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New Street City Centre Birmingham

Two postcards will appear here from my collection which have been improved by RobT as my own system was down thanks to Windows 10 updates. RobT kindly dealt with the scans I sent him, returned them to me but no way can I reproduce them on this post. They are both of New Street and the one has been actually dated by the sender as 8/12/05 (1905), from the design of the postcard, it is a split back which means it was published after 1903, but it has the white space at the bottom which was used prior to 1903 for the message and address only on the back, but as with all postcards, te postmark does not reflect the topographical location it was postmarked 0830 am 8 Dec Malvern and sent to South Norwood. The 1 Barceldine is obviously the address in Malvern as the writer advises that they have returned home and their colds are better. Unfortunately I cannot tell the publisher as the sender has written over the name which looks like Town and Country. Perhaps someone knows who they are.
The coloured card is unused, but is pre WW1 as it was printed in Bavaria, the publisher was GD&DL, but on the front is copyright FF&Co which was Francis Frith (Photographer & original publisher). The odd thing about it is that the location is not in the usual Frith script. A local postcard historian may have more information. It is known that often local publisher used Frith photographs and put their own name on them.
One of the lessons for all the BHF cycling fraternity is that Boaters were OK to be worn on the bike and looking at the cyclist in the lead with the south of france handlebars and using the middle of the handlebars grip....no it can't be, it's Old Brit in one of his early races.

Pictures to appear later

Bob
 
Bob Davis said:
Two postcards will appear here from my collection which have been improved by RobT as my own system was down thanks to Windows 10 updates. RobT kindly dealt with the scans I sent him, returned them to me but no way can I reproduce them on this post. They are both of New Street and the one has been actually dated by the sender as 8/12/05 (1905), from the design of the postcard, it is a split back which means it was published after 1903, but it has the white space at the bottom which was used prior to 1903 for the message and address only on the back, but as with all postcards, the postmark does not reflect the topographical location it was postmarked 0830 am 8 Dec Malvern and sent to South Norwood. The 1 Barceldine is obviously the address in Malvern as the writer advises that they have returned home and their colds are better. Unfortunately I cannot tell the publisher as the sender has written over the name which looks like Town and Country. Perhaps someone knows who they are.
The coloured card is unused, but is pre WW1 as it was printed in Bavaria, the publisher was GD&DL, but on the front is copyright FF&Co which was Francis Frith (Photographer & original publisher). The odd thing about it is that the location is not in the usual Frith script. A local postcard historian may have more information. It is known that often local publisher used Frith photographs and put their own name on them.
One of the lessons for all the BHF cycling fraternity is that Boaters were OK to be worn on the bike and looking at the cyclist in the lead with the south of france handlebars and using the middle of the handlebars grip....no it can't be, it's Old Brit in one of his early races.

Pictures to appear later

Bob
Click to expand...
These are the Bob Davis scans,

birmingham-pcR.jpg
birmingham2R2.jpg
 
Viv, I don't think you can date it to the construction of the Rotunda. I think it is after 1964 as the bus stops have gone from New Street after the opening of the Midland Red Bus Station in 1964. Also no scaffolding is shown. The round tower of the Rotunda stands on a podium which rises above the first floor so I think it is out of sight on this photo.
Have a look at this photo which was taken in December 1964.
1597654608481.png
I found this on Facebook and I have kept a copy because of the significance of the round Midland Red bus stop sign which was used only in Birmingham.
 
I wonder if the posts the Midland Red used for their stop signs had to be paid for, either to the BCT or highways people? It was a post WW2 thing, probably around 1948/50 I guess, when introduced to Midland Red. HOV 721 (1721), one of the lovely Leyland PD2's, seems to be pretty empty. I guess most passengers had got off in the Bull Ring or at the stop there. It would soon load again in Corporation Street and outside Greys store.
 
Birmingham Corporation erected all the bus stops within the city boundary for both the Corporation buses and Midland Red buses so they used the standard Birmingham Corporation post but substituted a round Midland Red flag. Normally Midland Reds inbound into the city stopped at Corporation stops but had their own stops outbound. I think this stop was because it was alighting only as it was the last stop with Midland Reds then turning right into New Street to load for routes to Walsall and Sutton Coldfield. By 1964 the Midland Red bus station would have been built so the terminus would be just one more stop to the bus station so no one would wait for a bus here.
 
Vivienne14 said:
This shows the junction of New Street with High Street. You can just see the Rotunda/Lloyd’s Bank to the left. The Rotunda looks to be under construction so it dates the image between 1961-1965. Viv.

View attachment 147558
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Interesting, how many times the postcards of the nmain streets of the City Centre feature Midland Red Buses.
DavidGrain said:
Viv, I don't think you can date it to the construction of the Rotunda. I think it is after 1964 as the bus stops have gone from New Street after the opening of the Midland Red Bus Station in 1964. Also no scaffolding is shown. The round tower of the Rotunda stands on a podium which rises above the first floor so I think it is out of sight on this photo.
Have a look at this photo which was taken in December 1964.
View attachment 147562
I found this on Facebook and I have kept a copy because of the significance of the round Midland Red bus stop sign which was used only in Birmingham.
Click to expand...
1721, Wellhead Lane Garage looking very clean and shiny, can be dated by appearance of the advert tween decks, can anyone remember the filla fella fulla Fyffes? I cannot and is the lighter car on view the original Ford Consul?
Radiorails said:
I wonder if the posts the Midland Red used for their stop signs had to be paid for, either to the BCT or highways people? It was a post WW2 thing, probably around 1948/50 I guess, when introduced to Midland Red. HOV 721 (1721), one of the lovely Leyland PD2's, seems to be pretty empty. I guess most passengers had got off in the Bull Ring or at the stop there. It would soon load again in Corporation Street and outside Greys store.
Click to expand...
Mr Tom Wall was an Inspector for BCT who lived in Court Lane, I remember him telling my Dad, that it was a City request to standardise the bus stops in the City, but shortly afterwards the City moved to their new style bus stop, where the actual plate did not sit on top of the pole, but was wrapped in part of the pole, poor way of describing it, but I have not had time to search for a picture.
Bob
 
DavidGrain said:
Viv, I don't think you can date it to the construction of the Rotunda. I think it is after 1964 as the bus stops have gone from New Street after the opening of the Midland Red Bus Station in 1964. Also no scaffolding is shown. The round tower of the Rotunda stands on a podium which rises above the first floor so I think it is out of sight on this photo.
Have a look at this photo which was taken in December 1964.
View attachment 147562
I found this on Facebook and I have kept a copy because of the significance of the round Midland Red bus stop sign which was used only in Birmingham.
Click to expand...

I thought I could see scaffolding and a ladder bottom left. Would the scaffolding have been for Lloyds Bank underneath then ? Maybe it was in the process of being taken down.
 
Bob Davis said:
Mr Tom Wall was an Inspector for BCT who lived in Court Lane, I remember him telling my Dad, that it was a City request to standardise the bus stops in the City, but shortly afterwards the City moved to their new style bus stop, where the actual plate did not sit on top of the pole, but was wrapped in part of the pole, poor way of describing it, but I have not had time to search for a picture.
Bob
Click to expand...

I think you are referring to this type of bus stop from a Phyllis Nicklin photo in Moseley
1597675250451.png
You will notice that this is the old type of white on blue sign. Later signs had blue on white. The actual post I particularly remember of this shape was near where I lived as a boy and what was odd to me was that it was on the 201 Midland Red bus route which crossed over the city boundary onto the Worlds End Estate in Quinton. In Smethwick and Oldbury on the main part of its route, there were standard Midland Red concrete posts with a square Midland Red flag.
 
I suggested in another thread, a while ago, that I believe the newer style bus stop top, housing the sign, possibly came about as it was to enable the pillar/post of the sign to be placed nearer the kerb allowing less obstruction on the pavements.
The posts were the same it was the top housing that was different. The previous post 319 shows it well.
 
DavidGrain said:
Birmingham Corporation erected all the bus stops within the city boundary for both the Corporation buses and Midland Red buses so they used the standard Birmingham Corporation post but substituted a round Midland Red flag. Normally Midland Reds inbound into the city stopped at Corporation stops but had their own stops outbound. I think this stop was because it was alighting only as it was the last stop with Midland Reds then turning right into New Street to load for routes to Walsall and Sutton Coldfield. By 1964 the Midland Red bus station would have been built so the terminus would be just one more stop to the bus station so no one would wait for a bus here.
Click to expand...
Perhaps that is what he told Dad, selective hearing, he was a strange man, although he knew I was interested in buses, he did not appear to be, never invited me to the garage or anything like that and could not or would not answer my questions on the new buses etc (circa late 40s)

Bob
 
DavidGrain said:
I think you are referring to this type of bus stop from a Phyllis Nicklin photo in Moseley
View attachment 147566
You will notice that this is the old type of white on blue sign. Later signs had blue on white. The actual post I particularly remember of this shape was near where I lived as a boy and what was odd to me was that it was on the 201 Midland Red bus route which crossed over the city boundary onto the Worlds End Estate in Quinton. In Smethwick and Oldbury on the main part of its route, there were standard Midland Red concrete posts with a square Midland Red flag.
Click to expand...
You legend, exactly what I meant, but how odd that stop plate looks, it was obviously waiting for the blue on white, of course I do realise how difficult it must have been for us not knowing then (like our lucky children later) that because there ws not a picture of a bus, it was where one caught a bus.........cynicsm

Bob
 
Bob Davis said:
You legend, exactly what I meant, but how odd that stop plate looks, it was obviously waiting for the blue on white, of course I do realise how difficult it must have been for us not knowing then (like our lucky children later) that because there ws not a picture of a bus, it was where one caught a bus.........cynicsm

Bob
Click to expand...
I think that this type of bus had the the blue replace with red compulsory stops example half way down a hill to stop speeding or stops that was usually had a number of passengers pick up. Blue was request stops where passengers had to signal that they required the bus or tram
 
Ell,

Nice photograph of the old Shell-Mex offices (in the 1950s) on the right, but your weather looks much like ours at the moment.

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Ell,

Nice photograph of the old Shell-Mex offices (in the 1950s) on the right, but your weather looks much like ours at the moment.

Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...
I worked for Shell-Mex and BP Ltd at Five Ways in the second half of the 1960s. I think it was about a year or so after the move to Five Ways that I started as most of the rest of my work colleagues still spoke about Bennett's Hill as a very recent move.
 
My brother-in-law was there from about 1955 to 1959, David, and when I moved from BCT to Lucas GKS, he followed me! But we both moved south to Dorset in early 1961, so our paths would never have crossed. :)

Maurice :cool:
 
Two images of the run up to Christmas. The first in December 1958, the second in December of the following year. Where exactly was the first image taken ? (Images from the British Newspaper Archive). Viv.

8C7F2C6E-5B10-474A-A919-3AAF20129246.jpeg

C0F9E1D2-DD72-43BB-99A8-781EC97D8141.jpeg
 
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A slight quirk I have just noticed. In 1959 the Mayor of Birmingham was John Lewis, and 60 years later the ex managing director of the firm John Lewis is Mayor of West Midlands
 
Wondering if the shop in the first image post #354 was Woolworths, top end of New Street. The steps at the rear could be the exit onto Stephenson Street, Viv.
 
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