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Street furniture

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kandor
  • Start date Start date
Lyn
The fountain looks quite old. It does not seem to be marked on any map, which is surprising if it was originally there, but this would have been by the gates by the lodge of (originally) the mental &,fever hospital, but later the nurses home was just behind the wall, and presumably it would be the entrance they used
 
yes mike it is old...managed to get some more info on it today and took some photos..bit late now but i will post tomorrow

lyn
 
hi folks since been told that the fountain was originally on the wall by the entrance gates which were about 20 feet further down from its position now...the wall and its gates were demolished in the 70s but you can see where the gates were attached to the pillar on the right and its hinges are still visible..it could be that what looks like a bricked up door is where the fountain was originally but cant be certain of that
 

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close up of the fountain which reads..sir john ratcliffe knight mayor of birmingham 185? difficult to read but think its says 1858...he was knighted by queen victoria in 1857 at the town hall he then escorted the queen on a trip to aston park..
 

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Smashing photos Lyn. Nice to see the fountain up close. Has a lovely shell decoration. But it looks like it's deteriorating. When the fountain was moved it must have been set into the wall ie the wall was cut through to allow it to sit inside the wall. I've looked up Sir John but can't find anything else out about him. I expect he was something to do with the fever hospital. Viv.
 
yes its shame viv...the fountain is crumbling badly now..1858 print of sir john here just hope you can read the words
 
yes its shame viv...the fountain is crumbling badly now..1858 print of sir john here just hope you can read the words
 

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Sir John seems to hav ebeen well thought of. He was considered to have been partly responsible for the city agreeing to buy Aston Park & Hall (see letter below from the Birmingham journal 25.12.1858) and when he died he left a number of legacies for hopitals and good causes. Cannot yet find a reference to this fountain though. A (to me) slightly amusing story is told of him after his death, that , while mayor, one evening began with him as chairman of a teetotal meeting , and ended with him as president of a retail brewers celebration

letter_to_sir_john_Ratcliffe_Birm_J__25_12_1858.jpg
 
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I was looking at an old street scene in Erdington at the junction of High St and Edwards Rd near the place shown in a pic in another thread here when I noticed an unusual piece of street furniture on the right near the lamp standard. It appears to have a substantial base and and a rather elaborate top and direction signs are fixed to it.
I haven't seen one like it in another old pic but no doubt someone has ...:)

Old scene maybe 1920s/1930s
HighStEdwardsRd.jpg
The scene today.
ErdingtonView1.jpg
 
I think it may have been an air vent to allow any flammable gases to be vented from the sewers.
 
mikejee said:
I think it may have been an air vent to allow any flammable gases to be vented from the sewers.
Click to expand...
I think you are right Mike, I remember vent pipes but they seemed to be simple pipes with domed wire meshes on top.
There is an elaborate vent pipe in the centre of the pic below but not to vent explosive gases !
The pic got lost in the January power failure. There was some considerable discussion about it's purpose.
View_from_Hill_St_corner.jpg
 
It is indeed unusual, but it does not look quite like the 'stink poles' that were the norm in Birmingham.
 
Morturn said:
It is indeed unusual, but it does not look quite like the 'stink poles' that were the norm in Birmingham.
Click to expand...
Looking at the photo again, what I thought was a tree branch above it seems to be some sort of decoration which would be unusual if it was a vent pipe. I will have to 'play' about with the image to try and determine if it is part of the 'pipe'.
 
Vivienne14 said:
The Bideford one even has a weather vein on top! Viv.
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Hi Viv, apparently it is to show the direction of something different to wind .... ;)
However, if I lived in that house I would keep the windows of that loft bedroom closed !
I had a search through this thread to see if Brum had any listed street furniture but nothing found.
Phil
 
Of course Phil, should've thought of that!

Interesting point about street furniture being listed (or lack of). Viv.
 
Looking at some earlier photos on the forum regarding street furniture in Erdington which seemed to move about, I can now see the sequence of events.

A photo dated 1939 showing that ornamental sewer vent pipe. If it had survived it might have been listed as some were in other towns.
1_HighStEdwardsRd1939.jpg
An earlier photo dated c1938 shows a cabinet between the vent pipe and the nearby lamp standard. It was moved before the above 1939 photo was taken. A new wall is being built further down the street.
2_HighSt1937.jpg
An even earlier photo c1937/8 shows some trees being felled and a wall partially demolished. That nice church gateway on the left was also going to be demolished.
3_HighStTreeFelling.JPG
A builder's sign visible in the second photo shows what was happening there just as WW2 was about to start.
RMDouglas.JPG
 
The sewer vent pipe must have been very unusual in design as we don't seem to have found any other photos of similar pipes.

I was looking at planters which seemed to make an appearance on Birmingham streets around the 1960s. I think they accompanied the rise of modern and brutalist architecture. They were probably used to 'soften' the cold appearance of the concert buildings going up around the place.

Here are two examples; one outside Rackhams' entrance on Temple Row and the other in the Old Square underpass. Think like all other street furniture, these have now gone. Wonder if the Old Sq ones were buried beneath the road when it was filled in. Viv.

image.jpeg
 
image.jpeg The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, New Street in 1890. There are some sort of bollards(?) at the base of the pillars on the roadside. We've looked at these things before, but not ones of this shape. And there are some unusual lamps inbetween the pillars too. Viv.
 
That blue thing on the kerb puzzled Keith Berry when he took this photo in 2005. It is still there today and still looks blue. Surely these days, it should have a barrier round it to stop folks tripping over it as they walk along looking at their smartphones ...;)
7erdingtonlibrary2005.jpg
 
How unusual. Don't think I've ever seen one like that - seems to be built into the kerbstone. was this a particular type for a particular problem. I've seen large, metal, bell-shaped ones on very tight corners to stop turning lorries mounting the pavement. Maybe it was for that purpose, although it looks on the small side for that. Viv.
 
It was not there in this early photo ... it would be interesting to know when and why it was put there and if it the only one in Erdington ...
erdlibold2.jpg
 
I think that it must be to stop lorries from cutting the corner. I assume there is a metal prong going below the pavement to keep it there. There are 4 sort of similar things in Reading at the entrance to the partially pedestrianised area as can be seen below
 

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It seems the only explanation. A search for bollards in this thread brings up 36 posts discussing them. Google's camera certainly noticed it and it looks as if it is bolted down. I thought the blue colour was weathered bronze but it almost looks like paint.
erdbollard.JPG

Keith Berry commented under his photo
In the immediate foreground is a small green post that went unnoticed
at the time of the photograph so I can shed no light upon its purpose.
Update 26/7/08: I've since examined it and it appears to be an iron
buffer to deter vehicles from driving over the kerb to cut off the corner.
Click to expand...
I would think the average truck driver of today would not even notice it.
 
To the right of the bollard is a dropped kerb and a pedestrian crossing point, so the bollard must have been put there to stop vehicles mounting the pavement while pedestrians are waiting to cross the road. And I expect it's painted blue to make it stand out. Maybe this is a particularly risky corner for pedestrians to cross the road? Maybe there is a history of accidents? Viv.
 
Moving down to the other end of Erdington High Street, this image of Six Ways shows a lot of street furniture. This must have been a very busy junction for a long time, even before Sutton New Road came into being. We seem to have an excess of bollards in this image - I expect that was due to the tram (?). The signpost looks like it's been adapted to provide signing of the B4140 road. Assume this was a response to increasing numbers of motor cars on the road. Viv.

image.jpeg
 
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