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They Were Caught In Our Old Street Pics...

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Stephen0002002 said:
3 storey buildings as well - must have been posh - unless they had lodgers ?
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Hi Stephen - I always thought that Erdington in the old pics looked rather posh and I suppose this bloke riding his horse down the middle of Gravelly Lane was very posh and had his own stables. Looking at the pic again the girl in the foreground gives the photographer a look which seems to suggest he shouldn't be there !
 
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oldMohawk said:
Whittakers Shirts Gloves Hosiery shop in Finchley road seems to be a hang-out place for some local lads, although they may simply be waiting for a bus. The 'shop' on the right looks unusual but I can't read the sign.
Finchley_Rd_Kingstanding_62.JPG
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think it may have been a bookies at one stage,,,
 
It's a possiblity Dennis, shops always advertised, bookies were more discrete. I had a look on Google streetview and it's all been bricked up.
 
It was at that time F.G. Nichols Turf Commission Agent. I think the law states that public passing by should not be able to see inside a bookies shop. I suppose it was thought that they might be encouraged to enter after seeing the delights therein.
 
In the old days before buses had doors you could nip on a bus when it stopped in a traffic jam - saved waiting in a those large queues outside Grey's. I always like looking at this pic of a busy day in town that day.
Image447.jpg
 
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Memories -
I heard somewhere that we remember everything its just remembering how to retrieve it. :)
Sometimes it only takes a picture to trigger things off.

#1381 Erdington pic
Phil - I wonder if the girl in the foreground was looking at the photographer and thinking ...
... if he don't move it a bit that trams guna sqish him.
(sorry for the brummie twang attempt- and apologies to erdington :) .

Is there any Christmas pics around ? for our thread ?
 
Stephen0002002 said:
Memories -
I heard somewhere that we remember everything its just remembering how to retrieve it. :)
Sometimes it only takes a picture to trigger things off.
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I agree with you Stephen - looking at the old pics does trigger memories ....

I used to to climb lamp posts like this lad, can't think why !!
 
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Do you remember what the arms were for on the lampposts, it was for the lamplighter & maintenance man to rest his ladder on.
 
Reading about the lamp post stories, I will never forget, late one night, having walked from the city centre to my pals home at Highgate Place, we stood outside his house for few minutes to chat, before continuing on my way home to Anderton Road. (no problems with late night walking in those days).

Outside a house, a few doors from my friends, there was a lamp post, and it was shining brightly. Suddenly the door of the house where the lamp was, opened, and a man, in his pyjamas, ran out and started hitting the lamp post with a cricket bat. It suddenly went out, and the man then calmly went back inside. I suppose he got his nights sleep after that. We both folded with laughter. Eddie
 
At the Heritage railway, where I am a volunteer, we still have the older type lamposts with arms. Yes sir, we do use the arms for maintenance and of course when repainting the posts.
 
daverock said:
Do you remember what the arms were for on the lampposts, it was for the lamplighter & maintenance man to rest his ladder on.
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I thought they were for tying ropes on to swing round the lamppost ....;)
These days they have big vans using cherry-pickers and barriers round the lamppost.

Two 'brummies' from long ago taking chances ....
 
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norfolk brummie said:
Reading about the lamp post stories Eddie
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Your lamppost stories brings back a couple of memories.
I was walking home from school with a friend one winters evening when the light bulb shot out of a lamppost and smashed on the pavement in front of us.

Another day when I was walking home from infant's school, I noticed a lamppost with it's cover off and saw two shiny brass terminals and touched them and found out what an electric shock felt like. Luckily I was wearing wellington boots.
 
Looking at people in the old pics the ones in these pics are standing in front of some brick walls, a gate, and a shed. The man standing in the bottom pic seems to be look slightly pleased with himself. It might have been taken from his bedroom window because he lived across the road.
c1908
HandsworthPound1908.jpg

c1920
HandsworthHamsteadRdPound1920.jpg
 
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Hi Paul, I would think that gate would not keep dogs in unless they were caged in the shed.
The following quote from the link in #1397 gives the only information I know about this Pound and I have only seen one pic of another Pound in Birmingham.
Charlie said:
Handsworth Old Pound : Once stood in the top angle of the upper playground to the Church School. The Handsworth Pound (or Pinfold) was where stray animals etc were impounded until claimed by their owner who, of course, had to pay a fine before they could be released. The blacksmith, Isaac George, whose smithy was on the opposite side of the road, acted as Pound Keeper. This photograph shows Isaac George in front of the Pound.
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Another leaning Brummie on the near right in this old street pic of Slade Rd Stockland Green c1911. He seems to have too many feet !!
ErdSladeRdStocklandGreen1911.jpg

The bloke below can lead you to the others if you want to go there .... half way down the post
 
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Aldridge Rd with Beeches Rd on the left
and Old Oscott Lane on the right in 1928.
I never saw it that far back but quite a few
years later it was not too different apart from
a Co-op shop being built.

Aldridge Rd 1928.jpg

I could have been in a view like this Co-op shop
on the corner of Old Oscott Lane because I was
taken there weekly when I was very young.
Ten prams in the pic but I think I first went
there in a pushchair.

CoOp.jpg

That Co-op shop fascinated me because the counter assistant placed the money and a written out bill in a small cylinder and attached it to a trolley above her head. She then pulled on a handle which sent the trolley speeding along a wire to the cashier's kiosk. A minute or so later, back came the trolley and the assistant removed the cylinder and emptied the contents on to the desk, giving the customer the change and a copy of the bill. There was quite a network of wires above with several counters in the shop each with it's own wire. It seems a strange system but back then it didn't take much to amaze us little kids !
 
OM you prob know this but that co op is now a kwik fit tyre place...still got the bcs sign on the top though

lyn
 
Hi Lyn, I didn't know it was a Kwik Fit. I suppose at least it is being put to good use. I was trying to think whether that overhead trolley payment system was only used in Co-ops. When my sister and me were playing shops as kids we tried to make one using string and cardboard boxes.
Phil
 
phil i cant remember those payment systems im afraid...how clever of you and your sister to improvise using boxes and string..mind you its what we did in those days...if we couldnt have the real thing we made it lol

lyn
 
I remember those pulley cash containers well. It wasn't only the Co-op that used them. I remember them well in quite a few shops. The assistant would put your payment into a little can shaped container and it would be whisked away up to the cash desk or similar, where your receipt and change would be put into the emptied container and sent back by the wire to the shop assistant.
 
I'm surprised how many prams there are in the pic. Perhaps in the days of rationing something special was rumoured for delivery and they are waiting just in case. I can remember an occasion where I lived, when word got around that the greengrocers had a delivery of oranges and everyone rushed there to see a queue 100 yards long. In those days if people saw a queue they joined it just in case. Looking again at the shop in the pic, a proper butchers on the left and a fishmongers on the right. I notice some men are looking down from a high position on the far right - something was going on in this pic !!

ps. Just a thought it might be it's opening day ....the front area looks rather unfinished .....
 
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Not sure whether I have done this correctly or not - I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed looking at the pictures on this thread, and particularly enjoyed the captions/comments written for each one. I am an inexperienced 'user' of the forum at the moment. I'm sure I will improve with use!
 
Hello Pat - welcome to the BHF.
I've always liked looking at the old street pics but gradually started to look at the people in them doing little things which seemed normal in those times. I think these days we would be worrying about the little chap and maybe his sister in the photo below. It seemed a safer world back then but maybe it wasn't.
Oldmohawk
 
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