72 years on I can instantly go back in my mind. As a child in the 1950’s and 60’s I remember going to the Bullring Centre with my dad. I remember seeing an escapologist having his arms and hands all chained up with lots of padlocks in an imposable cobweb of steel bonds and then a heavy canvas bag was dragged over his head and fastened around his waist with a thick leather belt with a padlock on it. He was all tied up with great show and much grunting and fuss to entertain and amaze the Saturday morning shoppers. It was a good show, once fully secured and inspected, probably by a stooge planted in the audience, the man who chained up the main character would come around shaking his cap for money. As I say there was much grunting and groaning with the captive falling on the floor and thrashing about. There were lots of cries of agony and pain all loud enough to be heard through the canvas bag and attract a bigger crowd. The women would put their hands to their mouths wincing, obviously feeling the man’s pain, the youths would laugh and shout rude words at the man with the cap, who in turn would threaten them and chase them off. People would throw pennies in to the cap just to go along with the show, the escapologist wouldn’t release himself until the man collecting the money had finally squeezed every last penny out of the spectators, at which point he must have uttered some word which would have been the signal for the escapologist to release himself from his bonds. I don’t know how many times I saw him seascape but I do know my old man never put a penny in the cap, he saved the pennies for the salted baked potatoes from the old black, coal fired potato engine. Proper old King Edwards spuds cooked with crunchy shin like layers of brown paper. They were so hot they had to be wrapped up in old newspaper to stop you from getting burnt. Happy days. Just looking at Birmingham and found out that the Museum of Science and Industry has gone, such a shame, I wish I could go back there and see it again. Regards . . . Andy Davies 2022
I remember the science museum was in Newall St originally and had a huge locomotive therin. The museum smelled of grease and oil and the locomotive moved backwards and forwards. I grew up in Handsworth and moved out in 1987. Birmingham has lost all it's character now and nothing like it was in the 1970s.....
@@AndyDaviesByTheSea you can see vintage trains working at the Tyseley depot, Think tank also has stuff from the old Science museum and there is a whole collection of other stuff in storage that you can visit on tours at the BMAG storage facility, I am afraid I forget it’s full name.
I look at these photos and instantly you can see how street look clean and people have taken care of the front gardens. Now if you look at present day photos there is so much rubbish everywhere. There is no community pride anymore. It’s so sad.thanks for posting .Old Brummy now in Australia. Cheers mate.
Proud to be a true brummie :-) My grandma told me when she use to walk down new st and there was a flower lady selling flowers for £1, its changed now ... for the worst
Thank you for posting photo's. I am 54 years of age and left Birmingham when I was 18. The pics of the 1960's and seventies bring back fond memories for me. I revisted Brum three years ago, and its true, you should never go back. Still love the honesty of true Brummies tho.
I feel way safer walking in Bham city centre now than I did back in the 70s with all it's dark dangerous urine infested subway tunnels hoping I wouldn't get mugged.
Lots of mental health issues and depression in Birmingham people are very strange and demented in Birmingham and West Midlands no one walks the streets at night I wonder why.
Wow, when we’re you last in Birmingham, it looks the best now I have ever seen it In my lifetime, and I have never felt unsafe anywhere in Birmingham since around 1983.
I love seeing the pictures of old Birmingham. The music along with my fond memories of our City made me smile and cry a little. Yes lots of changes, but that's just how it is. Seeing the couple of pictures of Lewis's made wonder back in my mind to the 50's and Mum taking me and my little sister to see Father Christmas. Thanks so much I really enjoyed this.
@@baz9653 yeah immigration. How dare they open all these shops and restaurants and everything where we had nothing before. How dare they add so much to the Birmingham economy
Grew up in Birmingham and lived in Erdington from 1963 until I left in 1973 My mum lived there until her death in 1991. I remember pre Spaghetti Junction & all those photos of Slade Road, Gravelly Hill, Salford Bridge, Stockland Green etc brought back so many memories. thank you.
These old photos are good for when you are feeling nostalgic but our memories tend to edit out the awfulness of a lot of old Birmingham. The dirty markets that were not swept properly at the end of the day and stank of rotting fruit and veg, the sound of a million starlings in the evenings perching above your head as you sheltered from the rain, just waiting to poo on your head. The thick unbreathable smogs that gave children the wheezes, the way all the buildings were blackened from the soot in the air, and the terrible queues for the buses in the city centre. After the shopping centre was first built the city took a real nose dive, no one lived there at all and it was a no go zone for all but pub goers in the evenings, and very scary to cross at night if you were alone and had to catch a connecting bus to get home. The underpasses were stinking and neglected and unsafe for women in particular. Outside the centre there was a lot of very old badly maintained Victorian and Edwardian housing with streets that had no trees, in some parts there was gas street lighting way later than there should have been. In many places there were slums and a lot of hardship. I can remember the workmen from the iron factories rolling out frunk after their dinner time break and back to work, there were a lot of accidents and a lot of domestic violence later on in the day. It was not unusual to see a woman in a head scarf with a face knocked black and blue on a Monday morning, scrubbing her steps, before she had to get indoors to do the sheets and get them on the line. If the smog was bad they would not dry clean and would stink of the tarry air. Pea soupers they called the smogs, because of the colour and how thick they were. Sometime you couldn’t see to the next lamp post and people walking ahead of you would disappear just two or three yards away. Keep your happy memories by all means but do not romanticise or make out it was wonderful it was a dirty industrial town with a huge amount of poverty and all the social problems to match. It was a nicer place in good weather and a bit of sunshine, the only thing it had for many Expletive was that was our home and all we knew. The new Birmingham isn’t perfect but is a lively mix of people and has been getting steadily better for years. This is not to do with politics they are all as bad as each other. It does have to do with some investment coming in and a lot of input from the burgeoning student population and some fantastic building projects, the developments of the canals and canal side homes, businesses and hotels and some fantastic eateries. There are even mature trees growing up New Street, and much of it is pedestrianised. Terraced houses have lost the horrible black coating they used to wear and no longer have filthy windows, many homes have been modernised, and there are a lot of new homes and apartments that get snapped up quickly. Yes it has changed a lot, but very much for the better. It has some exceptional hospitals and universities and many options for young people in education. Sadly this winter is likely to be hard, but that is not Birminghams fault.
@@IM-yv1er there are loads of old brummies left, I know a lot of them born here. There are new brummies also here and also born here. The world keeps moving and things do not stay the same forever. The brummies you refer to have probably moved elsewhere or passed away. So naturally they were also part of the change. That does not make it worse, just different.
@lindyashford7744 I moved away. No family there anymore, either died or moved out. I just don't recognise my home town anymore - that gives me a feeling of incredible sorrow.
@@podlou9939 as I said, things change. That is how the world works. Not everything in the past was good, but if you were young in a place you remember as home then a lot of good memories went too. I grew up in a huge end terrace house my family lived in just after the war, It had a fabulous garden that included a Victorian kitchen garden, it was heaven for a child. The house still stands but not a shred of the garden exists anymore, everything has gone. The only thing that would be familiar to me is the window spaces. I do not visit it. Too painful. That life disappeared when I was 13 and my mother died suddenly. Now there is a whole close of little houses where our garden was. I could walk every step of it and our garden would feel more real to me than what exists now. I could also walk every step from where old Ladywood existed, not where I lived by the way, but where my mother taught in a junior school, and was a much loved teacher. We cannot bring back our pasts, but they live in us. A lot has changed for sure, but that is not the fault of the people of the present, it is just the passage of time. Those new people are not the people you remember, but they too are building memories for their old age, if they are young they do not know it yet, what will it be like in 70 or 80 years time? These days I do live in Ladywood constituency, though not in the Ladywood of my past, which no longer exists. The city centre is now creeping outwards quite fast, huge high rise buildings. I live in a house almost a quarter of my age! Before it existed some ugly tower blocks once stood, and before that old terraced houses…. My little home is lovely, and purpose built. Around me are student flats and homes interspersed with little family houses, there are green spaces, where once there were cobbled streets, there are remnants of original cobbles behind my house. Down the road old industrial buildings have disappeared some of them iconic landmarks. For generations of brummies, old and more recent. I have a little haven of a garden, I would like to grow the plants of my childhood, but the gardeners would mow down everything in sight. So I grow what I can in pots instead. The people here are lovely, today’s ordinary brummies, with slightly altered accents sometimes, but you would hear the Brum y in them. They study or the bring up their children, the buses still trundle the old streets, and cats seem to love it here. So do I, with all the changes. Some of the old architecture of the area has survived but in thirty years there is likely to be no trace of it. The world will have moved on.
Loved this ...My childhood. Born Perry Barr, worked Witton and Town centre..school ,Kingstanding,so many photos revelant to me...left Brum.1977. Thank you.
In the late 1950s my parents moved to England from Jamaica. In 1964 we were living in Birmingham. Everyone lived together and got along well. We were all neighbors - we all worshiped at the Holy Trinity church Birchfield, where my brothers and I were baptized. My friends and I went to the same schools - I never felt any different - we were all British. I'm now living in America and I recently, went home to visit my aging family in Birmingham and yes, it did change a great deal. We have to find our way back to living together, peacefully and respectably like we did in 1964.
We still do live peacefully on a daily basis. Please don't be deceived by the ill rumours. Thanks to living in Birmingham i have white back mixed race oriental Indian European friends.
@sarah jones clearly you are living in the wrong part of the city. My point yes for the majority all races and colors live in segregated areas but we all live and work side by side on a daily basis. In my community if some one attacked some one that was not the same ethnicity as us we would try to stop it and there would be an uproar to bring the perpetrators to justice
You also forgot to mention that you and you were family were not allowed to enter digbeth or the city centre at certain times as the signs BLATANTLY read NO BLACKS OR IRISH and the fact that at school you were called vile racial slurs and told you smelt or when they used to sing "Aint no black in the union jack, send them n*****s back" or Mr Enoch Powell.. Ah, such peaceful integrated times werent they?
Wow. This has taken me back to my childhood, especially the 1st image of the Bartons Arms. I used to live in the street on the right of the pub, & can clearly see my old house, & my favourite sweet shop.
great video,brings back nice memorys of my childhood days, in the 60,s ,music matches the film, a time when discipline ,and law and order, genrally ruled, onlike now.
iiRyzex No, I’m not sure what he’s on about, the 60s were lawless and poverty was rife, it wasn’t “law and order” which society relied on, it was respect, kindness and pride. And most importantly, happiness. There was no such thing as “trespassing”, there was very little CCTV if any. It was heaven
Lived in Birmingham all my life, I look at these pictures now, and realize that it had so much character back then, unfortunately now it looks like any other city, but that's my view.
@@theholyoneofisrael.9550 yeah great , we went from a land of proud Brits to millions of people like yourself who have no love for this country and actually have a hate towards British people . If you don't like this country then by all means feel free to go back to the land where your ancestors come from .🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Hi Charlotte C, I agree with you, I lived in that era and Birmingham was the pits full of derelict buildings and Slums, that is why Birmingham was totally rebuilt. I much prefer the new Modern Birmingham
Born in Birmingham in 1956. Spent the '60s at Blue Coat school. Spent a lot of time hanging around the Bull Ring. Thx for the memories. Those were the days.
@@M00niE_k your right there were a lot of families from Pakistan and there were skin heads that harassed and beat them up. When we saw skin heads on the pavement we'd cross to the other side of road as they scared us too. We loved to go the shops just outside city center that had ethnic food and spices and colorful items from abroad. Hopefully things are better there now for people of color (is that the right word?).
@@capodad2u yes thats the word. Usually, we refer to people of color as POCs . Anyway yes its alot better. My dad said he experienced alot of racism, he went to manor park primary. He said that teachers would put him and his mates on the “brown” table and put the white kids on the “star” table. This happened for a while, but ppl caught on. Anyway, yes its alot better for POCs now, but here and there we will face racism. But in gods eyes we are all the same 🥰
Erdington born...Grew up in Great Barr.......Good memories! Harry Parkes was a family friend and my late Mothers aunt performed at the Aston Hippodrome when Charlie Chaplin was there before he went to the USA.
Wow the market hall, I was just 4yrs old when my mom and grandmother used to take there. Now I have a terminal illness, so a bit of nostalgia helps with that. I feel like a foreigner in Birmingham nowadays, it is just horrible.
Hi there I used to live st mark's street and work on monument road in a shop called gorge Mason in the 60s i was 16 then what fun we had in old Ladywood loved the videos
Wow erdington ladywood and Aston was clean and peaceful and when I see it today it make me sad because of over population rubbish crimes and flood of traffic
How much better it looked back then. I left in 2000 and came to London. Luckily I live in a part which has unchanged since the late 19th Century, only wish parts of Birmingham had adopted the same approach. I love the music you associate with these fascinating clips too..
Used to work in north great king st. Joseph Lucas. It was a great city back then. Memory's of great friends. Now R.I.P. Old Birmingham. Gone forever. So sad.
While I commend this, and the previous, collection of pictures of old Brum I would like to say that the city doesn't just consist of the city centre and North Birmingham. I have fond memories of spending part of my early years growing up in Hurlingham Road and Sundridge Road in Kingstanding. My parents and my brothers and I moved from there to Arnold Grove, Kings Norton. We stayed there from 1956 to 1970 when we moved to Northfield. I'm still living in that house to this day. I celebrate my 69th Birthday this year so I have seen the city change a lot, some changes for the good some not. Who knows where the city will be this time next year, politically, economically and community?
I don't live very far from Northfield. I'm in Bartley Green, right next to the fields and Frankley Services. I can see the M5 from my window, and often can hear it. I'm not very old, only 31. I have some memories of town from when I was a child, not many as I wasn't often taken there. But I have at least one memory of the old Bullring, running down a row of shops on both sides, then running around where it meets another passageway, it's vague but I remember it. It wasn't until much later that I began exploring town, about 16 onwards when I left school so I have a lot more recollection of town as it was about 10 - 15 years ago. I have a few memories of Northfield as a kid, like the time I got banned from the Grosvenor for terrorising it with stink bombs. I think the ban has been forgotten about, I can go there now hah.
I'll take a guess and say that 'earface' hasn't photos to suit all tastes, and if he had, he would have included some of YOUR choice images too. They are ARCHIVE photos, taken by people in the past, and thank gawd for it.
Chanced across this while drinking my morning coffee (TH-cam pushing items for my attentions as it does) and for an inveterate canaler it's nice to see what the scenery is like away from 'the cut'. It deserves a wiser audience generally, thus I'm pushing its ratings up a bit.
Marvellous collection of photos. Brought back many memories, as a family we first came to England in 1960 and lived in Erdington for 18 months before moving to Aston, so I recognosed most of the pictures. Also the number 11 bus AKA the outer circle. When we kids were bored we often took a round trip on the 11 alll around the route, or the number 8 'inner circle' We lived in Jaffrey Rd Erdington, anyone rememberr it in the early 60's? Or The Old Green Man pub in Dartmouth st Aston?
Even the (former) nicer parts are going down hill. I'm looking to leave in a few years, it's not a nice place to bring up a family, most I've grew up with have left.
I remember visiting my nan who ran a shop on wheeler street in the 60s/70s. Went there every 2/3 months as a kid and saw it "change" as time went by. When it was knocked down and the flats went up they moved to Perry Bar and things got worse 80s I think. That side of the family are all gone now , the last one was my uncle sadly murdered by a gang of none native people. I last went in 2000 would never go again.
Birchfield Rd Underpass photo @ 1:11 - where the bus is on the left, is pretty well where I was born and raised, the Post Office on the corner of Birchfield Rd and Wilmore St - we left there because of the underpass and the house being compulsory purchased.. the cinema on the right was the setting for the "6d Crush" every saturday mornings...
This is almost too much! The Star Cinema (Slade Rd) my first visit to "The Pictures", sandwiched between my childhood school (Slade Rd Infants/Juniors/Secondary Modern) and my Dad's local (The Brookvale). The 11 Outer Circle bus I caught at Stockland Green to go to school in Handsworth, all those shots of 6 ways Erdington/High St, Brookvale Park, Witton, Perry Barr etc. is like my former life flashing before my eyes!! I Left Brum Easter 1967 and rarely go back except for the odd "Baggies" game and it's so painful when I do because pretty much all of this has gone. But another memory was brought back by the pics of the old Bull Ring I recall often going down the hill towards Woolworths holding on tightly to my Mum's hand and hearing a very old woman shouting what I always thought was "Half a pound o' carrots" but she was standing there selling brown carrier bags! (remember them?) Thank you so much Earface you've made this 74 year old both laugh and cry.
The number 11 bus route still exists and if you sat on it and did the full route you would probably recognise a lot of it. There are new things of course, but quite a lot is unchanged except the sooty buildings have been washed clean again over the decades. Change takes place everywhere as the unusable makes way for the new, we can still have our memories anyway as these photos show. It does not mean that the city is worse now than it was then, in reality it is better. It just means that it does not match our childhood memories. Our childhood memories are memories only, we cannot expect the world to have stood still since then. Did we stand still our selves or did we grow up and do all sort of different things that we could never have imagined we would do then? Enjoy th photos for what they are. If you are in Birmingham again have a walk around the city and enjoy what it has become. There are parts of it that are quite lovely, both new and old. It still has wonderful parks, a great cricket ground, and to that you can add a world class symphony hall and some great places for todays young people to study in every field you could think of.
I miss the old Birmingham so much 60s 70s 80s wonderful memories Hockley newtown Erdington kingstanding pype hase Stockland Green moved to Ireland in the mid 90s have to say it was a big mistake but now wen I look at brum now I thank god I'm here beach mountain but its getting a bit crowded but never like brum the culture was totally different but I'm part of it now but my memorys are brilliant I don't like it wen things change but life moves on ó ye forgot about ladywood I went to school there thanks for the vid
@Angela Sanders you are the problem. Narrow thinking is what let's humanity down. Keep your negativity to yourself and try being a little more productive. Sitting on your backside and being grotesque on the internet is not impressive and not what this country represents. History is what made today's Birmingham. Shame on you
At 0.34. is the Calthorpe Arms. Named no doubt after Lord Calthorpe, who had a huge influence on Birmingham development, donating huge land areas etc. I mention this, because my dad, bn 1896, was a chauffeur for his Lordship
@@baz9653 no actually. I was born here. And whats wrong with being an immigrant? Do you find me being an immigrant more offensive than the fact that i was hate crimed by them when i was only 4? You seem have your priorities straight. I suppose white peoples simply have it in their nature to be degrading and rude 🤨 im only 13 and being so young i should not have to have experienced racism at such a young age. Pls get a life
Look at 1:17.The guy wearing a boater and the child in the sailor suit and women wearing hats, long dresses and pinched waists. Next picture, it's jammed with traffic. The planners then rebuilt the city to accommodate the traffic and it wasn't so pedestrian friendly.
WOW, surely that's a unique photograph, at 0.51. of the Top three Birmingham area Football Clubs, together. I have an original Argus Newspaper for the Saturday that Villa won the Cup in 1957,against Manchester United --2--1. The Paper, usually just Pink, had the Villa Claret and Blue also. It's in a frail condition now ( 62 years old, the paper not me, I'm in a worse condition), but still readable, with good photographs.
Funny to see the # 11 bus, the "Outer Circle". I remember taking that bus ride on a Sunday afternoon. It was considered as an outing (lol). Simpler times for sure.........
The comments seem a little problematic because people say it has changed for the worse, well that's just change. A lot of places like Yew Tree, Digbeth, Witton Road near the Witton Arms and Train Station are still the same. The changes that have been made have all been because there was a need for them.
Just watched this and can't believe how much I'm crying. Happy Times for me. Thank you for the memories.
Remember lots of these views, thanks for the memories of wonderful times that have gone forever. We are now living in a madhouse. ❤️
72 years on I can instantly go back in my mind. As a child in the 1950’s and 60’s I remember going to the Bullring Centre with my dad. I remember seeing an escapologist having his arms and hands all chained up with lots of padlocks in an imposable cobweb of steel bonds and then a heavy canvas bag was dragged over his head and fastened around his waist with a thick leather belt with a padlock on it. He was all tied up with great show and much grunting and fuss to entertain and amaze the Saturday morning shoppers. It was a good show, once fully secured and inspected, probably by a stooge planted in the audience, the man who chained up the main character would come around shaking his cap for money. As I say there was much grunting and groaning with the captive falling on the floor and thrashing about. There were lots of cries of agony and pain all loud enough to be heard through the canvas bag and attract a bigger crowd. The women would put their hands to their mouths wincing, obviously feeling the man’s pain, the youths would laugh and shout rude words at the man with the cap, who in turn would threaten them and chase them off. People would throw pennies in to the cap just to go along with the show, the escapologist wouldn’t release himself until the man collecting the money had finally squeezed every last penny out of the spectators, at which point he must have uttered some word which would have been the signal for the escapologist to release himself from his bonds. I don’t know how many times I saw him seascape but I do know my old man never put a penny in the cap, he saved the pennies for the salted baked potatoes from the old black, coal fired potato engine. Proper old King Edwards spuds cooked with crunchy shin like layers of brown paper. They were so hot they had to be wrapped up in old newspaper to stop you from getting burnt. Happy days. Just looking at Birmingham and found out that the Museum of Science and Industry has gone, such a shame, I wish I could go back there and see it again.
Regards . . . Andy Davies
2022
I remember the science museum was in Newall St originally and had a huge locomotive therin. The museum smelled of grease and oil and the locomotive moved backwards and forwards.
I grew up in Handsworth and moved out in 1987. Birmingham has lost all it's character now and nothing like it was in the 1970s.....
Hi I remember the Train and always marvelled at the massive connecting rods driving the wheels, happy days!
All the best my friend.
Regards . . . Andy
@@AndyDaviesByTheSea you can see vintage trains working at the Tyseley depot, Think tank also has stuff from the old Science museum and there is a whole collection of other stuff in storage that you can visit on tours at the BMAG storage facility, I am afraid I forget it’s full name.
Breaks my heart to see how the city has changed. How I wish I could go back to how it was.
tell me about it. so shocking
Before you stole ppl to build it up..dint think it out did you...lol
You voted labour,you still vote labour.Look in the mirror
@@user-zm9yc2kb8x
What people were stolen to build Birmingham you moron...
@@avrock1874 Are you a propaganda troll, voted Labour 😂😅. Conservatives have been running the country longer in that time numb nuts.
As a Scot living and working in Brum from 1972-1974 I couldn't have met and worked with a finer bunch of people - I'm filled with nostalgia. Thanks.
yep--they were always a great bunch to be with, friendly, helpful, and generous, and never ran out of jokes,.
Cheers boys from a born n bred
I look at these photos and instantly you can see how street look clean and people have taken care of the front gardens. Now if you look at present day photos there is so much rubbish everywhere. There is no community pride anymore. It’s so sad.thanks for posting .Old Brummy now in Australia. Cheers mate.
Proud to be a true brummie :-) My grandma told me when she use to walk down new st and there was a flower lady selling flowers for £1, its changed now ... for the worst
yes andrew your grandma was right i remember that flower lady back in the day great memories
That flower lady was possibly my great gran... The lady in the picture on the art gallery staircase... “The Flower Seller”
Any memories of peacky blinders
Thank you for posting photo's. I am 54 years of age and left Birmingham when I was 18. The pics of the 1960's and seventies bring back fond memories for me. I revisted Brum three years ago, and its true, you should never go back. Still love the honesty of true Brummies tho.
I've been here my whole life, not sure I'm ever going to leave. But then I live in Bartley Green....it's...an area, not all bad just a bit...empty.
And to look at the state of it now. You don't even feel safe walking in it anymore.
How many time do you visit the City Centre then, I feel totally safe in Birmingham
@@peterwilliamallen1063 Robert is scared of his own shadow lol
I feel way safer walking in Bham city centre now than I did back in the 70s with all it's dark dangerous urine infested subway tunnels hoping I wouldn't get mugged.
Lots of mental health issues and depression in Birmingham people are very strange and demented in Birmingham and West Midlands no one walks the streets at night I wonder why.
Wow, when we’re you last in Birmingham, it looks the best now I have ever seen it In my lifetime, and I have never felt unsafe anywhere in Birmingham since around 1983.
I love seeing the pictures of old Birmingham. The music along with my fond memories of our City made me smile and cry a little. Yes lots of changes, but that's just how it is.
Seeing the couple of pictures of Lewis's made wonder back in my mind to the 50's and Mum taking me and my little sister to see Father Christmas.
Thanks so much I really enjoyed this.
Loved this, bought back memories of shopping in Brum with my mum and going there as teenager with my friends, happy days❤
Fills my heart with such sadness , to see how it was back then to how it is now .. change does not always mean better
Wdym?
@@M00niE_k immigration has destroyed Britain , plain n simple !
@@baz9653 yeah immigration. How dare they open all these shops and restaurants and everything where we had nothing before. How dare they add so much to the Birmingham economy
@@baz9653 👍
@@baz9653 As it was meant to.
Grew up in Birmingham and lived in Erdington from 1963 until I left in 1973 My mum lived there until her death in 1991. I remember pre Spaghetti Junction & all those photos of Slade Road, Gravelly Hill, Salford Bridge, Stockland Green etc brought back so many memories. thank you.
Yep me too lived in Erdington great days The Lyndhurst pub cross keys on Sutton new Rd chip shop opposite the pub great days
As a" Brummie", born in Aston, these pictures bring back so many memories and a tear to my eye.
I was born in Aston too. My mother and father left to seek a better cultural life in Sutton Coldfield.
These old photos are good for when you are feeling nostalgic but our memories tend to edit out the awfulness of a lot of old Birmingham. The dirty markets that were not swept properly at the end of the day and stank of rotting fruit and veg, the sound of a million starlings in the evenings perching above your head as you sheltered from the rain, just waiting to poo on your head. The thick unbreathable smogs that gave children the wheezes, the way all the buildings were blackened from the soot in the air, and the terrible queues for the buses in the city centre. After the shopping centre was first built the city took a real nose dive, no one lived there at all and it was a no go zone for all but pub goers in the evenings, and very scary to cross at night if you were alone and had to catch a connecting bus to get home. The underpasses were stinking and neglected and unsafe for women in particular. Outside the centre there was a lot of very old badly maintained Victorian and Edwardian housing with streets that had no trees, in some parts there was gas street lighting way later than there should have been. In many places there were slums and a lot of hardship. I can remember the workmen from the iron factories rolling out frunk after their dinner time break and back to work, there were a lot of accidents and a lot of domestic violence later on in the day. It was not unusual to see a woman in a head scarf with a face knocked black and blue on a Monday morning, scrubbing her steps, before she had to get indoors to do the sheets and get them on the line. If the smog was bad they would not dry clean and would stink of the tarry air. Pea soupers they called the smogs, because of the colour and how thick they were. Sometime you couldn’t see to the next lamp post and people walking ahead of you would disappear just two or three yards away. Keep your happy memories by all means but do not romanticise or make out it was wonderful it was a dirty industrial town with a huge amount of poverty and all the social problems to match. It was a nicer place in good weather and a bit of sunshine, the only thing it had for many
Expletive was that was our home and all we knew. The new Birmingham isn’t perfect but is a lively mix of people and has been getting steadily better for years. This is not to do with politics they are all as bad as each other. It does have to do with some investment coming in and a lot of input from the burgeoning student population and some fantastic building projects, the developments of the canals and canal side homes, businesses and hotels and some fantastic eateries. There are even mature trees growing up New Street, and much of it is pedestrianised. Terraced houses have lost the horrible black coating they used to wear and no longer have filthy windows, many homes have been modernised, and there are a lot of new homes and apartments that get snapped up quickly. Yes it has changed a lot, but very much for the better. It has some exceptional hospitals and universities and many options for young people in education. Sadly this winter is likely to be hard, but that is not Birminghams fault.
'Steadily better' ?!😮
Was that Carl Chinn writing this?
The City is definitely much worse now as the population is totally different and few real Brummies still exist!
@@IM-yv1er there are loads of old brummies left, I know a lot of them born here. There are new brummies also here and also born here. The world keeps moving and things do not stay the same forever. The brummies you refer to have probably moved elsewhere or passed away. So naturally they were also part of the change. That does not make it worse, just different.
@lindyashford7744 I moved away. No family there anymore, either died or moved out. I just don't recognise my home town anymore - that gives me a feeling of incredible sorrow.
@@podlou9939 as I said, things change. That is how the world works. Not everything in the past was good, but if you were young in a place you remember as home then a lot of good memories went too. I grew up in a huge end terrace house my family lived in just after the war, It had a fabulous garden that included a Victorian kitchen garden, it was heaven for a child. The house still stands but not a shred of the garden exists anymore, everything has gone. The only thing that would be familiar to me is the window spaces. I do not visit it. Too painful. That life disappeared when I was 13 and my mother died suddenly. Now there is a whole close of little houses where our garden was. I could walk every step of it and our garden would feel more real to me than what exists now. I could also walk every step from where old Ladywood existed, not where I lived by the way, but where my mother taught in a junior school, and was a much loved teacher. We cannot bring back our pasts, but they live in us. A lot has changed for sure, but that is not the fault of the people of the present, it is just the passage of time. Those new people are not the people you remember, but they too are building memories for their old age, if they are young they do not know it yet, what will it be like in 70 or 80 years time? These days I do live in Ladywood constituency, though not in the Ladywood of my past, which no longer exists. The city centre is now creeping outwards quite fast, huge high rise buildings. I live in a house almost a quarter of my age! Before it existed some ugly tower blocks once stood, and before that old terraced houses…. My little home is lovely, and purpose built. Around me are student flats and homes interspersed with little family houses, there are green spaces, where once there were cobbled streets, there are remnants of original cobbles behind my house. Down the road old industrial buildings have disappeared some of them iconic landmarks. For generations of brummies, old and more recent. I have a little haven of a garden, I would like to grow the plants of my childhood, but the gardeners would mow down everything in sight. So I grow what I can in pots instead. The people here are lovely, today’s ordinary brummies, with slightly altered accents sometimes, but you would hear the Brum y in them. They study or the bring up their children, the buses still trundle the old streets, and cats seem to love it here. So do I, with all the changes. Some of the old architecture of the area has survived but in thirty years there is likely to be no trace of it. The world will have moved on.
Loved this ...My childhood. Born Perry Barr, worked Witton and Town centre..school ,Kingstanding,so many photos revelant to me...left Brum.1977. Thank you.
So did I 👍👍
In the late 1950s my parents moved to England from Jamaica. In 1964 we were living in Birmingham. Everyone lived together and got along well. We were all neighbors - we all worshiped at the Holy Trinity church Birchfield, where my brothers and I were baptized. My friends and I went to the same schools - I never felt any different - we were all British. I'm now living in America and I recently, went home to visit my aging family in Birmingham and yes, it did change a great deal. We have to find our way back to living together, peacefully and respectably like we did in 1964.
We still do live peacefully on a daily basis. Please don't be deceived by the ill rumours. Thanks to living in Birmingham i have white back mixed race oriental Indian European friends.
@sarah jones clearly you are living in the wrong part of the city. My point yes for the majority all races and colors live in segregated areas but we all live and work side by side on a daily basis. In my community if some one attacked some one that was not the same ethnicity as us we would try to stop it and there would be an uproar to bring the perpetrators to justice
@Matty Jones matty boy. You hate blacks but you love the batty boy dont you? Haha
@sarah jones and made you think im a chav oh lady of the night?
You also forgot to mention that you and you were family were not allowed to enter digbeth or the city centre at certain times as the signs BLATANTLY read NO BLACKS OR IRISH and the fact that at school you were called vile racial slurs and told you smelt or when they used to sing "Aint no black in the union jack, send them n*****s back" or Mr Enoch Powell..
Ah, such peaceful integrated times werent they?
Wow. This has taken me back to my childhood, especially the 1st image of the Bartons Arms. I used to live in the street on the right of the pub, & can clearly see my old house, & my favourite sweet shop.
Like to be able to wonder into it, and buy a 100 CWT of 'rocks' for a £ pound.
great video,brings back nice memorys of my childhood days, in the 60,s ,music matches the film, a time when discipline ,and law and order, genrally ruled, onlike now.
Was there spankings
iiRyzex No, I’m not sure what he’s on about, the 60s were lawless and poverty was rife, it wasn’t “law and order” which society relied on, it was respect, kindness and pride. And most importantly, happiness. There was no such thing as “trespassing”, there was very little CCTV if any. It was heaven
@@throwow1014 did u meat any peacky blinders
Thank you for putting this together Birmingham today is sad to me those were the days🌝
Chris Tandy....Yes. Those were the days when Old Birmingham was free of Alien looking Burka wearing Ninja cartoons !!
@@Leo15730 unclean heart
Some of these are from 1916 I’ll take it by saying those were the days your around 120 today?
@@Leo15730 that is very rude so stfu
A fantastic video upload with nice music to accompany my sincere thanks again to all those that took time and effort to put this up👌
Lived in Birmingham all my life, I look at these pictures now, and realize that it had so much character back then, unfortunately now it looks like any other city, but that's my view.
That brought back happy memories as a child visiting relatives in Aston and then Erdington. Thank you.
excellent , very nostalgic Lived in erdington in sixties , now live in new york
Brilliant video , and a superb choice of music , well done earface !
Great photos and music....even the round bus stop signs brought back fond memories!
Why do I feel so depressed seeing this? I wasn't even born during that era.
@@spsppspsspsp8348 change is healthy
@@theholyoneofisrael.9550 yeah great , we went from a land of proud Brits to millions of people like yourself who have no love for this country and actually have a hate towards British people . If you don't like this country then by all means feel free to go back to the land where your ancestors come from .🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Hi Charlotte C, I agree with you, I lived in that era and Birmingham was the pits full of derelict buildings and Slums, that is why Birmingham was totally rebuilt. I much prefer the new Modern Birmingham
@@theholyoneofisrael.9550 change is healthy when it's positive.
Change is bad when it's negative.
Change is not always good
Born in Birmingham in 1956. Spent the '60s at Blue Coat school. Spent a lot of time hanging around the Bull Ring. Thx for the memories. Those were the days.
Hi @capowacko , I went to Blue Coat at its new premises in Harborne, Edgbaston, only saw images of the old BCS. Must have been very different
Those days were great for white people. Alot of young children of color had horrible childhoods due to racism from their teachers and peers
@@M00niE_k your right there were a lot of families from Pakistan and there were skin heads that harassed and beat them up. When we saw skin heads on the pavement we'd cross to the other side of road as they scared us too. We loved to go the shops just outside city center that had ethnic food and spices and colorful items from abroad. Hopefully things are better there now for people of color (is that the right word?).
@@capodad2u yes thats the word. Usually, we refer to people of color as POCs . Anyway yes its alot better. My dad said he experienced alot of racism, he went to manor park primary. He said that teachers would put him and his mates on the “brown” table and put the white kids on the “star” table. This happened for a while, but ppl caught on. Anyway, yes its alot better for POCs now, but here and there we will face racism. But in gods eyes we are all the same 🥰
So much better back then
Awesome thanks from an old Brummie in Australia for 43 years.
Great memories of the city I grew up in,,also great background music, thank you.
Great music to it, it breaks my heart :(
absolutely
Beautiful. Shame it’s become a cesspit
growing up u dont really notice how it changes but it has changed sooo much
Great video of old Bham shame the city so run down now but im still proud to be a Brummie.
Omg love this got tears in my eyes so many memories come back great story of birmingham kingstanding lad I am
Thank you this video is priceless , at points I smiled at points I laughed and points I cried where the memories were over whelming 👍❤️🇬🇧🇵🇰🌹
Nice to see so many pictures of Erdington and Stockland Green ....good collection thanks for putting them together and putting them out here...cheers
is that yo ?
Much amused by the six ways petrol station - "now an electronics store" - not any more !
Erdington born...Grew up in Great Barr.......Good memories! Harry Parkes was a family friend and my late Mothers aunt performed at the Aston Hippodrome when Charlie Chaplin was there before he went to the USA.
Do tell more
Wow the market hall, I was just 4yrs old when my mom and grandmother
used to take there. Now I have a terminal illness, so a bit of nostalgia helps with that.
I feel like a foreigner in Birmingham nowadays, it is just horrible.
Loads of English in Birmingham areas are segregated and divided by ignorance and choice.
Hi there I used to live st mark's street and work on monument road in a shop called gorge Mason in the 60s i was 16 then what fun we had in old Ladywood loved the videos
Wow erdington ladywood and Aston was clean and peaceful and when I see it today it make me sad because of over population rubbish crimes and flood of traffic
Good old Brum, Thank you very much for uploading this video
brought back my youth growing up well remembered miss those days thanks
How much better it looked back then. I left in 2000 and came to London. Luckily I live in a part which has unchanged since the late 19th Century, only wish parts of Birmingham had adopted the same approach. I love the music you associate with these fascinating clips too..
Thank You - I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Most people of a certain age, view the past with nostalgic but rose tinted glasses. We know the past, but feel uncertainty about the future.
Used to work in north great king st.
Joseph Lucas.
It was a great city back then.
Memory's of great friends.
Now R.I.P.
Old Birmingham.
Gone forever.
So sad.
Well st
That was beautiful 👍
thank you so much for all these memories it was such a long time ago since I was there, I now live on the Isle of Man
well there's no need for that, you've suffered enough
Great to see these old photos. If I had known what was coming I would of taken and saved more photos.
This is brilliant!! Bought back a lot of memories! Thank you so much!
Oih..lovely song and city. Great this video.👋🌅😄🎼🎼🕊🕊🌹🍃🌹💚
you have a good eye for what Brum really means to Brummies - Bravo
While I commend this, and the previous, collection of pictures of old Brum I would like to say that the city doesn't just consist of the city centre and North Birmingham. I have fond memories of spending part of my early years growing up in Hurlingham Road and Sundridge Road in Kingstanding. My parents and my brothers and I moved from there to Arnold Grove, Kings Norton. We stayed there from 1956 to 1970 when we moved to Northfield. I'm still living in that house to this day. I celebrate my 69th Birthday this year so I have seen the city change a lot, some changes for the good some not. Who knows where the city will be this time next year, politically, economically and community?
I don't live very far from Northfield. I'm in Bartley Green, right next to the fields and Frankley Services. I can see the M5 from my window, and often can hear it. I'm not very old, only 31. I have some memories of town from when I was a child, not many as I wasn't often taken there. But I have at least one memory of the old Bullring, running down a row of shops on both sides, then running around where it meets another passageway, it's vague but I remember it. It wasn't until much later that I began exploring town, about 16 onwards when I left school so I have a lot more recollection of town as it was about 10 - 15 years ago. I have a few memories of Northfield as a kid, like the time I got banned from the Grosvenor for terrorising it with stink bombs. I think the ban has been forgotten about, I can go there now hah.
I'll take a guess and say that 'earface' hasn't photos to suit all tastes, and if he had, he would have included some of YOUR choice images too. They are ARCHIVE photos, taken by people in the past, and thank gawd for it.
Charming...and very sad.
It look beautiful back then
Fab video brought back memories thank you
Chanced across this while drinking my morning coffee (TH-cam pushing items for my attentions as it does) and for an inveterate canaler it's nice to see what the scenery is like away from 'the cut'.
It deserves a wiser audience generally, thus I'm pushing its ratings up a bit.
explain ?
amazing ...life in the past seemed so much chilled x
Prefer it then to now.....and preferred the people then to now. Say no more.
STANDARD !
Birmingham is vile full of racist and chavs and rude locals the city is a segregated shithole.
Bang On!! for Taking the time to do this.Thanks❤Means a lot.😢
Great pics... some very familiar
Thank you for the memories of my old stamping grounds
Mesmerised! Home memories.
Fantastic collection of photos. Loved the music too :)
This incredible
Thanks for sharing and keep it up
Great stuff earface, much appreciated
Cannot believe how Birmingham is such a vile place to live now days ,it looked lovely back then,
My Aunty lived in Handsworth and i visited her regulaly.Beautiful suburb...look at it now,!
Marvellous collection of photos. Brought back many memories, as a family we first came to England in 1960 and lived in Erdington for 18 months before moving to Aston, so I recognosed most of the pictures. Also the number 11 bus AKA the outer circle. When we kids were bored we often took a round trip on the 11 alll around the route, or the number 8 'inner circle' We lived in Jaffrey Rd Erdington, anyone rememberr it in the early 60's? Or The Old Green Man pub in Dartmouth st Aston?
207
Wow superb job
Beautiful 👌💕👍
Thank you very much I loved them..
Our beloved beautiful city :)
Wow. It's a complete mess now. Maybe worse than London even. What went wrong?
Our Birmingham
some of our suburbs do not resemble England at all. swamped we are.
Even the (former) nicer parts are going down hill. I'm looking to leave in a few years, it's not a nice place to bring up a family, most I've grew up with have left.
overbreeding? too cock happy? too fanny thristy? ah bless.
@@iearl504 🙏🙏
Very good, and nostalgic too.
I remember visiting my nan who ran a shop on wheeler street in the 60s/70s. Went there every 2/3 months as a kid and saw it "change" as time went by. When it was knocked down and the flats went up they moved to Perry Bar and things got worse 80s I think. That side of the family are all gone now , the last one was my uncle sadly murdered by a gang of none native people. I last went in 2000 would never go again.
Some would say “progress”. Sad the amount of lovely buildings gone or much changed.
Adam Lynch it’s anything but progress
Throwow101 there was rather a lot of sarcasm in my voice. I quite agree it’s not progress
Birchfield Rd Underpass photo @ 1:11 - where the bus is on the left, is pretty well where I was born and raised, the Post Office on the corner of Birchfield Rd and Wilmore St - we left there because of the underpass and the house being compulsory purchased.. the cinema on the right was the setting for the "6d Crush" every saturday mornings...
It’s insane, most cities progress through time. But this city went backwards... is there even a word for that?
Throwow101 the future of the uk
Uglification
Degeneration....
Backwards people in Birmingham very racist and segregated city even then and today no change.
@@johnclark7065
That’s not true.... It’s the most racially tolerant city in the Uk
This is almost too much! The Star Cinema (Slade Rd) my first visit to "The Pictures", sandwiched between my childhood school (Slade Rd Infants/Juniors/Secondary Modern) and my Dad's local (The Brookvale). The 11 Outer Circle bus I caught at Stockland Green to go to school in Handsworth, all those shots of 6 ways Erdington/High St, Brookvale Park, Witton, Perry Barr etc. is like my former life flashing before my eyes!! I Left Brum Easter 1967 and rarely go back except for the odd "Baggies" game and it's so painful when I do because pretty much all of this has gone. But another memory was brought back by the pics of the old Bull Ring I recall often going down the hill towards Woolworths holding on tightly to my Mum's hand and hearing a very old woman shouting what I always thought was "Half a pound o' carrots" but she was standing there selling brown carrier bags! (remember them?) Thank you so much Earface you've made this 74 year old both laugh and cry.
The number 11 bus route still exists and if you sat on it and did the full route you would probably recognise a lot of it. There are new things of course, but quite a lot is unchanged except the sooty buildings have been washed clean again over the decades. Change takes place everywhere as the unusable makes way for the new, we can still have our memories anyway as these photos show. It does not mean that the city is worse now than it was then, in reality it is better. It just means that it does not match our childhood memories. Our childhood memories are memories only, we cannot expect the world to have stood still since then. Did we stand still our selves or did we grow up and do all sort of different things that we could never have imagined we would do then? Enjoy th photos for what they are. If you are in Birmingham again have a walk around the city and enjoy what it has become. There are parts of it that are quite lovely, both new and old. It still has wonderful parks, a great cricket ground, and to that you can add a world class symphony hall and some great places for todays young people to study in every field you could think of.
@@lindyashford7744 Wise words Lindy - I totally agree. Regards.
I'm in tears 😭
I miss the old Birmingham so much 60s 70s 80s wonderful memories Hockley newtown Erdington kingstanding pype hase Stockland Green moved to Ireland in the mid 90s have to say it was a big mistake but now wen I look at brum now I thank god I'm here beach mountain but its getting a bit crowded but never like brum the culture was totally different but I'm part of it now but my memorys are brilliant I don't like it wen things change but life moves on ó ye forgot about ladywood I went to school there thanks for the vid
Me too moved to Cork , still a Brummy , danced at The Mayfair ,Shamrock, Harp, The Carlton Lacarno, wonderful times.
Thanks my man
The city centre had character then.
Wow!! Thanks for the memories.
RIP BIRMINGHAM,RIP ENGLAND
@@seanburns1972 you are showing shortsighted ignorance mate
What do you mean you bum?
@@zaheerhussain956 They probably have very fond memories of what it was like and what is wrong with that ?
Angela Sanders no it isn’t. Fact.
@Angela Sanders you are the problem. Narrow thinking is what let's humanity down. Keep your negativity to yourself and try being a little more productive. Sitting on your backside and being grotesque on the internet is not impressive and not what this country represents. History is what made today's Birmingham. Shame on you
Ace, thanks
thanks
At 0.34. is the Calthorpe Arms. Named no doubt after Lord Calthorpe, who had a huge influence on Birmingham development, donating huge land areas etc. I mention this, because my dad, bn 1896, was a chauffeur for his Lordship
All of them families have been run out now
Alot of them were racist and now live in nazi filled areas of white suprematist 🤫👀
@@M00niE_k let me guess you are an immigrant 🙄
@@baz9653 no actually. I was born here. And whats wrong with being an immigrant? Do you find me being an immigrant more offensive than the fact that i was hate crimed by them when i was only 4? You seem have your priorities straight. I suppose white peoples simply have it in their nature to be degrading and rude 🤨 im only 13 and being so young i should not have to have experienced racism at such a young age. Pls get a life
Birmingham is still very racist and segregated areas are vile no integration people's mindset are very backwards .
Big tune
Great collaborated photography ! Well done:~)
Take me back
Man I miss the 80s...you will never get the old bull ring back...been replaced by a massive alien shit.
Look at 1:17.The guy wearing a boater and the child in the sailor suit and women wearing hats, long dresses and pinched waists. Next picture, it's jammed with traffic. The planners then rebuilt the city to accommodate the traffic and it wasn't so pedestrian friendly.
WOW, surely that's a unique photograph, at 0.51. of the Top three Birmingham area Football Clubs, together. I have an original Argus Newspaper for the Saturday that Villa won the Cup in 1957,against Manchester United --2--1. The Paper, usually just Pink, had the Villa Claret and Blue also. It's in a frail condition now ( 62 years old, the paper not me, I'm in a worse condition), but still readable, with good photographs.
Funny to see the # 11 bus, the "Outer Circle". I remember taking that bus ride on a Sunday afternoon. It was considered as an outing (lol). Simpler times for sure.........
linda brown damn really. It’s always busy on that route now.
brilliant
The comments seem a little problematic because people say it has changed for the worse, well that's just change. A lot of places like Yew Tree, Digbeth, Witton Road near the Witton Arms and Train Station are still the same. The changes that have been made have all been because there was a need for them.
Look how far we’ve come 🤔 😢😡