• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Varna Road

S

Sazzie

proper brummie kid
Please can you tell me what was Varna Road like in the 40's ? I had a relative who lived there in 1942 at no 52 and what is it like now? Thank you
 
mikejee said:
It does not exist now. In the 1950s and 60s it gained a reputation as a red light district, and before that I think many of the largish houses had been subdivided . On development, because of the previous reputation, the name was no reused. A few pictures I took around 1970 while the area was being demolished are on post 277, 278 at https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/threads/birmingham-1969-73.23229/page-10
Click to expand...
Thank you very much. Does anybody have earlier photos?
 
A few years back there was an exhibition of photgraphs at a local gallery of pictures taken by an American student centred on one woman who lived on Varna Road in the 60s. Not all of the pictures are of Varna Road but some are. Here is some detail about the story. https://www.theguardian.com/artandd...rapher-janet-mendelsohn-varna-road-birmingham
and here are more of the pictures https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/jan/11/tin-baths-beehives-and-brothels-life-on-the-wickedest-road-in-britain-in-pictures
It's hard to tell if the three streets that had that reputation were demolished because of it or just because they were next. The section on the other side of Pershore Road had been rebuilt at the beginning of the 60s. The other turnings on that side of Balsall Heath Road would follow in the 70s and 80s.
 
Not many of the outside photos are Varna Road, but more the other side of the Rea. The indoor ones may well have been.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top