• 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

Ladypool Road and surrounding streets...

Z

Z_Abidi

Guest
Dear all - What a wonderful website! Reading such personal and collective memories and seeing so many photos really brings Birminghams history to life and it is wonderful to share in it - This website really is a treasure in itself!

My residence in Birmingham has been relatively short (from the age of 6-18) but it will always partly be 'home' for me. At the moment I am using the Ladypool Rd area as an example for an urban studies project ( I am an architecture student). I am really interested in knowing the areas history (pre and post war) as I am trying to understand how it came to be as it is today - largely populated by an immigrant community.

I'm particularly interested in knowing what Ladypool Rd was like (what kind of shops? What communal buildings?) And also what industries were there? Now there are many car repair workshops in the area, but I understand from another post there used to be a Kirby Grips factory on Clifton Rd - Does anyone know of other industries which used to exist but have since dissappeared?

Would love to hear your stories...and apologise for such a long post!
 
Z_Abidi, Welcome to our site. There is a lot we have to offer, but we always want to learn, which we can often do together. To research the former occupants in Ladypool Road, your best plan is to go to the Central Reference Library, top floor, where they hold the old directories (mainly Kelly's) which tell you every occupant street by street in each edition (almost every year from 1850). It is worth while getting a copy of the reproduction of old Ordnance Survey maps. Alan Godfrey Maps ref 14.09 Wa. This is a copy of the 1913 OS map entitled "South Birmingham". I believe you can buy these I think in the library for about £3 per copy.
Good hunting,
 
Abidi, welcome to the forum.

I was brought up in Leamington Road, Sparkbrook, adjoining Ladypool Road, and lived there from 1944 to 1966. If you go to the search button and type in Ladypool Road you will find quite a lot of information and photos. In my youth there was never a lot of industry but many shops selling just about everything. The best shop was on the corner of St Paul's Road, Burdens; they made and sold the best ice cream in the whole world! Several pubs, a cinema the New Olympia, Woolworths, Boots, a pet shop ETC.

The immigrant population started in the early 50's, we had heard that there was a coloured man in the area and as we had never seen one before we would wait in the street just to see him walk by!

The first photo is of my Belgian reg car standing in Ladypool Rd, Nov 2008, and the other, older, photos are from other forum members but I'm sorry that I didn't make a note of their names.

Graham.
 
Hi
The second picture which is supposed to be Burdens is not as Burdens was on the corner of Oldfield Road/Ladypool Road.
The bakers Trippas was on the corner of St Pauls road/Ladypool road I used to warm my hands & face on the wall by the ovens which in the Winter was lovely, it made the walk to school a bit more pleasant.
I know Graham will agree about the pictures when he thinks back, my Mom worked in Burdens for some years & I have some good memories of the shop as well.
Cheers
Dave Rock
 
daverock said:
I know Graham will agree about the pictures when he thinks back
Click to expand...

Dave, thanks for your reply and I'm quite sure that your memory of Ladypool Road is much better than mine, it was after all only a short period of my life.

Graham.
 
hi dave .
well done for the no.2 pic instantly saying and beating me to it
with old trippas,s i clocked it straight away with out a thought
and thats because my old dutchess worked for him when she was sixteen years old many many moons ago i may had brilliant best wishes astonian ;;
 
daverock

I think the confusion over Burdens may have arisen because of the fact that after Burdens closed the retail part of the ice cream factory on the corner of Oldfield road, I think they continued selling ice cream from a section of George Mannerings bakery shop on the corner of St Pauls Rd they had the left part of the shop partitioned off. They continued making ice cream at Oldfield Rd. Trippas didn't buy the shop until much later.

This is the way I remember it, of course my memory has been known to play tricks on me and its a long time ago now.

Phil
 
Hi Z_Abidi

Where would one start in listing the small businesses and industry that has been lost to the area since the war years. My memory does not go back that far. I was born in the late 40's, but I can remember very many businesses none of which remain today. Building firms, Garage Repairs, Tailors, Clothes factories, Laundries, Engineering Factories. You name it and you could find it within 5 minutes walk of Ladypool Rd.

It certainly is very different today, but no less industrious. I think it needs to be pedestrianized and of course provided with extra parking to cope with the trade that it gets today. In my day cars were not taken into account as so few people owned them. but now they make shopping down the lane hazardous.

Phil
 
In 1900 my Dad Henry James Smith was a hairdresser at 334 Ladypool Road.I was led to believe he was a well known character in that area.
Are there any photographs of that area in existance?
He visited Dudley Road Hospital 1914-18 to shave wounded soldiers.
He eventually married a nurse from there [My Mother]
 
As a little boy in the late 60s early 70s I used to walk the streets around there taking library books and the like to the old folks.Funny how the place has changed.

A lot of asians had already moved in,this happens because wherever you go immigrants gravitate to the cheapest places they can rent.A lot of the younger locals were getting rehoused,either by the council,or buying.

The shops struggled as they changed hands from former owners to the newer asian owners.But then the 'balti' effect changed the whole style of the place.Quite a change,and one well recorded by searching the net.Was there for a meal last week,but unfortunately Imrans lost the plot.

Anyway I suggest you follow the research tips suggested above,but then come back for more specific info,you'll be surprised just how many of the posters have quite intimate knowledge of the area.
 
Just wondering if anyone has knowledge of a butchers shop in Ladypool Rd, I think it was run by a Mr Ruscoe?, probably around 30's 40's and before, any information whatsoever would be welcome
 
I remember visiting Ladypool road in the '40's. My brother lived in St Pauls road with his children who grew up there. On VE day there was a bonfire at the end of the Street. Ladypool road was the best place to shop, especially for ice cream.
 
I lived on Ombersley Road and my brother David Hughes used to work in a shoe shop not far up the ladypool road from there - Wassalls I think it was called. My sister Jen and I used to run around the tiled area in fron of the shop around the pillar that stood in the middle. I remember my Dad Phil, taking us round to a cafe (Pauls?) for a bottle of coke with a straw and a game on the pinball machine. I remember shuffling the sawdust with my feet whilst waiting for mom to buy the meat in the butchers. The cake shop where a neighbour Pauline worked - possibly wimbushes. The hardware shop - Martin ? Don Christies record shop near to Woolies later to become Uncles. At the Runcorn Road end was a little shop like an Aladdins cave of ornaments called Bills or it could have been Bens. I remember when we needed new socks and other underwear going to a shop where an older lady worked and she kept all her stock in small wooden drawers behind the counter - from memory they went right up to the ceiling and covered the entire wall but she always knew which drawer to go to. Burdens ice cream is a taste that I will never forget - bits of ice amidst the creamy vanilla ice cream - ahhhhhh. Being sent to Tripasses the cake shop during school time by the teachers armed with a list of cakes for a teachers birthday!! They wouldnt get away with that nowadays. The smell of walking past every morning ....... I remember the gigantic King Kong standing guard over King Kong Motors. The chemist shop, the post office, the opticians where my sister Cheryl used to work - near the park. Playing with Angelina at The Gate - her Mom and Dad ran it. Sitting on the steps of St Barnabas church. I remember the cobbler and standing round the corner onto the Highgate road waiting for Father Xmas to come past throwing sweets from his brightly lit carriage. Memories!
 
Hello Joyful welcome to the forum. What a lovely account of your childhood in the area I am sure your post will provoke some more memories.
 
My Aunt lived in a back to back house near The Ladypool Road 6/50 the road name began with a C. I just can't remember it now, must ask my cousin! Typical yard with outside row of loos. We lived in a modern flat at Kingshurst so it was very different. The stairs were so steep I hated staying there. She was the collector for Provident cheques around Balsall Heath and my cousin Kath worked at a drapers shop nearby which my Mom used to call ' the eleven penny ha'penny shop'. In the mid fifties when I was 6 or 7, I went shopping with my cousin and we were queuing in Teddy Haynes vegetable shop when I saw the first black man I had ever seen. I was amazed and stood staring at his hair. He was obviously used to it because he wasn't at all bothered. Anne
 
Mom was born in Rose Cottages in Ladypool Road, but moved when she was very young but remembers the area as her Gran also lived there.
So amongst all the factories and shops, there were the houses too.
Sue
 
Anne

The road near Ladypool Rd starting with a "C" was probably Chesterton Rd witch ran from Ladypool Rd to Stoney Lane and was in between Clifton Rd & Brunswick Rd and was getting up toward the park.

Phil
 
More snippets from mom, she says that even after they moved to Vincent Street nan used to get the 36 bus to go shopping in Ladypool Road. Mom remembers the butchers, but not the name but says the proprietor used to greet the ladies with "now Mrs Errr" what can I get you!! She also remembers the cinema and the George Masons store where nan did a lot of her shopping.
Sue
 
Sue

Where on Vincent St did your mom move to, I lived there on and off from 1947 until about 1960 but my grandparents remained there until they demolished it.

Phil
 
Hi sue
the reason i asked was that the west was part of my aera i lived in formans rd and
went to that school .i left school the year your mom left.
Ken
 
Mom went to Yarnfield Road Primary, then to Hartfield Crescent Girls Grammar, she travelled there from Sutton every day on the bus - no door to door car journeys from parents then lol
Sue
 
Hi Astonian
I was interested in your comment about your old duchess working at Trippas Bakery. I also went out with a young lady who worked there back in the mid 60's.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top