Another intriguing old inhabitant of Bridge Street, in the canal complex round the old Wharf....Boatmen's Hall...which was new to me....and which I looked up, and got the following from mikejee (as per) and the great Peter Walker, from this site....
1940 Kellys Directory
Bridge Street (296 Broad Street to Worcester Wharf)
Air Raid Precautions (Wardens' Post)
Pearce & Cutler Glass
Birmingham Central Tech College extension
Incorporated Seamens' & Boatmens' Friendly Society
Boatmens' Mission Hall
---- here is Holliday Street
------South Side
Wm. Hy. Westwood Iron & Steel Planer
Marshall & Sons & Co. Metal Casement Makers
T J Graham & Sons Ltd Whiting Mfrs
The Cement Marketing Co
Severn & Canal Carrying Co Ltd
National Ass. of Canal Carriers
Williams & Farmer Timber Merchants
from mikejee
Re: Bridge Street in Town
I remember the
Boatmen's Mission Hall, down on the left from Broad Street, backing on to the canal for obvious reasons. Once a month the Brum branch of the Tram Nutters group (Light Railway Transport League, it was called then) hired the hall for an evening meeting, and from late 1947 I used to go in my school blazer, to hear talks on the tramways of Portsmouth, Coventry, Walsall and suchlike. It was a dark, cold and dingy place with an awful stale smell, and I especially remember the epidiascope which was used to project the pictures on a screen. This made so much noise that you couldn't hear thye speaker, and if he left a picture under the lamp for more than a couple of minutes it would start to singe.
I believe the Mission did good work in teaching the boat kids how to read, write and count, which they would get anywhere else.
from Peter Walker

