1868.
8. Haywood Jennings & Stubbs, tea & coffee dealers.1872-73. (Robert Massey, auctioneer in 1868)
9. Beerhouse, run by Joseph Taylor 1872-3 and by John George Bayliss in 1868.
10. John Atkins, fried fish dealer (1873, dealer in vinegar (1872), but Charles ??Gay, beer retailer in 1868
11. John Fraser, embroidery manufacturer in 1872-73, but James Ireland, wire worker in 1868
12. Charles Wall, umbrella maker (1873), but jeweller 1867-68
13. John Adams , grocer, shown in directories 1867-73
14. John Pepper, greengrocer & fruiterer
15. Joseph Gosling, butcher 1867-68 (but William Capsey, butcher 1872)
16. Thomas Davies (or Davis), newsagent, shown in directories 1867-73
17. Samuel Child, watchmaker, shown in directories 1867-73
Next to no 17 was New Edmund St, later to become Edmund St

panoramic_view_birm_3____congreve__St_A.jpg
 
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Am I right in thinking Congreve Street no longer exits? This view shows a busy street in 1909, obviously important as far as transport links were concerned judging by the visible tramlines. The modern view (from Great Charles Street Queensway) is the closest I could get to the view shown on the postcard. Everything to the right must have been swept away with the 1960s ring road development and the Central Library building.

I have a vague memory that some exposed tramlines were kept around here, but can't remember exactly where. Viv.

image.jpeg image.jpeg
 
On maps only I'm afraid Viv, though who knows what it will be called after the "redevelopment", possibly Congreve st again
 
Viv,

I can just see the window of my old office at BCT - one of the basement level windows - in the 1950s. I think Race Relations now have that chunk of the building.

Maurice
 
I think the name survived as Congreve Passage. Presumably it will still be there in some form after the redevelopment.
 
Hi Ellbrown
Do you remember the white horse pub on congrieve street it was a huge pub with a foyer entrance
and when you walk to it and turn to go in it you had to go down a flight of steps to enter the pub
It also was in a big size tiles of dark green on the out side
Looking at the last two photographs being put on it would be judging the new picture
i would say roughly it would have been on the patch where that libary was and going by the older originale
picture near the corner best wishes Astonian,,, Alan,,,
 
ellbrown
this was there in the fiftys it went years before the eightys and the changing of the city ,
best wishes Astonian,,, Alan,,,,
 
Don't remember it either, but what a grand pub/restaurant. A building built to impress. Viv.
 
GOOD MORNING MIKE AND VIV
Thanks a million for the picture thats the one ,yes it was very grand in its hey day
spent alot of money there and time,
I will down load that picture ,mike if thats okay have a nice day guys best wishes Alan ,, Astonian,,,,,,
 
Hard to believe this is (Old) Congreve Street, a few years before the Council House extension was built. Painting by James Billingsley in 1901. I notice there’s a rainbow in the painting - symbolism? Viv.
 

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Viv,

A bit of a Turner-style painting, so difficult to see much details. Someone somewhere must have taken a photograph, or was it really that bad? :)

Maurice :cool:
 
Congreve Street / Passage taken before lockdown. Through a gate at Paradise Circus.



And one month before.



Might be a long while before it is safe enough to travel back into the City Centre.
 
Ell,

Do you happen to know if traffic will use this former street again when the roadworks are finished, or will the car be obsolete by then? :)

Maurice :cool:
 
Not sure but they were going to open a new car park around here before the lockdown came into affect. The City Centre is probably deserted now.
 
Thanks Ell & David,

I think I last went in the old library 2013 and didn't think to have a look at Congreve Street. Probably concentrating more on what I needed to get done and not really having time to wander away from that.

Maurice :cool:
 
I think some more squares are being planned by Paradise Birmingham. The Copthorne Hotel was supposed to get demolished in the next few years.

Congreve Passage was closed around 5 years ago.

In 2016 was barriers from Chamberlain Square near the Council House extension.

 
Not sure if this is in the correct thread. I can't place where it is. Looks like Baskerville House in the background.Anyone put me out of my misery!
Screenshot (297).png
 
It is the junction of Congreve st with Great Charles St. The laboratory suppliers in the building on the right is Griffin & George at no 157 Gt Charles St
 
King Edward VI High School for Girls was briefly down here in the Liberal Club building (built 1885). They moved in 1887. Land behind the Hen & Chickens Hotel was bought in 1892, and there new school opened there in 1896 (on New Street). Current site of the Odeon Cinema. The school moved to Edgbaston in 1940.

en.wikipedia.org

King Edward VI High School for Girls - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Congreve Street by an unknown artist. Can we date the painting from the names above the premises ? There are posters advertising the Daily Mail - the Birmingham Daily Mail ? This title was in circulation in the 1880s (if not before) into the early 1900s (presumably it would have become the Birmingham Mail?). Viv.4989A0C2-FE2C-49C8-AD2A-DEE1DAE578D6.jpeg
 
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