• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

See Birmingham by Post Card

john knight said:
Just a small point, but as far as I can remember Navigation Street was flat.
Click to expand...

John the 1900 Kellys directory shows E Spicer (Taxidermist) to be at 61 Suffolk St ( on the corner adjoining Navigation St ), so clearly in 1900 Navigation St must have had a slight incline down from Suffolk St. Max
 
Poster to left of Taxidermist shop lists what's on at the 'Gaiety Theatre' and the 'Empire' but can't read the prgrammes. Also it looks like more modern street lightiing had been intoduced but the old gas lamp outside the shop remains. Viv.
 
john knight said:
Just a small point, but as far as I can remember Navigation Street was flat.
Click to expand...

This view of Chetwyns corner at the lower end of Navigation Street shows well the slope up to the junction with Suffolk Street.
 

Attachments

  • City Navigation St 1950.JPG
    City Navigation St 1950.JPG
    125.8 KB · Views: 16
Last edited by a moderator:
motorman-mike said:
This view of Chetwyns corner at the lower end of Navigation Street shows well the slope up to the junction with Suffolk Street.
Click to expand...

Yes I thought it slooed down from Suffolk St to the Birmingham Garages site (where the Fordson van is on MM's photo) then up again to Hill Street. That photo confirms it.
 
Sorry .. only 1 today ....... ragga ...
 

Attachments

  • City Corporation St bhf .jpg
    City Corporation St bhf .jpg
    143.2 KB · Views: 10
Last edited by a moderator:
Very nice view Ragga of Corporation Street looking towards Rackhams & Lewis's. A three wheeler bike on the left. lovely bike. The lights strung across the street look a bit dodgy! Wonder why there were no upright lamps? Would this be about the 50's? Viv.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
would anyone have pictures of ashted row around about 1956/7...its where my parents moved into wen they got married...they moved in with my dads parents.x
 
I remember this scene, posted by Ragga, very well. Very well indeed. I would have walked across Corporation Street, right to left, every school day morning and back again in the afternoon for a number of years on my journey to school. It all ended in 1955 so that this is probably the way that it was the last time that I saw it. I think the date is about 1956 and if you look at the picture number, bottom right, it may indicate April 3/1956. I seem to remember from here that the trams ended in 1952…which seems about right in my memory but the overhead power lines would have been around for a while and the tram lines even longer but at the time of this picture they had gone. No more to see the trams rounding the curve out of Martineau Street on the immediate right and proceding along the single central track on Corporation Street away from the viewpoint…all busses now. On the left of the picture can be seen the ‘S’ of the Dolcis shoe shop and Cherry Street would run up to St. Phillips and Temple Row from there. Lewis’s stretching from Bull Street to The Old Square, in the distance, was the building ‘Moderne’ back then. The rest was the splendid frontage that you see that could have used a little cleaning.
I can’t ever remember seeing this area as empty as shown here. I am thinking that it must have been a Sunday and maybe mid morning judging by the shadows. Earlier than this and there may have been a few anglers and fishing creels around; waiting for transportation to arrive. There is a lady selling flowers on the left by the awning and a man with a child’s tricycle, as previously pointed out, but I can’t see a child there. Probably taking it somewhere for a youngster…this would not be a place for it to be ridden certainly on a week day. Martineau Street was a city terminus for several routes. The Washwood Heath and Alum Rock trams being two of them. Oh…they are buses there, I know, but I see trams…I guess that I just want to.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rupert is that a new Rachams I see on the left if so the scene is later than 56 I left School in 58 and worked on there as an electrical apprentice I would say that Rachams didn,t open until 1959. Dek
 
Great photo.of Corporation St.Ragga,but where are all the people and the traffic?,I can never remember it being this quiet.
My guess,going by the shadows are it would be early evening.
 
Sorry Rupert I have my bearings wrong what would the street on the right be I am familiar with the scene but most of the side streets were cross roads. Dek
 
Smashing picture Ragga. Yes I remember the days when Corporation Street looked like that as well - although there were always more people about. Over the Dolcis shop and opposite Martineau Street, was a hotel. I think it was either the Arden or the Cobden, can't remember which though.

Judy
 


The more i look at this postcard the more i think its not quite right
the right hand side of the postcard looks like where the Crown is
over the road from the law courts , and that shop you see on
the right that looks like the late night chemist ..... Hedges ??
ragga ......
 
Ragga the first time I looked at it I thought the top of James Watt St but then where is Newton St opposite and its to far away from the Law Courts then we have Old Square then Bull St then Martineau St then Union St have I missed any and are they in the right order. Dek
 
My school, Pitman's College, was on the right hand corner corner you can't see in that picture..Martineau Street and Corporation Street. I remember all of that street very well since it was the early l950's when I attended. Late l950's the street hadn't changed much.
I worked at New Street Station then.
 
I've has a look on google street view and it looks to me like pretty well most of the right-hand side of the picture has been re-developed i.e. from Joans shop upwards beyond Priory Queensway. If this is a 50s pic it can't have been bomb damage, so I wonder why it would have been so extensively re-developed especially as the opposite, left-hand side of the pic looks to have remained pretty well in tact up to present day.

Joans shop has the number 52 on the building. Just typed it in to google and it comes out opposite House of Fraser/formerly Rackhams. Viv
 
Last edited:
This maybe off topic but could anyone tell me the name of the gown shop opposite the 33 bus stop on martineau street.....l got my wedding dress from there nearly 55years ago and just can'nt think of the name....l'm having a senior moment.....brenda
 
Jayell said:
Smashing picture Ragga. Yes I remember the days when Corporation Street looked like that as well - although there were always more people about. Over the Dolcis shop and opposite Martineau Street, was a hotel. I think it was either the Arden or the Cobden, can't remember which though.

Judy
Click to expand...

The hotel on the left is the Cobden, part of which had the top part of Dolcis. The original bit of Rackham's is on the left next to the parked (?) bus. The Cobden and everything on the left was swept away in Rackams massive expansion in 1959. Have pictures but it may take a few days to find them. The Arden was next to the Odeon in New Street about that time, and that too got taken over by shop expansion.
 
Here's the very picture of the Cobden about to be demolished. 1957 it is. Part of the name Dolcis is still remaining.View attachment 64513

Sorry can't to much better in a hurry without a proper scanner. Richie.
 

Attachments

  • City Corporation St Mid 50's.jpg
    City Corporation St Mid 50's.jpg
    186.8 KB · Views: 20
Last edited by a moderator:
Thank you Richie. I couldn't remember which hotel was there above Dolcis. Now you have told me I do remember the Arden being next to the Odeon, where I queued every Sunday afternoon to get in to see the show in the late 50's/early 60s!

Judy
 
Another brainwave. Here's the Royal Institute of British Architects' photo-portrait of the Cobden plus Dolcis downstairs. The whole building-without Dolcis I expect (!) was built in 1883 by one William Doubleday (1846-1938). Date of this picture is 1955.View attachment 64514
 

Attachments

  • Cobden Hotel.JPG
    Cobden Hotel.JPG
    79.9 KB · Views: 11
Last edited by a moderator:
Trying to get my bearings Richie with the great photo you've posted above. Is that Lewis's (light coloured building) in the far background? And are you saying that the whole view along this stretch of Corporation St was re-built? Or was only part of it? And all to accommodate Rackhams? Viv.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top