Old street pics..

[bobbo]

hello shortie,...yep, you describe lucille spot on. it went on with a trowel, it came off on my collar. ( lovely girl though ).......i know what you mean about the swimming bath doors, that skinny strip of wood between the door frame, was that for real?...the only thing a step worse was to hire the costume. our mate never had any trunks and he had to hire his, blimey, we could have all got in them together....best thing was, when he jumped in, after he surfaced his trunks would appear a few seconds after, under his arms, round his neck, and come to rest on top of his head..and still have one leg in the remaining half.....give me back those times.
bobbo

 

[bobbo]

hi carolina....thats a really nice pic of the interior of the baths....lovey wrought iron work/architecture, as was the exterior of the building.....after our swim we used to nip over the road to the shop on the corner for our habitual wafer ice cream, then cut through the park to hamstead rd and back home through lozells to villa st

 

[Pete Ex Pat]

Hi bobbo, done that as well only after swim used to have an OXO in the cafe in the baths the through the park up over lozells road down to Wellesley Street off Farm Street loved them Day's and that photo takes me back like it was yesterday

Regards Pete

 

[Shortie]

Hi Bobbo, well I am so glad I had my own costume - I was extremely tiny anyway so I don't think I would have liked to have suffered the embarrasment of having to have one from the baths - especially if they were large. I think you are right about those times being lovely - but at the same time, they were not as comfortable in some ways. I would love to go back sometimes to the days when there were loads of people serving in banks or post offices rather than two but one at busy times like these days. I would love a time without mobile phones - why on earth anyone would want to have long discussions about what they are wearing to a pub on the night, whilst they are in Sainsbury's. Simple times were in many ways much better.

 

[bobbo]

hi pete, winter times we used the cafe, cupping our hands around the OXO MUG and carefully divvying up the penny slice of bread between us for a " dip in "..sometimes in the summer if we were visiting my aunt who lived on the " flat " by key hill we would use the baths at monument rd. we always looked forward to a " cow and gate " in the cafe afterwards...would love to see a pic of monument rd baths.

cheers pete

 

[bobbo]

hello again shortie.....no, i dont think that hiring the costume would have suited you, except, maybe as a towel to dry yourself off?.......i"m inclined to agree about modern times, but having four children ranging in age from mid thirties to mid forties makes it a bit difficult. the mere mention of the old days is an instant signal of glazed eyes and gaping yawns?....i dont mind a bit of techno because it was part of my working life. i just tend to go with the flow now when the kids go on about skyping, apps, i pad, this pad, that pad, blackberry, blueberry, redberry, if you know what i mean?
bobbo

 

[carolina]

Here t'is

 

[Pete Ex Pat]

Hi bobbo, you got that wright with the bread !!!! we also used monument road baths used to get there on the #8 bus .. wealso used to go to woodcock street we could walk to the baths so save on the bus fare are those baths still there or are they like most of old city buildings now lying on the ground.

Regards Pete

 

[Pete Ex Pat]

Hi Carolina.. is it still standing .. ( Bet Its gone )

Regards Pete

 

[maggs]

Just found another one of Monument Road baths, a place I frequented a lot.

 

[carolina]

Bobbo not sure if it is still standing, but it does look in a sorry state doesnt it? We used to have hot bovril, but had packet of cheesettes to dip in ( we must have been much posher that yo). Sometimes instead when we came out of Monument Road baths we used to run to the Number 8 bus stop to get back to Hockley but there was a shop right by the stop and we used to buy licquorice root.

p.s. Loved your ipad that pad this pad - it made me laugh.

 

[mikejee]

Carolina
The baths were destroyed in about the mid 1990s i believe. The picture you showed is from my Birmingham 67-73 thread , on which I have not yet replaced the photos. It would have been taken 1972-73

 

[bobbo]

ahh...carolina, liquorice root... great, like chewing an old twig that we had found. was"nt satisfied until we chewed the life out of it ( from both ends ) and passed it around to each other until it represented a dry old piece of straw, not to mention the deep yellow stain that it left behind on our chins ,lips, and tongues. .....do you know that one?......thanks for the pic carolina, afraid you"re right, it looks pretty sad and lonesome now, not busy, or bustley, as it was when you and i knew it.

bobbo

 

[bobbo]

hello pete.....you mentioned woodcock st baths, we only went their occasionally, i suppose they were slightly nearer to you than us? i dont know if they are still there or not?

bobbo

 

[bobbo]

hi mags...this is a lovely pic of the baths. just the way i remembered it...we were a family of eleven, and some fridays after school, instead of the tin bath performance in front of the coal fire (we all know that one ) mother would send us instead to monument baths to actually have a bath. ( did anybody else?) you took your own towel along and a bloke would fill the bath for you...he had a spanner that fitted the taps to control the water flow, for obvious reasons. all that lovely hot water, up to our necks in it, luxury. we would have it so hot to begin with that it would take longer to get in than it would to bathe!!..after, we would all meet up outside looking the same colour, beetroot red. then, on the inner circle 8 back to villa st. argue who had the hottest bath...great family times...bobbo

 

[carolina]

Mikejee, hope you dont mind me posting the photo. Any idea whats on the site now.

 

[carolina]

Baachus Road used to be another baths where you could have a 'proper' bath also.

 

[mikejee]

Csrolins
No problem. Eventually they will all be reposted, but am trying to expand the text that goes with them at the same time, and later, when they are all reposted, I have a lot more to put on.

I estimate that the view as if you were looking at the baths would now be about the one at https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Mo...oid=jYSQ1CPzeHuFr_9Fwxm1bQ&cbp=12,291.67,,0,0

 

[maggs]

It's the way I remember it too Bobbo. Like you, I also used to get on the number eight bus in Icknield St with my rolled up towel and bar of Lifebuoy soap not forgetting my talc, and go for a lovely bath to Monument Rd. It was a bit spartan though, because the lady used to come into the cubicle with her spanner and turn on the tap (made sure you didn't have a top up), and then you would be left to splash and sing in the bath. I would come out of there feeling incredible clean and get back on the bus and home. I wish I could remember how much it used to cost, but I bet it wasn't much more and 2 bob. As you say, they used to give you a good deep bath of water. Nice memories really. We also used to go swimming to Monument Rd with the school regularly.

 

[bobbo]

hiya mags..you"re not far out with the cost of the bath. our mother used to divvy out one and sixpence to each of us ( one and a tanner? )...also, did you ever use the hairdryer? massive it was, big machine on the wall with an elephant trunk size hose, like something out of alien....it cost a penny to start it up and the force from it whilst drying my hair, would fold my ears back onto the cheeks of my face, bloody powerful or what?...for another penny i would attempt to dry my body..very awkward. being only a littl"n and coupled with the power of the blower, i was forced to adopt a 45 degree angle to the machine in fear of being blown down the passage and out the building............great times???? bobbo

 

[maggs]

I can't remember using the hairdryer personally Bobbo, but I do remember it, and how fierce it was. As you say great times. When I was a teenager, I got pushed into the deep end of the swimming pool, if you remember the deep end was where we entered ready for a swim. At that time I couldn't swim, but I remember I going to the bottom on the pool, came up, and for the first time in my life...I swam. It was a very stupid thing for someone to do, and I was quite shaken by it.

 

[carolina]

Maggs that happened to me on my first time but in the shallow end. Luckily one of my brother's mates saw what had happened and pulled me up. I could never dive. Plenty of belly flops though.:crushed:

 

[maggs]

Oh Carolina, I wish I had gone into the shallow end that day and not the deep end. It's an ordeal I shall never forget. Fortunately, it didn't put me off going swimming which is amazing isn't it? I was just a bit more careful when walking along the side and always tried to walk along when there was no one hanging around. I could never dive either and it's too late to learn now. Lucky you having someone see it happen and being there to help you, I'm not sure anyone saw it happen to me.

 

[bobbo]

hello mags, i always thought that it was strange coming through the doors of the baths at the deep end of the pool....oddly enough, i was pushed in at the deep end the same as you and carolina but by my own brother!....he was a good swimmer and sorted me out, but knocked my confidence for while...trouble was as kids, we did fool about in the baths and if you think about it..it was a wonder that a lot more serious things did"nt happen.

bobbo

 

[Phil]

My latest 3 sets of images bring us to Holyhead Rd and the Birmingham boundary with West Bromwich, and that is as far as I go.

 

[Phil]

The second set of images

 

[Phil]

The final set of 5 brings us to the end of our trip from Snow Hill to Holyhead Rd, I'll begin sorting another one out. Any suggestions.

 

[carolina]

Phil another one of The New Inns.

 

[Astoness]

some cracking old pics there phil..love the crocketts lane one...

lyn

 

[Phil]

Lyn

Theres a couple of Crockets Lane there, a few years apart taken from the same point.