• 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

Icknield Street

Vivienne14 said:
I’ve searched and searched for the Icknield Street thread referenced in post #408 but can’t find it and the link brings up an error message. So I shall post this on here. If a mod wishes to move it please do so.

Not a very clear image but I wondered whether this would have been a pub or another business ? I think somewhere in the modern day Streetview is where it would have stood. Viv

View attachment 172040
Source: British Newspaper Archive
View attachment 172041
Click to expand...
Viv you have to remember Icknield st was 1 lane wide each way - the bit of road on the right of the pic. Before it was widened - this half of the dual carriageway was the 10 buildings shown on the map below from the church to the corner. You would be standing in some ones back yard back in the early-mid 1960's if you stood there!
 
mikejee said:
What is the address. Is it carver st, Warstone lane or Icknield st? It looks from early maps as if it might not have always been part of the mint. Could it be the one marked Brookfield works on the c 1890 map below ?

map_c_1890_around_carver_st_icknield_st_junc.jpg
Click to expand...
Hi I am trying to find pictures and maps of carver street birmingham and also new spring street, by Dudley Road Hospital back in the 1960's
 
Grateful if you could let us know who should be credited and we'll be happy to add the details to the post. Thank you.
 
The photos were taken by Sidney Fowkes and were shared by his daughter, Sheree Fowkes, on other groups. Sheree has added that her father took the photos on all posts, and asks that due creditation is given. By the way, Sheree asks where did "Astoness" copy them from?
 
whittington1908 said:
The photos were taken by Sidney Fowkes and were shared by his daughter, Sheree Fowkes, on other groups. Sheree has added that her father took the photos on all posts, and asks that due creditation is given. By the way, Sheree asks where did "Astoness" copy them from?
Click to expand...
hi whittington someone sent them to me from a facebook page as i am not on facebook thought they maybe of interest which they are...they are great photos and very much part of birminghams history..could you please thank sheree for sharing her dads photos and i will now go and credit him...

thank you

lyn
 
Adding to the cafe chat, I am wondering if anyone remembers my grandad Sydney Tibbatts who ran a cafe with my grandmother Irene in the 1960s, which my mom remembers as being right opposite the Mint. I am told they had a dining room upstairs, and I am hoping it is the 'proper' cafe remembered by @Astonian, not the rough one! Mom says the cafe was right next to the clocking-in machine for the bus drivers and Sydney used to come out and take the drivers' tea cans and refill them with tea, and made a thriving little sideline from that. Mum thinks it was called Cosy Cafe, but is not sure. I can't see it in any of the photos currently on the thread. We know they took the cafe already aware of the potential demolition of the street for the road widening. He passed away at the young age of 54 in 1967, so I never met him, and would love to hear from anyone who knew him. Irene lived to be 80 and died in 1995.

To jog anyone's memory, here is Sydney

Sydney 1966.JPG Sydney late 1960s.JPG
 
Last edited:
Thank you so much but it wasn't the Vulcano / Rimini. @Astonian said (my formatting to distinguish the two):
Astonian said:
that building you see is the new rimi cafe it was not a pub never was but what i can tell you originaly that cafe was on the other side of the road right on the very corner of hingestion street and and along side of it was the mint pub which was very full and full of fights
what you see was way back in the sixties it was an old run down cafe and then came along a guy whom thought i will renovate up which he did and named it the rimi cafe he built the trade up but he also brought trouble in there for years and one evening a well known gang of brothers came in with a shot bb by the traffic lights he his still there todaygun and shot the gaffer he was a foreign guy ,i just cannot think of his name at the moment i was involved myself with bother my mate a boxer and myself had to tackle afew of the plonkers there over a girl friend as time marched on it was a troublsom cafe just hanging around doing what they like i could say the names they are a ewell known family on the old site they was there eventual they smashed the place up windows the machines the lot by this time twelve months had lasped then they changed the name to the volcano cafe time marched on bear in mind just by the mint pub and the number eight clock in there was another proper cafe where you could sit have a sandwiche in peace along with the bus drive and things flared up in there and the clearence started they closed it down [and] just like across the road they started orders on the other side it openend up as a cafe but nobody went in from the factorys so it closed down hence some body thought of the original name the rimi but the new rimi then one or two people was crawling for tea coffee but the the compulsary notice went in and as you know all those shops was closed down the end building whom sold cars went to perry barr then he set up on spring hill my brothe
Click to expand...
The one in the photo above was the Rimini (Rimi) on the corner of Hingeston St, which then changed name to the Vulcano (appropriate given the fights!), then moved across the road and was the New Rimini, it sounds like they revived the old name when it wasn't very successful, probably a bad idea given the history.

Sydney's cafe was the 'proper' one from what I can tell from the above. It didn't move or change name, and only closed for the clearance as far as I know. From looking at the maps, it would have been a bit further up on the other side of the Royal Mint pub, on that side of the road, opposite the Mint itself.

Also Sydney was a very peaceful man and definitely did not smash up his premises! He wasn't foreign and definitely wasn't shot lol!
 
Last edited:
pjmburns said:
Not sure what you mean by a "proper" cafe but do you have a number for the premises? Possibly from erolls.
Click to expand...
Astonian meant decent, reliable I think. As opposed to the Rimini which was beset by fights! I formatted his quote above with the red highlighted text which I think is referring to Sydney's cafe. He mentions it being 'by.. the number eight clock in' which sounds exactly right. He is mostly talking about the Rimini / Vulcano and he draws a contrast to the other 'proper' one.

I don't know the building number sorry but mum described it as 'opposite the Mint' ie the actual Mint not the pub.
 
Last edited:
carolina said:
I have a photo of a cafe outside a bus stop just down from the Mint pub but it’s not letting me upload it
Click to expand...
I've just put my email address in a message in case it's possible to send it as an attachment.
I can then try to upload it here from my end.
Many thanks :blush:
 
sidney tibbatts ...1957 erolls at 201 icknield st no irene listed so maybe they had not married by then..according to the map i have 201 is right next door to the royal mint pub
1963 kellys directory sidney tibbatts listed at 201 dining rooms..

lyn
 
Thank you so much. They were married before the war, so maybe just his name on the lease. I didn't know they were there in the late 50s.

By the way, they did really well out of grafting in the cafe: by 1962 they had left Oldknow Road and bought a lovely house in Shakespeare Drive, Shirley and would get up very early and drive into town every day. Must have been quite a contrast. Do you know when the buildings were demolished, as I am fairly sure they were there right up until the compulsory purchase?
 
Tuppenny Rice said:
Thank you so much. They were married before the war, so maybe just his name on the lease. I didn't know they were there in the late 50s.

By the way, they did really well out of grafting in the cafe: by 1962 they had left Oldknow Road and bought a lovely house in Shakespeare Drive, Shirley and would get up very early and drive into town every day. Must have been quite a contrast. Do you know when the buildings were demolished, as I am fairly sure they were there right up until the compulsory purchase?
Click to expand...

i am quite sure icknield st was intact in the early 70s as i used to travel up and down the street on the no 8 bus 5 nights a week to go to spring hill rollar rink..cant be certain when they were demolished but at a guess late 70s even into the early 80s...sidneys probate is on ancestry

lyn
 
Astoness said:
sidney tibbatts ...1957 erolls at 201 icknield st no irene listed so maybe they had not married by then..according to the map i have 201 is right next door to the royal mint pub
1963 kellys directory sidney tibbatts listed at 201 dining rooms..

lyn
Click to expand...
I just found this thread from 2003 where @Astonian extols the virtues of Sydney's cafe, sadly he's not still with us and the OP was a guest.
 
Last edited:
Astoness said:
try this link...clearly shows the cafe

Resource Details - Birmingham Images

Images, documents and views from the past for the area where you live, work or visit.
www.search.birminghamimages.org.uk
Click to expand...
:D excellent! Thank you so much! I wonder what that board was on the window. I wonder if that was after they closed it, or it was something they put up after hours for security, given the fights? Also, I'm squinting to see if I can see the clocking in device, but I don't know what it looks like.

@Moneypenny upthread mentions their dad working on a forklift in the street - there's one in the photo.
 
Last edited:
Presumably, it's a reference to a Bundy clock (example attached). They are usually sited at a bus terminus. Maybe one of our bus transport experts could advise where on Icknield Street there might have been a Bundy.

Can't see one on this photo either.Screenshot_20240608_145206_Google.jpg
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20240608_150030_Google.jpg
    Screenshot_20240608_150030_Google.jpg
    205.1 KB · Views: 5
Yes it's strange, the guest OP in this thread, who mentioned their parents ran the pub, said the buses stopped outside for the drivers to clock in. @Astonian also described "the little cafe out side the clock".

Maybe it was on the other side of the road?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top