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They Were Caught In Our Old Street Pics...

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Remember the foggy days of long ago just like this pic of another bus queue on Watford Rd near the junction with Pershore Rd in Cotteridge. The No 11 Outer Circle bus has its main headlights and fog light on. I remember fogs so thick that bus conductors sometimes had to walk in front to guide buses.
WatfordRdBusQueue.JPG
The second pic shows a view of the same junction today.
WatfordRdtoday.JPG
 
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oldMohawk said:
Remember the foggy days of long ago just like this pic of another bus queue on Watford Rd near the junction with Pershore Rd in Cotteridge. The No 11 Outer Circle bus has its main headlights and fog light on. I remember fogs so thick that bus conductors sometimes had to walk in front to guide buses.
View attachment 119276
The second pic shows of the same junction today.
View attachment 119277
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What is the yellow stripe in the middle of the road....a electric slot?
Bob
 
It is the trail which Google Streetview vehicles leave behind as they drive round photographing our streets ...:)
 
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mikejee said:
This seems to be a different Pinnick, Alfred Pinnick, house furnishers, 77/79 Longmore St
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Picking up a post from ages ago. I used to work with a Peter Pinnick, I'm talking late 1950's, he was an apprentice at Wilmot Breeden, the family lived in Middleton Hall Rd. Cotteridge and I understood they had a shop in Balsall Heath, but I don't know what they traded.
 
A busy scene in Kings Heath High Street and a man on his motorbike with his wife in the side car ride towards the camera. The huddle of little girls on the right chat about something and a police constable surveys his patch. Today, the only building that has clearly survived is the Hare and Hounds pub with the three clock faces on its tower.
KingsHeath_tram.jpg
 
As usual I look at the people in the pics and that bloke on the right did not want to be in one of the old street pics. He's walks towards the camera with his hat over his face. The pic looks from Steelhouse Lane towards Colmore Row ... a scene I passed through many times ... brings back memories ...:)
No33busSteelhouse.jpg
 
oldMohawk said:
As usual I look at the people in the pics and that bloke on the right did not want to be in one of the old street pics. He's walks towards the camera with his hat over his face. The pic looks from Steelhouse Lane towards Colmore Row ... a scene I passed through many times ... brings back memories ...:)
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Nice shot! Must have been near the cop shop on Steelhouse Lane. The 33 bus was one that I would regularly use if I couldn't get the 5A. It would go down Newtown Row up to 6 ways and beyond...Maybe the guy that didn't want to be seen was an undercover detective.
Dave A
 
Post 2347, showing Steelhouse Lane and bus JOJ 116 (2106) a Daimler built in 1950/1 - a batch of 100 buses, 2031 - 2130. 2106 most likely 1951. They were withdrawn during 1965/6. The former tram loading point seems to have moved but noticeable is the overhead wiring still in place. Austin tipper? and Midland Red saloon just in the picture.
 
oldMohawk said:
As usual I look at the people in the pics and that bloke on the right did not want to be in one of the old street pics. He's walks towards the camera with his hat over his face. The pic looks from Steelhouse Lane towards Colmore Row ... a scene I passed through many times ... brings back memories ...:)
View attachment 119831
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Hadn't realised that Grey's had been in Steelhouse Lane, associate them with Bull St. across from Lewis's.
 
devonjim said:
Hadn't realised that Grey's had been in Steelhouse Lane, associate them with Bull St. across from Lewis's.
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Greys Department Store was certainly in Bull Street and there are lots of pics of it across the forum. With regard to Greys Home Store in Steelhouse Lane I had never noticed it but there are some pics in forum posts below ...
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/steelhouse-lane.18311/page-2#post-426004
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/steelhouse-lane.18311/page-5#post-598917
 
cookie273uk said:
Has any one else noticed the vast number of children in these back to back/court pics. Eric
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Two reasons, photographers liked to animate their pictures and whilst adults are fine, transport, animals and children are better and as a postcard collector, I know it is amazing how many cards have children posed on them in the early days of cards 1902 to 1912. After WW1 it was people and views, only a few publishers continued lining up children except for beach views. As cameras evolved, there was no need to pose subjects, whilst the picture had composition, it was a snapshot not a long exposure. The second reason....these were big families, look at the censuses for 1901 and 1911 there were a great many families with over 5 or 6 children. Both my grandparents on the Davis side were part of large families. My wifes great grandfather had 13 children between 1852 and 1872. I have one particular postcard of a North Devon Village where across what is now a busy main road on the major route between Barnstaple and Bideford a whole phalanx of children have been lined up.
Bob
 
Bob, I wonder where they all slept, back to backs only had 1 bedroom plus attic, I speak from experience living In one for a few years, Eric
 
cookie273uk said:
Bob, I wonder where they all slept, back to backs only had 1 bedroom plus attic, I speak from experience living In one for a few years, Eric
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I was told by my grandmother who was brought up in a back to back in the Icknield Street area that they slept toe to head boys and girls in the same bed and as they often started work AT 11 or 12 they moved in with relatives when they were working. Unfortunately she passed on before I was old enough to ask her more.
Bob
 
I think there was a tendency to have large families back in those days, my grandparents did. Also in most photos the young children gathered to look at the man who had suddenly appeared to photograph their houses. My dad and one of his brothers was put in Shenley Fields for a year of two in the early 1920s and he sometimes started to tell me about it but as a teenager I could not be bothered to listen and now I wish I had.
 
Salesmen and a mechanic in this 1959 photo at Watford Road, Cotteridge. They are selling Lambretta Scooters which many 17 year olds yearned for. I bought a scooter that year but it was a British Triumph/BSA with a four stroke engine and was faster than Lambrettas ...:)
WatfordRdCotteridge.jpg

Today, converted into two shops.
WatfordRdtoday.jpg
 
I suppose fitting all those Lambrettas into one shop was difficult so Broadmeadow rented the one next door and knocked it through.
 
It's the mid 1950s in Navigation Street and a policeman looks as if he is wondering why he has been sent out to direct traffic. I suppose we might be looking behind him at the victorian architecture and a hut on stilts over the railway.
NavigationStmid1950s).jpg
And today it is different, a strange piece of street furniture on the left hand pavement. A close look shows a CCTV camera fixed to it and ventilation grills lower down !
NavigationStnow.JPG
 
oldMohawk said:
It's the mid 1950s in Navigation Street and a policeman looks as if he is wondering why he has been sent out to direct traffic. I suppose we might be looking behind him at the victorian architecture and a hut on stilts over the railway.
View attachment 120467
And today it is different, a strange piece of street furniture on the left hand pavement. A close look shows a CCTV camera fixed to it and ventilation grills lower down !
View attachment 120468
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Good pictures what is unusual for the time of the b & w photo is the guy in the light jacket and dark trousers on his mobile phone, sorry the policeman has got light traffic and dark trousers, but I meant the one with the dark hair and his mother?
Bob
 
I have just noticed that in the modern photo the lady in the bottom corner, in accordance with modern trends, is on the phone.
Bob
 
Not sure this is the right place. It is from November 1927, and yet the caption states a 1928 model.

And where is the location of the photo?

6F2B815A-EC26-41A0-8159-84EF66AEEBD9.jpeg
 
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