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Old street pics..

That looks like it Maurice. So it was named after an instrument that Riley's possibly sold. Looking up on google (https://www.pianola.org/factsheets/angelus.cfm ) it looks like it was a pianola made by the american Wilcox & white Organ Co. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_piano ) say it was introduced in 1896. Therefore, if this is correct, and the name of the Hall does come from that instrument, then it must date from after 1896, possibly just before the recital described in the cutting. Rileys seem to appear in the mid 1880s, but possibly the Hall was a later addition.
 
Before and after..Birmingham.[video=youtube;NqIm0Bt_sWs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqIm0Bt_sWs[/video]
 
Thanks for that, Mike. Of course, it was big business in those days, with Rileys being one of the main UK distributors, I suppose. However, little use seems to have been made of the Angelus Hall, otherwise we would at least have received reviews in the local press and they are sadly lacking. Next time I take out a short subscription to "The Stage" I must check it there.

Maurice
 
Here are a few selected advertisements from Henry Riley & Sons Ltd, who claim to have been in business since 1851. There are almost 300 advertisements currently in the British Library Online Newspaper Collection, though the earliest is 1883, when they were already at the Henrietta Street/Hampton Street corner. Their real heyday was 1927/8 and as my last image shows, by 1935 they were being put into liquidation.

I'm not sure what the connection is between Henry and Joseph H. Riley, who had premises first in Corporation Street and then in Paradise Street opposite the Town Hall - father & son perhaps? Nevertheless Henry's outfit has been gone almost 80 years, so it is truly amazing that the building is still standing. It won't let me add more than five so the Liquidation Resolution is in the next message

Maurice

Riley_1.jpgRiley_2.jpgRiley_3.jpgRiley_4.jpgRiley_5.jpg
 
Great stuff Mike and Maurice. Thanks for uncovering all the info. In the archives link you attached Maurice, it calls the building Riley's 'Corner Depot'. I did wonder if the use of the word 'depot' suggests they supplied and hired to the music industry as well as hire out their Hall.. Doesn't sound to me like the usual showroom. Viv.
 
Viv:

Almost all musical instrument dealers today hire out to the profession, quite often with sponsored musicians always getting and endorsing a particular brand. As far as I'm aware, it has always been that way.

EDIT: May I add a little more information..... Henry Riley & Sons Ltd were not just keyboard instrument suppliers. If you look here: https://www.loc.gov/item/dcmflute.1074 you will see that they also supplied flageolets to the Americans!

And several of these Henry Riley bugles are currently on the antiques market:

riley_bugle.jpg

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Viv:

Almost all musical instrument dealers today hire out to the profession, quite often with sponsored musicians always getting and endorsing a particular brand. As far as I'm aware, it has always been that way.

EDIT: May I add a little more information..... Henry Riley & Sons Ltd were not just keyboard instrument suppliers. If you look here: https://www.loc.gov/item/dcmflute.1074 you will see that they also supplied flageolets to the Americans!

And several of these Henry Riley bugles are currently on the antiques market:

View attachment 89742

Maurice
Click to expand...

Thanks Maurice. A bit surprised that Riley's went out of business. But I suppose pianos in homes became less popular when the gramophone became available. Love the bugles, great design in copper and brass. Viv.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Viv:

I think that Rileys were in somewhat of a luxury market in times of hardship immediately after a boom. In his address prior to the liquidation, the then Chairman, Horace Riley, said they were unable to continue trading with the huge debts that they had. This suggests that they hadn't been profitable for a year or two and that's not surprising. Hammond Organs made their entry to the market in 1933, which represented a much wider range of sounds and a much bigger profit margin.

Rileys were simply too late to get in on this expansion, which in the UK didn't really happen until well after the war. With the high pre-war unemployment, bands too would be folding. The world she was a-changing.......

Maurice
 
thank you burgum. for video. one question. at O--5I. there is an aerial shot of st martin's church. there is a red brick building in front were the outdoor market is know held. did not know there was a building there. the picture must have been taken mid sixties the new bullring is just to the right. can any one shed any light on the use of the building. looking at the picture reminds me of visiting the..''S and U. building early seventies very posh. thanks...vince
 
jabbatheprawn said:
thank you burgum. for video. one question. at O--5I. there is an aerial shot of st martin's church. there is a red brick building in front were the outdoor market is know held. did not know there was a building there. the picture must have been taken mid sixties the new bullring is just to the right. can any one shed any light on the use of the building. looking at the picture reminds me of visiting the..''S and U. building early seventies very posh. thanks...vince
Click to expand...
It was St Martin's Tavern/Hotel Jamaica Row..on this thread..
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=28955&page=43

you can also view it on this shot of Phyllis Nicklin's..
https://www.pbase.com/beppuu/image/81046986
 
St Martins Hotel / Tavern a wonderful old building in it's time.
 

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thank you to brumgum and phil. for the above posts. what a grand place it looks. the interior must have been very magestic . and i bet you needed a few bob to stay there. looks like a place that could tell a few stories. l must say about this site when you ask a question you always get positive and very help full reply thanks again vince
 
THERE waa LOVELEY hotel a BIT LIKE this in Kenilworth called the Abbey and they pulled it down, Stood on the corner overlooking Abbey Fields.
 
Richie said:
https://www.francisfrith.com/kenilworth/photos/the-abbey-hotel-1892_30948/

Abbey Hotel seen above in its grandeur of earlier days

and below the Abbey Fields scenery
https://www.francisfrith.com/kenilworth/photos/abbey-fields-c1960_k5053/
Click to expand...
Thankyou Richie.
My Gran told me about Amy Robsart she said they wanted rid of her as she was one of the King's favourite, Henry V111, she was a lady in waiting.
Gran said she stepped in to a pulley lift and the fllor had been tampered with and she fell to her death. When I told the history teacher at school she made me a laughing stock saying they didn't have lifts then, but they did. She also told a tale of someone drowning in the catsle moat when they stepped in to a boat with a hole in.
In my missspent youth, I was part of a gang of lads chucked out of the Abbey Hotel public bar asif a placw was a bit quiet we weould do a communual laugh, then a silent laugh, sewing our sides up.
Do you know how to pronounce Purlieu Cottage?
Ah well, great photos. Where did you gran live? I know Foleshill took a hammering.
Nico
 
Nico I would pronounce purlieu as perl-yoo. The old meaning is that it is an area which was formerly part of a forest, now cleared but still subject to forest laws. Nowadays it just means the area around somewhere.
 
Wasn't Amy Robsart the first wife of Robert Dudley, advisor and favourite to Queen Elizabeth, who died in mysterious circumstances but probably of natural causes.
 
Propbably, I get my history miixed up and grans stories. On The TV Series Elizabeth R Glenda Jackson as QE1 I am sure they had Amy falling down stairs with sly glances and swirling petticotes that she may have been tripped. Then later in the series thay had a pulley lift in one scene. But Gran a great historian tod me she put her foot in the lift and there was no bottom in it, she would do all the voices and the actions. She was born in Whitefriars Lane attched to Whitefriars Gate which is still standing.
 
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