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Fascinating City Centre Photo - July 1963

G

guilbert53

master brummie
Found this fascinating photo on the internet.

It says it was July 1963

It obviously features the old Bull Ring in the centre.

Just to the right of it is the old market hall (with no roof) that I believe was bombed in WW2. This had been demolished before I moved to Birmingham.

To the right of that is the part built Rotunda.

In the top right you can see the old New St station, with the curved roofs.

In the bottom left you have Moor St station.

On the very left you can see part of the area that now contains the Wholesale Market (due to be demolished soon).

Just to the left of St Martins Church is a dark building, anyone know what that was?,

Amazing to see all the roads in between and around the Bull Ring and St Martins Church. I can remember traffic used to pour in to the city up Digbeth (the road), past St Martins Church and then on to this inner ring road.

I walked up Digbeth (the road) yesterday and it is now pretty dead. Few cars use it to get in to the city centre and many of the huge car showrooms that used to be in the area (Renault, Peugot/Citreon) have now moved away. Birmingham 1963.jpg
 
Can't name your "dark" building but I can volunteer that it is in St. Martin's Lane and Smithfield Market would have been to it's rear.
 
devonjim said:
Can't name your "dark" building but I can volunteer that it is in St. Martin's Lane and Smithfield Market would have been to it's rear.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that.

From searching the web that "dark" building seems to be the front entrance to the old Wholesale Market which I assume was called Smithfield market
 
It was not exactly the front entrance Guilbert, but the wholesale market was behind, You can see the roof of the market behind the frontage. Below is a photo of the building from the other end of Spiceal St, and you can see the design is similar to that seen from this side.
Spiceal%20St%20St%20Martins%20Church%20%201887.jpg
 
Mike,

Although obviously the St Martins Hotel was not the entrance to Smithfield Market it was almost literally next door to this hostelry. Looking at this image because it's more obvious on this photo the front entrance (being the arched one) is only yards away.

City St Martins Hotel.jpg
 
Sorry Phil & Guilbert. The map of the area clearly shows only one entrance in that "wall" of buildings, and it can be seen on Guilberts map faintly as well if you enlarge it. For some reason I thought the main entrance was on the side facing Jamaica Row.
 
Strange that we hear about all the buildings knocked down in Birmingham but I have never heard the St Martins Hotel mentioned.

Not a stunning building perhaps, but still attractive, but that roof is amazing and has a French Chateux look about it.

Was that building on the left, with all the sloping roofs, also part of the wholesale market?
 
Mike

When first built, Smithfield Market had 3 entrances the one on St Martins Row, one where you quite rightly said on Jamaica Row, and another on Moat Lane. I also think they might have added some extra doors when they built the extemtion on the pig & sheep market early in the 20th century.
 
Absolutely right Phil. When I worked in the Bull Ring you drove into the fruit and veg market via St. Martins Row and exited via either Jamaica Row to your right or Moat Lane to your left. We had our lock up under St. Martins market and the van was parked on the hardstanding opposite Marshalls fruit wholesalers, who were next to the St. Martins hotel.
 
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