• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Corporation Street

Here's another early 1960s photo of the same location, which I posted in another thread a few years ago-to do with the Asian restaurants topic.

This one has just a bit more period detail, the Austin A40 (remember them?) on this occasion with an 'L' plate tied onto the grill. Remember the palaver we learners in those days had trying to stop the blinking things snapping and falling off?

The title on my photo refers to Winters' veg shop on the right. Please no requests to identify where we saw a carrot like THAT in 1960!
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/license/3364697
 
Thanks Ell. I remember the building when it was the chemists. The wooden sign around the building with Associated Chemists on must have preserved the stonework underneath. When I was last there that stonework underneath the old sign had, I think, "WINES", "SPIRITS" etc and something else above the door carved into the stonework which would probably date back to when the building was first built. So I guess it was once a pub or off-licence. Viv.
 
Viv
It was The Court Restaurant in the 1932 Kellys and the c1950 OS map, though in the c1950 OS map it is also listed as a public house. In the 1921 Kellys it is the Marshall Foch Hotel
 
Yes Sandra
Phil is correct it was the AbC clothing ware house open to the public and you could buy a man,s
Suit for ten Bob , ten shillings
And my sister in law whom also is named Sandra used to work there and my second oldest brother
Whom as passed away about 18 months ago got married to him and eloped to Greta green
To get married and have kids
Best wishes Astonian,,,
 
This Midland Metro photo of mine on Corporation Street was in last weeks Birmingham Mail.



Only the Lewis's Building and the tower of Central Methodist Hall, plus the Victorian shop frontages survive from olden times.
 
Noticed this morning that the scaffolding on Corporation Street around Boston Tea Party and Pizza Express is coming down. The stonework looked good. Didn't take a photo though. Might wait for all the scaffolding to be removed.
 
New photos taken today of the buildings on Corporation that are now occupied (on the ground floor) by Pizza Express (Citadel Chambers) and Boston Tea Party (Court Restaurant)







 
Nicely done Pizza Express and Boston Tea Party! The exterior changes don't dominate the building. Viv.
 
Both were still open through the many months of the restoration. The last of the scaffolding came down a couple of days ago.
 
My photos from today.
 

Attachments

  • 15-07-15 009.JPG
    15-07-15 009.JPG
    362.2 KB · Views: 54
  • 15-07-15 005.JPG
    15-07-15 005.JPG
    840.9 KB · Views: 51
  • 15-07-15 008.JPG
    15-07-15 008.JPG
    676 KB · Views: 54
john knight said:
My photos from today.
Click to expand...
Hi All,
As a police oficer and first posted to Steelhouse Lane Police Station I was told that if you stand at the junction of Corporation Street and New Street for long enough you will see every inhabitant of the city walk by. I am sure that is correct but God knows how long you would have to stand there.
Old Boy
 
Not entirely sure if Maple House has been completely re-built or refaced. Now looks very different to the 1970s predecessor. Viv.
image.jpeg
 

Attachments

  • image.jpeg
    image.jpeg
    116.5 KB · Views: 29
Thanks Ell. Seems to have kept original name too. Think Maples was a furnishers. And quite classy too. Viv.
 
Earlier this year a coffee shop called Mango Bean opened to the left of Tesco Express, but it hasn't been open for the last few weeks.

Is always rough sleepers in the area near the cash machine.
 
Maples were, indeed, a high class retail furnisher which ceased trading in 1997. They were in business for almost 150 years starting in London. An ancestor of mine was moved, just after the end of WW1, from their main London establishment to take charge of the upholstery department of their Birmingham store.
 
Hi Folks, when operating as a professional photographer being an experienced Brummie often came in useful to get the shot. One of my favourite covers was The Council House...here it is, for once a shot that's easy to date!
Regards,
Peg.
Council House, Birmingham.jpg
 
I wonder what was the large basket on the handcart was used for? Laundry maybe for the nearby hotels, restaurants?
 
This is the street in 1928. Is this a tinted card? The bus to the right seems to be painted in unrecognisable colours. Is it realistic? Viv.

image.jpeg
 
I am sure it is tinted Vivienne - the buildings suggest that if nothing else. However the BCT bus, appearing to be on route 9 to Quinton, is not far off colour but the saloon bus on the left, which I believe to be a Midland Red, is way off as it looks blue on my pc.
 
Red would show as a very dark colour on orthochromatic film , as was usual in those days
 
Rare to find Corporation Street empty, but this was Saturday morning before most of the shops opened.

In the restaurant units of the Pitman Chambers is now Dixi Chicken and Pepe's Piri Piri.

The building was built as a Vegetarian restaurant in 1896-97!





Over at the retail units of the Central Methodist Hall, many remain empty, but the two below have now been let.

Get Stuffed is on Corporation Street



And The 50's Barber has taken a unit on Ryder Street.

 
Vivienne14 said:
This is the street in 1928. Is this a tinted card? The bus to the right seems to be painted in unrecognisable colours. Is it realistic? Viv.

View attachment 115429
Click to expand...
This is tinted, colour cards were still all hand painted, actual colour photography for postcards was just around the corner. Unfortunately if the colourists did not know the area, they were given a frèe hand on the colours to use in this one she was probably told the colour of the BCT bus or had even coloured one before, but did not know of Midland Red. The blue bus is BMMO and one of the experts on BHF will be able to identify it from the reg number HA 3353 or HA 3553 or somewhere near, interesting that the reg no is so clear and has not been painted out. What are the ghostly straight lines on top of the hazy building on the back left hand side. Note that all other vehicles are black as are the clothes of most of the men in the picture. The other incorrect colour is the roof of the Birmingham bus. I will look st my books and see what colour it should be. Somewhere else on the forum there is a Birmingham bus coloured green.
Bob
 
I was thinking along the same lines Tim but Lewis's opened in 1885 - nearly 40 years before the postcard. Although that doesn't rule out subsequent work being done on the building. I also wondered as the image has been tinted, could some of the lines have become obliterated in the process? That set me thinking whether they were tram wires or street light wires. Viv
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top