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Ghost signs of Birmingham

According to Chemico's website they moved from Coleshill due to the GWR development. Brylcreem was developed in the 1920s. Always imagined it to be a much later product e.g 1950s Teddy Boys etc. Hadn't realised it had been around for so long. Here's a potted history.... Viv.

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Digbeth has a lot to offer in the way of ghost signs. This is the entrance to Bonser & Co's warehouse for ironware. The tower fronts on to Digbeth but takes up very little space, with more space concentrated around the back for warehousing. Built in the 1860s. The signage has seen better days, but still just recognisable.

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The present day and an earlier view looking towards Bonsers.

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Viv
 
Don't know what's going on today Lindy. When I checked the attachments in my profile they're listed as 'in progress' . Let's hope they make it to maturity this time!! Here goes ......

Firstly Bonser's tower and entrance, then a side view of the tower

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Next is a long view up Digbeth towards Bonsers, current day and an earlier view

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Fingers crossed they work this time. Viv.
 
Whilst snooping around on Streetview today I came across these two signs in Hampton Road, Stockland Green. To me they're interesting because they advertise businesses which must have started up in the small houses in this road (maybe a front room type business). But now those houses have returned to domestic premises again.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1353699150.414910.jpg (as an aside: The red brick wall you can see in the distance, I think, was one of the entrances to Stockland Green School and Marsh Hill Boys School, but it's been bricked up)

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1353699359.469371.jpg Can't make out any of the words on this one.

Viv.
 
Hi Viv: I believe the premises of Wheeler's Timber & Builders in Hampton Road was their first yard and perhaps shop. Where the DIY shop on Stockland Green is now close to the Methodist Church was Wheeler's going back several decades. My Father used to do a lot of painting and decorating for neighbours in his spare time and bought all his supplies from there. Later on the shop became Lucas's. Wheeler's. founded in 1924 is still going strong today and are located on Short Heath Road.https://www.wheelerstimber-builders.co.uk/

The other ghost sign is very hard to make out, as you say. Since the house in the left hand corner of the shot is very modern perhaps the ghost sign was an
ad for some other shop or as you say it could have been a business in the house where the sign is displayed.
 
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This one is worth putting on again. It was on my old thread "ghost writing". It was next to the Swan and Mitre pub Lichfield road.Someone actually put a photo of the building what was there.
 
Thanks Froth. Do you remember which thread the photo of the building was on? I had a search around but can't find it. Maybe it was one of the lost photos. Pity if that's the case as it'd be good to see what it was like.

Hi Jennyann. Thanks for the info. So good to hear about people who used or have memories of the places advertised in the signs. On the Wheelers advert there's a little arrow pointing to DIY, which looks like this part was in the house. I presume the timber part of the buisness wasat the side, where the low level building is now. Viv.
 
Jennyann, is that the same Palmer and Harvey that used to be on Lichfield road......my mother worked at that location for about 12 years starting in the early 1940's,dad was always sure of getting his fags, no queueing up for him, as one should know cigarettes were hard to come by in the war years, he only smoked the coffin nails (woodbines) he smoked all his life and ended up with emphysema....Brenda
 
Thanks for the Palmer & Harvey sign Jennyann. I'd not heard of them before. This is how they were described in 2008 by Barclays:

'With a turnover of £4 billion, the Palmer and Harvey Group is the UK’s fourth largest privately owned company and supplies food, confectionery and tobacco to over 61,000 customers'.
 
Hi Brenda: I am guessing that it is the same place. The area has changed so much but the company Palmer & Harvey probably were in the building where the ghost sign
was and it's not that far from Lichfield Road. Brenda, did you ever go to your Mom's workplace?
 
Hi Viv: Thanks for posting the info about Palmer & Harvey. I found this info and was amazed to see how they had grown over the years. I think they joined forces with another company so years ago and went forward from there. It's amazing what we find out on BHF isn't it?
 
Jennyann, yes l did visit Palmer and Harveys numerous times while mom worked there..then it was just up from astonbrooke st on the left hand side of aston road.....it was just a warehouse and mom worked in the cost office....from what l see on the forum P&H has really grown over the years...never ever thought it would get that big.........Brenda
 
Hi,

Just an update from post #140, the twinnings ghost sign in kings heath. Here is a picture of the shop in its full glory, when it was still a grocers47SilverStreet63.jpg

Nikki
 
Great photo Nikki. It adds some more detail to your #401 photo : Mr Smallwood was the name of the grocer. Looks like a nicely organised, well maitained shop. Thanks for posting. Viv.
 
This sign is in Kingstanding. All we can see is a 'C' above the Kingstanding Chinese Food Service. My guess it was once the Co-op. Today the Co-op occupies premises further along Kingstanding Road to the left of the photo. Viv.

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Thanks Mike. Think the Co-op must have moved about a bit along this stretch of Kingstanding Road. Seem to remember seeing an old photo on BHF showing a mish mash of individual Co-op shops all joined up along here. Must have been pre the building in photo # 168. So with expansion I expect they developed these purpose built premises - it looks around the 1930s to me. Then they must have built the 1970s building a little further along with the huge semi- circular roof. Viv.
 
This sign on Retort House (Berkley St) is almost impossible to read. But I'd guess it had something to do with gas and coke. The Retort House was the first plant to supply Birmingham streets. Walking along Holliday St/Berkley St on streetview, what a pleasure to see the old gas lamps, even under the wonderful old bridge. From Wikepedia:

"Following a tender in 1816 by the Street Commissioners for the provision of gas street lighting the only respondent, John Gosling of London, was engaged to supply 10 streets. He formed the Birmingham Gas Light and Coke Company and built his first works on Gas Street in 1817-18 using gas plant installed by Samuel Clegg, the first expert in gas engineering. Clegg was apprenticed to William Murdoch at the Boulton and Watt Company and in 1813 was the first engineer at the Chartered Gas Light and Coke Company, building the first public gas works in Westminster. The retort house, the place where the town gas was manufactured by heating coal in the absence of air, was built next to the canal in 1822 to replace the original Clegg plant together with a new gasometer (storage tank) and coal store. It was designed by Alexander Smith."


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I don't know what the first letters are before the "Bordesley" but the word between that and "Station" is "Cattle" .
 
I saw this this morning the sign is on the former Midland Bank in Stevenson Street but has to pre date the bank ?

I think that this sign says Steamships, ? and the the sign may date back to 1896 when the building was Midland Railway Goods & Parcels Receiving Office I do hope that the rest of the sign is unveiled https://www.flickr.com/photos/dofartshavelumps/12696542783/
and https://www.flickr.com/photos/dofartshavelumps/12696880834/in/photostream/
I am in two minds whether to let Birmingham Museum know but they may know already? do we all agree that it does say Steamship? or have I lost it (again)
 
That seems a reasonable assumption, though in 1890 there is also Gaze & Son, Tourist agents listed around there. They were probably in the same office, but it may refer to them rather than the goods receiving part.
 
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