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Old street pics..

Not sure if this sort of thing is of interest, but I have recently tried taking some transition photos around the city which I recently started posting on FB.

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That's very clever Wobag! I often half-close my eyes and try to imagine how things looked before. I'm not on FB so I'm glad you posted here.
rosie.
 
i am not a facebook user either so yes please wobag i like rosie find them very interesting....more please....

all the best

lyn
 
OK here is the first one I did of upper New Street, with arch of Picadilly Arcade on the the right being the most noticeable constant between old and new...

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This is called "Central Place after Improvement" in 1937 showing the Fire Station and a tram and trolley bus on their travels. Not sure which way the tram is going but hope it is going away from us otherwise the car is in danger of getting wrecked! I walked down Corporation Street many times towards the College then University at Gosta Green but never knew that the area in front of the Fire Station was called Central Place. Dave.

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Still plenty of smoke coming up in the background. You'd be hard pressed to find that today.

Maurice
 
The pic, in post 4690, is now in the DR Harvey collection I believe.

It shows tramcar 668, built in 1925, going from the city on the 79 Pype Hayes route. The trolley bus is No.12, OJ 1012 which entered service in 1932 but had a short operational life as it was withdrawn in 1940 and stored during WW2 only to be sold for breaking up in 1946. The picture shows it on trolleybus route 7 to Nechells which operated until the end of September 1940. The TB 7 had replaced tram route 7 in 1922.
Bus route 43 took over in October 1940.

The problem for the Nechells trolleybus route was that the system for gaining the depot was one pole and a return skate on the tram rails. This caused arcing which was considered most undesirable during the hours of darkness as so much of interest, to the Luftwaffe, lay in that side of the city. The reason for this method of current collection, it appears, was due to the 8 Alum Rock and 10 Washwood Heath tramcars being fitted with a bow collector instead of the more common single pole.

I am grateful for verifying my information from the book by David Harvey entitled Birmingham Trolleybuses 1922 - 1951.
 
Radiorails said:
The pic, in post 4690, is now in the DR Harvey collection I believe.

It shows tramcar 668, built in 1925, going from the city on the 79 Pype Hayes route. The trolley bus is No.12, OJ 1012 which entered service in 1932 but had a short operational life as it was withdrawn in 1940 and stored during WW2 only to be sold for breaking up in 1946. The picture shows it on trolleybus route 7 to Nechells which operated until the end of September 1940. The TB 7 had replaced tram route 7 in 1922.
Bus route 43 took over in October 1940.
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Thanks for that Radiorails. It provides a lot of interesting information for the photograph. My source for the photograph in # 4690 was the "City of Birmingham Handbook; a publication of the City of Birmingham Information Bureau" published in January 1938. The name of the photographer is unfortunately not given. Dave
 
Here is another transition photo, this time of Old Square, showing a modern bus, and an old trolleybus.

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Interesting view of what to me is the old Suffolk Street (incorrectly labelled here as Digbeth) in its last days as a simple two-way road. View looking towards Holloway Circus with Allport Street on the right and on the left the Technical College.

The occasion seems to be the transport of a preserved locomotive en route to a museum? Dated 20 May 1966

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p645258869/h5522efbc#h5522efbc
 
Richie; The occasion seems to be the transport of a preserved locomotive en route to a museum? Dated 20 May 1966 [URL said:
https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p645258869/h5522efbc#h5522efbc[/URL]
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City of Birmingham on route to the museum

Eddie
 
This would be the loco City Of Birmingham which was taken to the old Science Museum in Newhall Street but now at Millenium Point. The confusion of the street name is because the loco did come up Digbeth on its way if you look at the other photos. Of particular note is that it is on the wrong side of the road passing the Bordesley Flyover. "Running wrong road" to use a railway term.
 
OK this isnt technically a street pic, but it is a pic of streets . To help visualise where streets have changed path or disappeared completely I did a transition between this 1890 map and the current googlemap.

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Noticing little things like the green lawn next to the modern chapel on Carrs Lane is the site of the original one
 
wobag the map transition is great...just goes to show how much the city centre has changed

cheers

lyn
 
Whoa a bit Wobag! Could you post both please...separately....me eyes and brain is too old to see the transitions clearly..? Be very grateful...must say I think this is a very novel and original way of looking at history for me anyway...LOVE it....!
 
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Brilliant Wobag! For those that want to study it a bit more, maybe a longer time lapse between the images? And if you plan to do more of them, maybe a new thread? Think they're absolutely fascinating. To make this comparison manually would take much more individual time and effort, so you've saved us a lot of time. Many thanks. Viv.
 
Thanks, this is a second one I made at the same time, if I do more I will experiment with timing. This one is of the Bullring, 1890 vs today...

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That's a great one too Wobag. Shows clearly how Moor Street was diverted from its original course to make way for them Bull Ring. Was that in the 1960s or for the more recent redevelopment? I only use iPad now, and if I hold my fingers on the map it keeps it from changing until I'm ready to compare it with the other map. Then I take my fingers off and ..... Magic! Viv.
 
After reviewing a 1990s road map, the changes to Moor Street were part down to the 60s version and part the recent version. In the 60s, the modern double sided Moor street was cut off at the point you see, and flowed into the new St Martins Circus that ran around the part of the bullring that had the gardens in it. There also appears to have been a small section of the original Moor Street left.

The current path where Moor street bends immediately around Moor Street Station, down the side of the Selfridges building and joins Park St appears to be part of the newest development. Ill try and find a better map to show that.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Two postcards of Aston Cross. Difficult to imagine this today as the junction has completely changed. But where was the photographer standing? Rocky Lane? Aston Road North? Lichfield Road? Or has the clock been moved? Today, there's still a pub standing from the period (but now residential). But maybe the pub isn't in shot unless it's one of the buildings to the right in the postcards. Viv.

View attachment 101666View attachment 101667
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I am sure I remember Aston Cross from my childhood but seem also to remember the smell of the brown sauce factory. Wasn't that nearby??
 
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