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See Birmingham by Post Card

Still in the 1960's Bull Ring and just look at the changes since my last view. The Centre has been spruced up a bit and advertising has appeared! On the block behind St Martins Church we have a Sterling Cigarettes advert and above the Ringway Bridge just out of view, Manns 'Does you a power of good' advert for beer.
 

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Some interesting views of the 1960s Bull Ring Mike, nice to look back on. Thanks for them. John.
 
The Times, they are a changing goes the old song and they were in the 1960's Bull Ring area. It's 'Spot the Difference Time' with another look, from a different angle, at the change to the Times Furniture shop sign overlooking the Bull Ring. The change to Woolworths sign can be seen on the left and to the right a massive Birmingham Co-operative Society sign has appeared.

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motorman-mike said:
The Times, they are a changing goes the old song and they were in the 1960's Bull Ring area. It's 'Spot the Difference Time' with another look, from a different angle, at the change to the Times Furniture shop sign overlooking the Bull Ring. The change to Woolworths sign can be seen on the left and to the right in the second view a massive Birmingham Co-operative Society sign has appeared.
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I take it the bus in the second photograph is a different one, not the same which keeps on slipping back down the incline due to a cranky driveshaft/poor weather? Laugh!
 
I am a little unsure of this postcard because the only information I have is Queens Hospital 1912.

I am assuming that it is the hospital most of us knew as the Accident hospital in Bath Row. I say this not from any historic knowledge, but from memory of the building only. So I could be entirely wrong.

Phil

Queens Hospital 1912 x .jpg
 
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Nice one Richie, It's the same bus with the advert changed to fool us.
Buses are more modern in the this one showing more changes to the Bull Ring in the later 1960's. In another facelift the bull has moved to the middle above Woolworths to allow extra advertising. Commercial Union to the left of him and The Midland Bank have replaced Manns Beer to the right of him. On the Big Top building the ABC sign has been replaced .The 328ft Alpha Tower has now appeared on the skyline and to the far left the Sterling Cigarettes advert has been removed above the Centre.

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pmc1947 said:
I am a little unsure of this postcard because the only information I have is Queens Hospital 1912.

I am assuming that it is the hospital most of us knew as the Accident hospital in Bath Row. I say this not from any historic knowledge, but from memory of the building only. So I could be entirely wrong.

Phil
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Phil you are right, it was the Accident Hospital later as you guessed.

Mike

www.institutions.org.uk/pictures/hospitals/WAR/
 
Hi all - love this thread - great pics - amazing to see the changes and differences to how I remember different bits of Brum. When did the buildings on the right in Motorman Mikes July 21 post of Victoria Square go - when also in the 80s were the roads there all changed?
 
Richie said:
I take it the bus in the second photograph is a different one, not the same which keeps on slipping back down the incline due to a cranky driveshaft/poor weather? Laugh!
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The Administrators will just allow me ONE digression on here in my lifetime I hope, Mike.........

Regarding slipping back down the incline: in previous years I worked as an Instructor for an HGV/PSV driving school in Manchester. The candidates used to do hill starts with 40-footers on the slopes of the NCP car parks identical to the one in the Bull Ring......

They weren't planned; just happened to be where the vehicle eventually stalled after the candidate took a wrong turn at the previous junction!!
 
Motorman Mike, although I dont posess any old postcards I do have a few modern books about old Birmingham and a few rather old books on the same subject. If I find an interesting picture, could I post it on this thread?
 
Stitcher said:
Motorman Mike, although I dont posess any old postcards I do have a few modern books about old Birmingham and a few rather old books on the same subject. If I find an interesting picture, could I post it on this thread?
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Go ahead Trev, all Old and New Brum Pictures which this Thread is part of are welcome as far as I am concerned. Mine are only Post Cards because I've got'em. They are starting to run out so am relying on others to keep it going when they do.
Cheers,
Mike
 
Richie said:
The Administrators will just allow me ONE digression on here in my lifetime I hope, Mike.........

Regarding slipping back down the incline: in previous years I worked as an Instructor for an HGV/PSV driving school in Manchester. The candidates used to do hill starts with 40-footers on the slopes of the NCP car parks identical to the one in the Bull Ring......

They weren't planned; just happened to be where the vehicle eventually stalled after the candidate took a wrong turn at the previous junction!!
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I like it Richie, on hill starts you should have put the candidates watch or fags behind a back wheel like the old Midland Red instuctors used to - roll backs then were very few and far between. LOL.
Mike
 
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In the Bull Ring the 1960's give way to the 1970's and the scene changes yet again. The block behind St. Martins now sports an advert for Esso Petrol. Commercial Union has gone from the left of the bull and over to the right under the Midland Bank advert the shop has changed hands. On the Rotunda Ansells has given way to Double Diamond and lettering MEPC has appeared at the top of it.

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This is an unusual post card, I normally don't like multi views, but this one's unusual subject gives it appeal.

Phil

Birmingham General Cemetery.jpg
 
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I know that when these cards were made Sutton Coldfield was not a part of Birmingham, but it is now so therefore these cards qualify.
1. High St Sutton
2. The Parade Sutton
3. Town Gate to Sutton Park.

Phil

High St Sutton.jpgThe Parade Sutton.jpgTown Gate Sutton.jpg
 
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Meanwhile in the1970's Bull Ring the changes go on (and on I hear you yawn, but fear not, the silver slug will soon be upon us, then we'll be sorry - well, I will be anyway!). Here starting on the left, the Esso sign has been removed and a Royal Insurance advert has appeared above Woolworths.
 

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How wonderful to look at all these postcards! Having left Brum at 8 years of age (in 1973) it's the coloured pics that actually ring a bell with me. These words are swimming around my head - St Martin's, Woolworth, Double Diamond, Rotunda, Midland Bank, Bull Ring. There was a merry-go-round somewhere, too. And I remember evening journeys into the city, knowing we were nearly there because I'd see lots of coloured lights near a silhouette of a bull. Vague memories, but memories none the less! Ooh, I'm feeling quite nostalgic, someone pass the tissues (sniff) !
 
A couple of nice views of Vicarage Road, Kings Heath. A view that is somewhat different today. One from 1912 and one six years later in 1918.

Phil

Kings Heath Vicarage Rd Cab Stand 1912.jpgKings Heath Vicarage Rd 1918.jpg
 
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A nice old postcard of Corporation street, taken from what I assume is Stephenson Place.

Phil

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Sticking with the Bull Ring the changing scene continues. The Rotunda has lost MEPC at the top and gained Coca Cola but at the base Double Diamond has gone and something else is going on. To the right a sign for the Nationwide Building Society has appeared beneath the Times Furniture sign.
 

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I have memories of being a child, during the eighties thankyou very much :), and seeing a building that had a bottle on the side that used to appear to fill up and empty again. What building was it. I think it was near the rotunda.
 
garethnash said:
I have memories of being a child, during the eighties thankyou very much :), and seeing a building that had a bottle on the side that used to appear to fill up and empty again. What building was it. I think it was near the rotunda.
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garethnash, instead of a bottle would it have been the neon beerglass filling with M&B beer alongside the Royal George pub on the left just below the Bull Ring going down to Digbeth?
 
Was an office block as far as I remember probably on Smallbrook Queensway. Bit too big for a pub lol.
 
garethnash said:
Was an office block as far as I remember probably on Smallbrook Queensway. Bit too big for a pub lol.
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It might have been St. Martin's House (posting 261#) on the corner of Moor Street and the Bull Ring. That was an office block that had a big neon advert overlooking the ringway which was for Schweppes at one time. Was it a bottle that emptied as it filled a glass? I vaguely remember an ad like that somewhere.
 
motorman-mike said:
It might have been St. Martin's House (posting 261#) on the corner of Moor Street and the Bull Ring. That was an office block that had a big neon advert overlooking the ringway which was for Schweppes at one time. Was it a bottle that emptied as it filled a glass? I vaguely remember an ad like that somewhere.
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Thats the one but I dont think a glass filled. It was just a bottle that emptied then was full then emptied again. I remember my Dad taking us to pick my mum up from work when it had got dark and seeing that.
 
Hows this for a view. Probably taken from the Rotunda in the 1970's. Get the old magnifying glass to this one and just look what's out there!

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Interesting thread, Mike. Thanks for posting the scenes of the Bull Ring Certainly brings back memories. I worked in the Rotunda on a temp assignment in l972 for the accounting company Ernst & Ernst as it was then. So had lots of time to look around the Bull Ring on lunch hours and after work. I left Brum in 1963 and came back for visit in 1965 and back for six months in 1972. I remember the Schweppes Bottle and Glass neon sign. Not sure which wall of which building it was actually displayed on but it was fascinating and you could become quite mesmerized by it after a while. I thought it was a great ad.
 
There are some great pictures in this thread, nice one everyone!

Regarding Victoria Square, on the first page, does anyone know what happened to the statue of Prince Albert and why it was taken down?
 
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