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They Were Caught In Our Old Street Pics...

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oldMohawk said:
Lots of demolition around, has that lady lost her way in the changing scenery?
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Above pic linked to post https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=38169&p=420082#post420082
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Old lady: "Bl**dy 'ell - could have sworn me 'ouse wuz 'ere when OI wen' out!"
 
oldMohawk said:
Another view of the area shown in the pic in #1490. A No 51 bus at the terminus replacing Midland Red No 119 buses in the late 1950s and possibly a West Bromwich No 6 bus is heading for the Newton Road. I remember those heavy concrete bollards seen in the pic and there were others positioned on the Walsall Road somewhere near Church Lane. We were told when we were kids that they were to delay any Panzer Tanks which had decided to advance along the Walsall Road ! Seemed a good idea in 1940 when we thought we might be invaded.
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The tank trap bollards were almost opposite Tuckers, the underground air raid shelter was near to the top of Church Lane.
 
The 'tank traps' puzzle me, especially in central England and the fact that there is plenty of room where the bollards are not for anything to pass by - even if it had still been a field at that time.

The circular items do remind me of something I saw similar during the war. When I initially saw them curiosity enquired what they were. It was said that they were 'smoke screens'. So whatever was contained in these circular things I do not know: sadly I was forbidden to look. With hindsight it might be that the outer circular structure was a form of protection to whatever it contained?

I guess smoke screen equipment was strategically placed in an attempt to make spotting some of the major factories easy.

Maybe someone here has some gen to impart about the structures in the pics and WW2 city defence smoke screens.
 
Continuing on the Scott Arms theme, the man nonchalantly cycling over a quiet Scott Arms cross roads in 1936 might have owned a car by the 1950s. There is only one building in this pic which is still there today and it's a church.
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wood j said:
be nice if we could go back to them days
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I often wish I had taken a few old street pics of things I saw in Brum but most of us didn't walk around with cameras in those days.

Only one forum member has said she had seen herself in an old street pic in a photos book but never uploaded the pic, she gave the impression that she did not like the coat she was wearing in the pic !

I often look at the little things in the pics such as

This would be described as a 'police incident' these days with the street cordoned off and 'hi-vis' jackets in abundance.
In those days people would have thought 'if that silly idiot falls off it will be his own fault' .... although there were people underneath him who probably did not know he was there ...


Getting off the old trams could be somewhat dangerous because they stopped in the middle of the road and cars undertook them. Someone was taking a street pic but that formidable looking lady makes the pic so interesting for me ....
 
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Outside Times Furnishing just as I remember it but I'm always interested in the people in these pics so what is happening to that bloke in the centre of the pic. He seems to have something like a ball under his arm and he's definitely spotted the camera.
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Hi Carolina - the link under the pic leads to Lyn's post where she says it is 1950. When I got married we bought a G plan sideboard from Times.
 
When first married we bought a Nairn dining table and chairs and a L shaped settee with corner table from Times, the chap from Times came round every week for our payments, we then added a room divider and carpets to our account. Without Times we would have been sitting on orange boxes and sleeping on our electrically heated floor, except we couldn't afford to turn the underfloor heating on. This was our first home and was a rented flat in Water Orton, many thanks Times Furnishing.
 
Great photo. My school mate worked at Stylos in Cov. A Saturday job, then Dolcis. I have not seen the road names written this way for a long time. And the Type style on Times, looks very similar to that of the Coventry Evening Telegraph.
 
I suppose with today's young ones, they would say 'what a dull looking place' and maybe today it looks very different.
 
I used to walk around the town on a Sat'day a't'noon and then one day I looked up, and saw all the original old façades above and it got me wondering and I asked my dad and my interest was kindled.
 
The car looks like it might be a Standard. I believe there were 8's and 10s. of that style.

PS: what a coincidence. This is my post no. 8 10. :biggrin:
 
Grandad had an 8 and a 10 one was a dull green, I remember it as more rounded but I was small, the other was black, mum had a grey tourer with a soft top and plastic windows that let in the rain and you couldn't clean them. Those windows here look triangular are they or a trick of the light?
 
I noted that he is wearing a tie, to work manually, everyone did then I think Less of a class difference in dressing. Apart from your head gear of course that would donate class maybe?
 
Se mommy I told you "if you didn't stop wasting time messing with your hat we would never get a seat"
 

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I know its an old post I'm replying to, but its not a girl in the picture, its a worker in a hole the other man is on a mini lister maybe a pavement roller C,
oldMohawk said:
I've just tried enhancing the pic and the man seems to be looking at a girl with her head on the window ledge - maybe we have another mystery pic!
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ChrisGILL said:
I know its an old post I'm replying to, but its not a girl in the picture, its a worker in a hole the other man is on a mini lister maybe a pavement roller C,
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Hi Chris - Going back I've recycled the pic to here for another look and would agree it's not a little girl, but it's one of those pics which I can't get past the lack of pixels, I think you could be right, but maybe others might have ideas.
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