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OLD AND NEW PHOTOGRAPHS

I will give you this one for free as I have no information for it , nice building, brickwork, metal framed windows and a few flourishes od carvings. Like the little cafe sign pointing down the side, seems to be all TO LET

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building on the right says premier design ltd..if someone could look it up in the directories we may have the location

lyn
 
Now to the city centre and a location long gone just off Broad Street, when I was little we used to go to the Ideal Home exhibition at Bingley Hall, park on one of the side streets and walk, and it always fascinated me this building and its almost Dickensian look.
Stratford House, antique shop , and streets with old lamps and is that a church to the right?
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Stratford House, St Peter's Place. The church is St Peter's (R.C.) Phyllis Nicklin notes that this church was demolished in 1969.

By 1984 the antique shop was still there, but a block of flats had been constructed.

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2180403

St Peter's has its own thread: https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/threads/st-peters-church-broad-st.50436/

In 2014 the Evening Mail disclosed that the nearby burial ground had contained over 1000 bodies secretly removed to Oscott College and reinterred in the 1980s. Almost all were said to be Italians who had emigrated to Birmingham to live, work and worship at St. Peter's in the 18th and 19th century.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/secret-removal-1000-bodies-buried-6734184
 
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we now move a bit further round and come to the old Library building in Orphanage Road, close look shows it is and suppose still is the Free Library built in the early 1900's, fine building with plenty of glass to allow the light in to read from, cenral entrance with the the main rooms either side.
Interesting that it was built with a donation from Andrew Carnegie a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist, who made donations to allow the construction of libraries both here in the UK and in America.
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Closed for Heath and Safety reasons….
 
Roll 78, this is more for me to keep track of where I am , first up we are in Livery Street, stonework says " Gothic Vaughton Works ", note how the building is on a slope as the gaps between the ground floor windows increase as you get closer. Not sure how the building works there seems to be a number of windows before the entrance but only one after it? Note the boarded up door on the property nearest us and the ornate work above that door.
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The buildings are still there.
 
We are now onto Roll 77 and this general view across to Snow Hill station showing the changes that have taken place and perhaps how the importance of Birmingham has grown commercially , this view is now covered with office blocks with it hard to see what is behind the site.

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Re post #2230. The tall building in the photo (left) ìs now a Holiday Inn - opposite St Chads. It's obviously had a makeover but there are still some recognisable features - see window comparison below. The subways/underpasses have gone (I think). Was this once the Strathallen Hotel, at least back in the 1980s ? Current Streetview below.

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We now move to the hidden world towards Snow Hill from the canal - I have no specific details from thes, the first if from the direction of the old Science Museum, taken in 1992 so very much the way it has been for many years - it had not become a tourist attraction. Note the width of the canal so you could have one boat waiting and there was room for the other boat to exit the canal. see also the industrial background and apart from the Air Con box it could be anytime at all

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Next we are in the tunnel under the rails at Snow Hill, see the enormous size of this structure, the damp on the roof glistening , and how the area on the right has not been tidied, it is left as a sandstone outcrop. The little tunnels on the right were a gathering place of the homeless and addicts, not sure how they accessed it though.

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Taken form a similar location but featuring the flight of locks and shows how much of a slope there is especially if you imagine it from Snow hill all the way up to The ICC ( I cannot keep up with modern name for it) and then doing that in a working boat - opening and closing the lock gates and operating the locks probably on your own all the way up.

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I think we have gone back a few streets now , this is Livery Street and Lionel Street, showing the size of the viaduct, and the arches and uses for those arches some are white washes and empty, some have doors and fanlights to all the light in and the smallest arch nearest to us is a Gents toilet. with its ornate panels with the finials on the top. I like how the brickwork is shaped with little details

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Moving to the left and we can see how quickly these estate are build- the first shot had the site office - this one has completed house with the fencing around them. This is also where streets become confusing as while the name may be the same it has moved or changed dircetion to fit the development.
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We now move to the hidden world towards Snow Hill from the canal - I have no specific details from thes, the first if from the direction of the old Science Museum, taken in 1992 so very much the way it has been for many years - it had not become a tourist attraction. Note the width of the canal so you could have one boat waiting and there was room for the other boat to exit the canal. see also the industrial background and apart from the Air Con box it could be anytime at all

View attachment 224667l ,
Very familiar to me from my youth
on Sundays when i used to vist the
Science Museum
 
We are now on the corner of Arden Street and Adderley Road and the old school building , fine brick built Victorian School, I don't have the name but I am sure it will be known to many of you, I have a wider view and a closer shot of the building, like the tower nearest us the high metal framed windows

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As you know I am not aware of this are so go by the notes I have and apparently now we are moving up Adderley Road, a general view with the industrial buildings ahead of us. See the car peering over the wall - I assume there is a stack of vehicles behind the wall and building next to it withe the ground floor windows boarded up and the end opening bricked up, another of the Sunday pictures I cannot imagine it would be that quiet in the week .

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To put the location into perspective - we are now looking down Garrison Lane towards Witton Street , just to the left was the site office across the road is Gordon Street.

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We lived in Gordon Street until 1974. That zebra crossing once led to a lovely row of shops to the right, and to the left my Dads second home , the Acorn pub.
And there is the infamous peaky blinder pub, the Garrison, straight ahead.
 
We have now turned around and walked down Ludgate Hill to this building on the corner of Lionel Street, brick built with large windows on the ground floor and we assume high ceilings inside with smaller windows with metal frames on the higher floors , note the round windows on the top floor corner , now converted to flats ( Ludgate Apartments) I was interested to see a blue plaque on the side of the building, this was the Home of Rowland Emmet, who? among other things he was the creator of the inventions for Caracticus Potts on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and those interested in these things made the Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Branch Railway.

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Steve I forst ccame across this building when I started work in the 60's , it's name then was Electrical Components an electrical wholesalers. I cant remember exactly 80/90's when it changed it's name to Senate Electrical
 
This is one of the many railway bridges under the approach to Snow Hill off Livery Street , this is Henrietta Street, girder style construction and note how the road dips down and climbs the other side , quite a few tracks in the old days making the reason for the width. All brick built image the number of bricks and how long to lay them all.
Steve are they extending Henrietta St as I always remember it being just off Summer Lane which is at the other end of this tunnel and across the road ? What we're lppkimh at here is Livery St and teh end of Lionel Street .
 
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