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Market Hall 1835 - 1963

Morturn

I was sure I had posted this somewhere on the forum previously, but I am unable to find it. The WWII bomb was used by Birmingham City Council as a collection box for the Lord Mayors Appeal fund. I believe it was dropped by our EU partners on one of their night visits in 1940 and failed to work. As I was born in 1947 it was always there in the Market Hall as long as I can remember until the day the market closed. I can't say what happened to it after that, perhaps it was scrapped.

Phil

City Bull Ring Market Hall Lord Mayors Appeal.jpg
 
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BordesleyExile said:
Viv would it be possible to repost your last attatchment? I cannot view it.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

interior photo again. Hope it works this time!

And here's an aerial view showing the market without the roof in 1961. Viv

Market_Hall_1936.JPG


Market_Hall_1961.JPG
 
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Phil said:
Morturn

I was sure I had posted this somewhere on the forum previously, but I am unable to find it. The WWII bomb was used by Birmingham City Council as a collection box for the Lord Mayors Appeal fund....

Phil
Click to expand...

Well thank you for posting the picture, you’ve made my day.
 
I was very interested to find this information about the market hall, and wonder if you could confirm exactly where it stood. I am researching some of my family (Edwin Woodcock, a butcher, and his family) who were living close to St Martins in Bell Street up to about 1812, but had moved to Grubb Street (which I believe was the old name for Meeting House Lane) by 1827. From what I can work out, the Market Hall stood where Philip Street, Bell Street and perhaps the Swan Inn are on 1810 map of Birmingham by John Kempson. So I am guessing my family moved because Bell Street was demolished for the building of the market hall.

Very grateful for any information.

Lesley

Phil said:
In the mid 1800’s the Birmingham Street Commissioners became increasingly worried about the increase of ramshackle buildings on streets such as The Shambles, Corn Cheaping and Cock St. The Commissioners were given authority to clear these streets to open up the area to ease congestion. After the streets were cleared they decided that a covered market area was needed.

The Market Hall was opened in 1835 at a total cost of £44,800 for the building works and purchase of the land.

Phil
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displayimage.php
View attachment 68229
Hi This is a picture i have on another post but would be more suited here.
This is my great grandfather Charles Williams on his stall in the Birmingham market hall. He was a dealer in hardware, toys and pets, until the night the bombs dropped. He had bought the business from his father inlaw Edward Vaughan when he retired. He had worked at the market from about 1865. He was a dealer in live birds, basket makers and fancy goods.
It is great to see the old photos of the market.
Annie

Image in my album
 
One always wondered which end was meant to be the front of the building. The picture post#9 is actually the Worcester St. end which fronted on a fairly large open road area. I always thought that it was a more impressive end to the building with a larger and wider staircase frontispiece to the arched doorway. Perhaps the building was not meant to have either end as a front. We always seemed to call it the fish market at the time but it did have other stalls also. Brutallly Doric I would have thought...not enjoying the cling to an incline...not an attractive building at all and seemingly to me not architecture suited for the purpose. It matched Christchurch in appearance which was equally ugly to my eye. Seemingly the architect was stuck on one theme which may have been the in thing at the time. Still it was part of our heritage and still remembered for being that. Perhaps what came after was equally disturbing but for my part was never given mind to, at the time. Even that has gone now. I don't believe that I have seen the map post #28 before but have seen something similar. Not close to scale perhaps but it shows the Swan with a pressence actually on New Street which is interesting. The old King Edwards seems rather small and and too far away from Peck Lane and one wonders why. The later building was built on the same spot and we know that it was immediately adjacent to Peck Lane. Accuracy must have been difficult to achieve at the time. The old Royal Hotel is marked on Temple Row.
 
annieapple said:
View attachment 68229
Hi This is a picture i have on another post but would be more suited here.
This is my great grandfather Charles Williams on his stall in the Birmingham market hall. He was a dealer in hardware, toys and pets, until the night the bombs dropped. He had bought the business from his father inlaw Edward Vaughan when he retired. He had worked at the market from about 1865. He was a dealer in live birds, basket makers and fancy goods.
It is great to see the old photos of the market.
Annie
Click to expand...


thats a great pic annie..

thanks for sharing it with us
 
Hi,
Was it outside the Market Hall that my wife says the old lady selling `Andy carriers` used to stand ?
 
eltelf said:
I was very interested to find this information about the market hall, and wonder if you could confirm exactly where it stood. I am researching some of my family (Edwin Woodcock, a butcher, and his family) who were living close to St Martins in Bell Street up to about 1812, but had moved to Grubb Street (which I believe was the old name for Meeting House Lane) by 1827. From what I can work out, the Market Hall stood where Philip Street, Bell Street and perhaps the Swan Inn are on 1810 map of Birmingham by John Kempson. So I am guessing my family moved because Bell Street was demolished for the building of the market hall.

Very grateful for any information.

Lesley
Click to expand...

Hi Lesley

This thread was started with people like you in mind, for the rest of us older Brummies it is a bit like teaching your Granny to suck eggs, If you look at the map you have provided the market hall was in that square of land surrounded by High St at the front and Worcester St at the rear and on each side Bell St & Phillips Street. I hope this is of some help.

Phil
 
Thank you Phil - that is what I wanted. As you guessed, I am not a Brummie, but my family moved there from Tamworth in about 1807 - then moved off up to Cheshire in the 1850s I knew nothing of the history of Birmingham and what it was like in those days, but have had a lot of fun finding out. Your Birmingham History pages are very useful - I come back from time to time and find new info.

Best wishes, Lesley



Phil said:
Hi Lesley

This thread was started with people like you in mind, for the rest of us older Brummies it is a bit like teaching your Granny to suck eggs, If you look at the map you have provided the market hall was in that square of land surrounded by High St at the front and Worcester St at the rear and on each side Bell St & Phillips Street. I hope this is of some help.

Phil
Click to expand...
 
It took me a while to register that this 1961 view of the Smallbrook development shows the remains of Market Hall slap bang in the middle! This must have been pretty well the final days for the Market Hall building. Viv.


Market_Hall_from_Smallbrook_Queensway_1961.JPG
 
Only a couple of photo's needed on this thread to bring it back up to scratch now, so if you have still got them please post them.

Phil
 
Don't think this has been on here before. The final days of the Market Hall in the 1960s ... a sad sight. Viv.

Market_Hall_last_remains.JPG
 
It was brutal architecture...completely out of place where it stood on the side of a hill with nothing contemporary standing with it. Without a roof for the longest time. The rear entrance on Worcester Street had a better pressence in my view with its longer and wider staircase and more frontage area. Still for all of this, it was what we knew and had become accustomed to. It's long drawn out demise from the time of the fire is to be sad about...oh and what replaced it.
 
Hi
 I am reposting a photo. I was in the bull ring in october 2011. I stopped and spoke to an elderly lady who was sat on a chair selling flowers. She told me she had been in the bull ring for over

42 years selling flowers and used to be up by the lady who used to shout handy carrier. I would not mind betting that this photo is her.


flower_seller_bull_ring.jpg



Regards Stars
 
Yes, Phylis Nicklin left Brummies a vast number of pictures from the mid fifties. Looks like a Phillips portable radio going down the hill. We had one...a kind of leatherette finish...same color as that. The ladies in the picture seem to be about late forties/early fifties; so at this point would be possibly over a hundred. I wish that we could have access to all of the Nicklin photo's. Many are still available on various sites but not all.
 
Vivienne-that post no 35 is amazing!! It is like the Market Hall is sullenly awaiting its fate but in my mind is pondering a fightback against the modern encroachment..
 
@Stars

I think I know the lady you mean!

I was in Birmingham last week and I saw a lady flower seller in the open air space between the Rag Market and the back of Debenhams (fairly near to St Martins church) who I recognised from years ago. I had to look twice as I couldn't believe it was the same person but I am certain it was. She must be getting on a bit now. I metioned her to my father and he thinks her name is Mary and she used to work alongside her sister (who may have passed away now).
 
Hi a Sparks
Thats the lady. When i was talking to her as i said she told me she had been in the market over 40 years. She asked me if i rememberd the man they used to chain up and put him in a sack
and he would excape, which i do. I wished i had asked her name. Next time i am up town i will take the photo and ask her. I will post the outcome.

Regards stars
 
I thought I had seen all the pictures of Birmingham Mike but that is a new one. Very nice too.
stittcher.
 
Hi Mike

That is one I have never seen before either, it never ceases to amaze me how you manage to get hold of some of these photos living as far away from Birmingham as you do. Not something you bought at a local boot sale then?

Phil
 
Phil
It was another photo I found on the imperial war museum site. Tthe Birmingham images are at https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...g][0]="Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, UK" . I had never come accross it before, but was looking to see where the aerial view of colmore Row might havw come from, and the site just turned up. I have put on three others from it. you might care to give your opinion on the Bull ring photo on the bull ring thread.
Mike
 
New shot for me too. Well done. I never saw it so empty of people and stalls but I guess it took time to fill up again and all of the open area became full of stalls again. Like shopping in an open castle. Just looking again I was supprised at how little there was of it remaining. You would'nt think that there was a war on though...looking at the casual demenure of the shoppers.
 
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img047.jpg

Sept. 9th 1940 showing the result of a direct hit on The Market Hall.
 
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