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Turks Head Bloomsbury Street
- Thread starter jennyann
- Start date
Definitely looks more than an off-licence. The ‘pub’ photo is at a road junction too. Viv.
Maurice - a pity to delete the photo. Maybe we can identify it ? Do you or Toni have any more info about it ? Can anyone make out the road sign behind the lamp ? Or does anyone recognise it?
Shall I start a thread to identify it Maurice ? Viv.
Shall I start a thread to identify it Maurice ? Viv.
Pity we can’t see the bus number on the fuzzy bus to the left. Although, if one of our bus enthusiasts can identify the type of bus, it might at least help narrow down the date of the image. Viv.
I think there are several tram poles or trolley bus poles, so maybe the photographer was standing at a major junction. Any bus/tram experts out there can advise please ? Th poles should help date the image too.
If there’s a Herbert Street connection, could it be near Coventry Road ? Viv.
If there’s a Herbert Street connection, could it be near Coventry Road ? Viv.
We need a map covering that section Lyn.
The more I look at the photo the more the bus looks like a trolley bus. But it is blurred so it could be distorted.
Viv.
The more I look at the photo the more the bus looks like a trolley bus. But it is blurred so it could be distorted.
Viv.
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There was once a sign high up on the wall to the right of the lamp. And there is a sign “Bar” written in the glass door beneath the lamp. So it definitely was at one time a pub. It does seem strange there’s no pub sign. And all the small windows are open on the ground level, so it was occupied at the time of the photo, and not vacant. Be useful to find out it’s address so we can get to the history. It certainly doesn’t seem to fit the footprint of building #61 Herbert Road marked on Lyn’s map in post #32. It has to be at a road junction if a bus is coming alongside the pub to the left, and I’d guess near a main road judging by the overhead wires/cables and supporting posts.
Viv.
Viv.
It might be my imagination, but I think the road to the right gradually slopes downwards. Viv.
chrissweep
master brummie
Some older pubs did have an off-licence within the building, I remember the Black Eagle at Hockley did.
JohnJames
master brummie
Original post copied here and edited to try to identify the pub in the photo below. References to an off licence relate to another building in the Herbert Road thread here: https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/herbert-road-small-heath.47432/page-3
Edit ..... new member, Toni Partridge, has kindly supplied me with a photograph ........My thanks to Toni for the photograph, which is reproduced below.
Maurice
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[/Q
Growing up in small Heath in the 1960s/1970s my happy memories of a corner pub in this area is the Regents Park Tavern where I learnt to hold my beer.. It was on the corner of Herbert Rd. This pub in the picture rings no bells with me sadly but looks likes it is on a junction?Original post copied here and edited to try to identify the pub in the photo below. References to an off licence relate to another building in the Herbert Road thread here: https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/herbert-road-small-heath.47432/page-3
Edit ..... new member, Toni Partridge, has kindly supplied me with a photograph ........My thanks to Toni for the photograph, which is reproduced below.
Maurice
View attachment 151108
Thanks John. Yes I too think it was at a junction. And looking at the overhead tram/trolley bus wires, they run along the road to the left of the pub and along the front of the pub. That surely must narrow down the number of locations. Viv.
Re. The Regents Park Tavern.
Oldmohawk posted this on the Regents Park thread last year. It’s an image from 1934. The street furniture matches in some respects but not all. The trolley bus pole has ‘car’ signs attached - but maybe it was in the transition to trolleybus. The street lamp is slightly different. The lamps on the pub (right) don’t seem to quite match. Of course there could have been a refurb of the pub at some time ?
There are maybe too many smaller differences for it to match. Viv.
Oldmohawk posted this on the Regents Park thread last year. It’s an image from 1934. The street furniture matches in some respects but not all. The trolley bus pole has ‘car’ signs attached - but maybe it was in the transition to trolleybus. The street lamp is slightly different. The lamps on the pub (right) don’t seem to quite match. Of course there could have been a refurb of the pub at some time ?
There are maybe too many smaller differences for it to match. Viv.
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There was also a Regent Inn. Our late Phil clarified the locations here.
Viv.
Viv.
In the absence of anything else, I’m going through the process of elimination! I think the trolley bus route is our key clue.
A personal view of the original photo posted by Sospiri is that the pub looks to me that it was updated (in the 1930s possibly?). I think it is an older pub which had the frontage upgraded to install leaded light windows. The bricks beneath the windows look newer too. The doorways look original. Upstairs seems to have been left as original too. Just a personal view.
Did this coincide with Ansells taking it on ? Viv.
A personal view of the original photo posted by Sospiri is that the pub looks to me that it was updated (in the 1930s possibly?). I think it is an older pub which had the frontage upgraded to install leaded light windows. The bricks beneath the windows look newer too. The doorways look original. Upstairs seems to have been left as original too. Just a personal view.
Did this coincide with Ansells taking it on ? Viv.
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Nick Phillips
N S P
Would it not be correct that most pubs in 50/60s would have had off-licence?
I think if you look at some of the pubs of that era that have had an refurbishment they have a door that may have been the off-licence.
I was a young child in the 60s, then a child could purchase alcoholic or cigarettes which I did at an off-licence, for either parents or neighbours
How times have changed.
Nick S Phillips ♂ .
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paul stacey
master brummie
I remember that most of the older pubs I knew in the early 60's had a separate "Offy", built in, there were some, looked like shops, which were "Off Licences", Paul
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Some thoughts !
The left side of the photo looks as if a copyright notice might have been crudely edited out. Also a question for tram experts 'did Birmingham City Transport have crests cast on the tram poles?'
Also there is a Herbert Street (not road) in Wolverhampton and they had trolleybuses.
The left side of the photo looks as if a copyright notice might have been crudely edited out. Also a question for tram experts 'did Birmingham City Transport have crests cast on the tram poles?'
Also there is a Herbert Street (not road) in Wolverhampton and they had trolleybuses.
Nick Phillips
N S P
Paul, Pubs would sometimes have off-licence, we also at that time had out-doors we called (offy). They looked more like a shop. Again if my memory correct you were not supposed to drink on the premises.
At that time I was a young lad living in Hockley, We had an off-licence in George St West I remember sometimes you would see someone having a drink. Please remember that it was a long time ago and memories do fade.
Nick S Phillips
Jonob
master brummie
I think the street sign says "Saltley Rd" and I think the pub is the turks head. John.
That’s absolutely great Jonob. Spot on. Thanks ! So it was a pub again by the 1950s/60s. Viv.
Here it is in place at the junction many years before. (No date). Photo posted by Oldmohawk on the “See Birmingham by postcard” thread. Viv.
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sospiri
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Now here is the ironical point and probably explains how Toni came into possession of that photograph. Emily and her husband, John George Sheppard had been the landlords of the Turks Head at 150 Bloomsbury Street in the mid-1930s before taking over the Stonebridge Hotel around the end of that decade. So I am still short of a picture of the Herbert Road off-licence and from Google Street View it appears that the whole of Herbert Road was demolished and rebuilt in recent times.
The Turks Head was demolished around 1960 from the other pictures of it on the Forum. Well done, Jonob. Had I ever visited these areas, I may have been able to put two and two together from the information I had in front of me. Alas, it took a REAL Brummie to spot this and I was only there for just under 24 years from birth! This one is also on the Forum:-
And now a little story for you. One of the young policemen stationed at Bloomsbury Street used to stop the traffic every day to escort a young schoolgirl across the road. Years later, the constable married the school girl, and who was that schoolgirl? Emily Sheppard's sister. Every cloud has a silver lining. Thanks all and the Jonob especially.
Maurice
The Turks Head was demolished around 1960 from the other pictures of it on the Forum. Well done, Jonob. Had I ever visited these areas, I may have been able to put two and two together from the information I had in front of me. Alas, it took a REAL Brummie to spot this and I was only there for just under 24 years from birth! This one is also on the Forum:-
And now a little story for you. One of the young policemen stationed at Bloomsbury Street used to stop the traffic every day to escort a young schoolgirl across the road. Years later, the constable married the school girl, and who was that schoolgirl? Emily Sheppard's sister. Every cloud has a silver lining. Thanks all and the Jonob especially.
Maurice