Lichfield Street and Corporation Street tales...

[Dennis Williams]

Found a lovely old book 'How Birmingham Became A Great City' by John Whybrow and Rachel Waterhouse. I was reminded of Whybrow's photographic genius by these lovely shots of Lichfield Street. This was the lower half of what is now Corporation Street and where the Victoria Law Courts are now. The close up shows the house at 103 Lichfield St in 1882, and the front of the Rose & Crown Public House next door at 101. I was fascinated by the chap leaning in the doorway and the notice above which says "Model Lodgings for Single Gentlemen" by Alexander Graham" on one side and "Travellers and Working Men" then a strange "As you cast your eye.." "Came by" "And my accommodation try..." on the other. A poetic advertising slogan? So I looked up the 1881 Census and was astonished to find this place is a lodgings house run by Alexander Graham, a Cooper by trade, and with no less than 42 (forty two!) lodgers, including his father, an Optician. Now this does NOT look a big house. Must have been quite a squeeze. Lucky there was the pub next door though run by James & Mary Redew and their six kids. Beautiful Pub sign logo on the Lamp, but it looks a bit sad. This lot was cleared soon after this photo was taken, and the Law Courts opened on this site in 1887. Just wonder if the guy is Alexander Graham himself?

 

[Dennis Williams]

Forgot to include this map of the transformation and development of Corporation Street over the years...

 

[Big Gee]

A wonderful find, Dennis. What's almost as interesting as the photos is the list of trades carried on by the lodgers - "gun filer", for example. That must have meant something very specific, but lost in the passage of time, no doubt. "Brass caster" - there were any number of small brass foundries within a stone's throw of the City Centre in those days. Easy to get a mental picture of the men wandering out of that building before it was light, and not getting back again until it was dark - a long day's manual work, and probably for just pennies.

Are there any more photos you can post?

Big Gee

 

[Dennis Williams]

Thanks Big Feller. Yep, this is a famous one that Keith Turner used as the front cover of his magnificent book 'Birmingham Pubs'. Not sure which bit of Lichfield Street it occupied. The bloke in the hat set at the 'had a few' angle looks like he could be toddling off to the bookies now...

 

[mikejee]

The old Farriers Arms survived Lichfield St and was later still extant on Corporation Stfor a very short time.It is listed in the 1890 Kellys and shown on the 1889 OS map, but had gone by 1892. It was between bull St and Newton St on the west side of Corporation St. . See 1889 map below
Mike

 

[Dennis Williams]

Very interesting Mike, thanks for that again. Newton Street also looked like it had its moments in them dark days..

 

[jennyann]

Thanks for posting the information on Lichfield Street and Corporation Street, Dennis. Sounds as though you have found a gem of a book. The map and photos are great. Always learning something about Brum from this site.

 

[Dennis Williams]

You and me both jennyann. You and me both. Great site, with some great characters and detectives within its ranks.

Here is my final offerings for Lichfield Street from Chris Upton's great History of Birmingham book. I love the usual mantra from the Politicians when sloping off to spend millions of pounds of our taxes - "saving in the end, price well worth paying, etc." - for once being so true in this case. Pity they never followed through with the tunnel link from New Street to Snow Hill. Did they?

 

[sylviasayers]

Dennis, my great great grandfather John Raybould was the landlord of the Rose & Crown, Lichfield Street in 1845. Thanks to John Houghton who sent me the photo way back in 2006.

 

[Aidan]

... Pity they never followed through with the tunnel link from New Street to Snow Hill. Did they?

Dennis - I thought that "they" did and that the GWA & NWA arcades https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32816&p=340211#post340211 were created over the in-fill. However, I can find no evidence for this thought and it would seem a little off direction (unless curved) so I may be completely wrong.

 

[Dennis Williams]

Moving along swiftly to the beginning of Corporation Street at the New Street end, I have always had a bit of a thing about the old Yates Wine Lodge, of which much has been written in other specific and highly informative Threads.
My son was a trainee pub manager with them a few years ago and after getting his license, worked at various Yates’s outlets in and around the Midlands for a while, until he left for more calmer waters of computer maintenance. He got fed up of quite normal looking people coming in and after a few drinks either wanted to bed him or kill him. And that was only the girls…
I also enjoyed too many Australian wines in this great hostelry in my youth, and I remember that when the Chesterfield branch closed for good, he brought home an ancient copper & brass urn to heat the water for the dreaded ‘blob’, which Mikejee described on this older Thread thus: During World War II the company became the first company in Britain to import Australian wine. It also became known as the "Blob shop" for selling the "blob" - its own mix of fortified white wine, hot water, sugar lemon." Always wondered what it was I got tipsy on. It’s still in the loft somewhere.

I then bought Roy Thorntons superb book of “VICTORIAN BUILDINGS OF BIRMINGHAM” in which he states the old Yates’s Building at Nos 15–17 was originally built in 1880 as an ARCADE running through to Cannon Street, with nine shops and offices. Then apparently, after a fire in 1888, a new application was made on behalf of ‘Central Restaurant public house’, which was granted and I am presuming morphed into Yates’s at some time later, and thus was no longer an Arcade, but the pub we know with entrances in Corporation Street and Cannon Street.

The rest we know. Much fun, many characters, and a truly iconic piece of Birmingham Pub history all gone now. But MossG did capture the Central Arcade logo in a very recent photo in his post on the Cannon Street Thread, and registered his bemusement. I hope he won’t mind me posting it here again in answer to his query.
So, as you can see, the architecture of the building (another W.H.Ward masterpiece) still remains, and is also surely worth another showing. Any other thoughts on the ‘Arcade’ Factor or other comments would be most welcome. I certainly don’t remember the Cannon Street entrance, but I was a bit young to be drinking there anyway…hic.


https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=28948&page=2&highlight=cannon+street
https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=20785&highlight=Yates+wine+lodge

 

[Dennis Williams]

Came across this belter from a tip off another Thread. Couldn't resist posting here.