I was born and bred in ladywood in 1946 , one of 10 kids , we had free school dinners and daily mail boots ! our mother kept the house spotless , we always where fed well and had a very happy childhood , we didnt know we were poor because we were all in the same boat , perhaps we were made of sterner stuff in those days , and they were happy days
My Aunt Mary used to live in a back to back in Balsall Heath ,I always remember visiting her as a kid and having to use the communal toilets with newspaper squares hung up by string on the wall , there was also a wash house where laundry was done, tough times tough people. My aunt was one of the toughest people I knew who I loved very much, my whole Brummie family were poor tough Hawkers I wish I could of met them ☺
I lived in a back to back house in a yard in ladywood in the late 1940s early 1950s. I just remember it as a wonderful time with no sense of depredation at all.
I was one of those urchins in the Ladywood slums (featured in B&W early in the video) Our street, Anderton St. Had a sign on the corner saying 1.700 children live in this St drive carefully' The houses were very cramped, the outside toilets unhygenic, wasn't unusual to find cockroaches in your pocket in the morning. But the neighbours were wonderful and the kids were well looked after When they tore the place down, that spirit died with it. I was never happier than living there
I used to live in Ladywood in the 70's. though at the other end on St Vincent St West, and had to look Anderton St up as I didn't recognize the name. Slightly embarrassing as I attended Nelson Junior School too. FYI, over the next 20 or so years, virtually the whole of Ladywood is scheduled to be demolished and rebuilt, in a plan costing over £2bn. The only places that seem to be "safe" are the tower blocks, but that's prob due to the number of people who would need to be rehoused were they to be knocked down. Anderton St is in Phase 3, so it will still be there for a few years.
I've so much to thank Birmingham for and I still think very fondly of it. I grew up in a Victorian terraced house in Kings Heath and lived there until I was 18. It was a great place to grow up in. It had 2 parks and a swimming pool (at the time), also a library and a cinema - all of which I used a lot as a child. We used to roll down the hill in Highbury Park (also called Uffculme Park)and play 'putting' there. I played tennis in Kings Heath Park. Every year we would go to 'The Tulip Festival' in Canon Hill Park which had a fair, and I once did a pottery course there. Kings Heath also had a ballet school opposite the Library which I went to but it closed down when I was 9. It had a brilliant record shop in Poplar Road, where I bought my first Beatles record and also a wonderful butchers (Lashfords) in Poplar Road that won prizes for their sausages (the best I've ever tasted) but they've now moved to Knowle, I came from a working class Irish family. My parents left school at age 14. I loved the local Kings Heath primary school (an old Victorian building). I was in the skittleball team and we played other schools in the area.Our class had a maximum of 44 pupils and our teacher who taught us for 2 years, got all but a handful through the 11 plus. My brother went to Moseley Art School and my sisters to Bishop Challoner school. Birmingham is quite a green city in many places once you get out of the centre. Kings Heath has got a lot shabbier now with garish cheap and shop signs of bright and clashing colours, on the front of shop buildings that have been neglected. The cinema is still there but has been derelict for many years and someone set fire to it. We used to go there for a children's session on Saturday mornings where someone called Uncle Archie (if I remember correctly) introduced us to the films we would be seeing - often a Western, and we'd buy ice cream in the interval. The Library is still there (last time I looked) The swimming pool and the school were pulled down but there is a new modern school with the same name in a different location there. The record shop is gone. I was a supporter of Birmingham City F.C. but that was a team to regularly raise hopes and break hearts. I saw George Best play at St Andrews when we played Manchester United in the F.A Cup, and I saw Trevor Francis play for Birmingham F.C.. He was the first player to be transferred for a million pounds. We also had 2 corner shops in our road so sweets and pop were always nearby. They've both been closed for many years now, like nearly all corner shops. We were only about 3 miles from the city centre. I travelled around by bus. The bus services were excellent. I've good memories and my best friend at school, who lived 5 doors away from me, still lives in the same house.
I was born in Tysley in Sunningdale Road, my nan put me in a washing basket ( lined I hope ) as soon as I was born , there was a man outside playing a penny box with a monkey on top,they were going to call me Penny but thought better of it ,it could of been worse I suppose 😂 you bought back a memory I'd forgotten about the tulip festival in Cannon hill park, is it still going? ☺
I lived in Lansdown House back in 1952/1972, and remember the park being built, we had our own play area in between the flats and the maisonettes, I also remember the back to back house's being demolished and the new house going up., I was luckily yes we had hot water, central heating, our own bathroom and toilet, but i didn't take it for granted as I had friends who lived in the back to backs
They probably could have been upgraded, though people with children prefer to have a garden. Perhaps one line could have been removed so they were no longer back to back and bathrooms and gardens could have been created in the space.
I loathe what Manzoni did to Birmingham, practically everything he built was vile, but the back-to-backs were beyond repair. I spent much of my first six years at my Nan's in Aston and it was nothing like the museum. Lots of basic terraced houses should have been renovated rather than destroying whole communities, though.
Excellent report. I arrived in Brum as a painfully shy 18-year-old student. I remember some areas such as Lozells, Nechells and Digbeth as being pretty awful, but when I returned for an FA Cup quarter-final in 1984 (Birmingham City 1, Watford 3, since you ask) the area around St Andrews was a lot, lot better. A documentary about West Bromwich Albion made in 1963 graphically displays how squalid it was for many people.
My sister and her husband and two kids lived in St Martins St Edgbaston/Ladywood and it was real back to back two up and a living room and very small kitchen down stairs. The place was damp no decent heating. Washing was done in a copper with a coal fire underneath. The toilets were across the courtyard and used by everyone, the toilets were flush but that was a bit of a luxury. There was a local shop just up the street and the local post office, which became a nightclub years later. The people who lived there were moved out when the area was demolished and found themselves living in places like Warstock, split up from all the other people in the community. Some of them were moved over to maisonettes on the other side of Broad Street opposite what was the Children's Hospital, and even these places were, and still are rough. Other families were moved to Nechells to live in places like Humber Tower, one bedroom, bathroom, living room and a really small kitchen. One memory I have is a summer in St Martins St, it was really hot and humid, and flying ants decided it would be a good time to swarm! They got everywhere, into cloths, eyes, mouths, up your nose, it was terrible, all us kids were out in the street and the courtyard stamping on them, batting them out of the air. Times have changed since then but it's one of the things you never forget.
Interesting story thank you for sharing, I often think that people forget that times were genuinely were very hard for a lot of people back then - you see a lot of this on the Facebook history groups where people refer to those days as the “good old days” and “simpler times” but I’m not so sure about that in some ways.
We lived in one in Tenant street of Broad street,us five kids with mom & dad,tin bath on wall ,outside toilet,wash house shared and yes we relocated to Shorters avenue Warstock in a masonete a few years later to prince of wales lane,close community and we never had much,,
Claire 01 yes they did my dad was working in Dudley and in December it was a lot of snow over 3ft when he finished his shift in evening he couldn't wait to come home that time I was 5 days old then what he says came out of the factory he saw the bus was stopping on bus stop he ran to get bus when he reach to the bus stop but there was no driver other people said due lot snow bus won't go no where all other people start walking so did he walked from Dudley to lozzels freezing cold. That time no central heating imagine how they coped no washing machine no Hoover's no tumble dryer no disposable nappies no junk food and low income also our mum bought us up in good manners ,but todays children don't want to know .
Born in 16 Kellet rd Nechells in 1959 moved to College st Springhill a back to back , no bathroom or hot water and a toilet we shared with 2 other families. My kids laugh when I tell them the conditions we lived in , live in Windsor now don't go back very often. ...
John Lee you were lucky. We had to live in a shoe box off college st with 5 other families. Toilet was a hole in the ground. Me and my 15 siblings had to walk 15 hours to school every day barefoot and when we had finished school we were made to work down the steel pit doing 25 hour shifts with no toilet break. Times were hard I grant you but we loved it and were always polite and well behaved. Kids today don’t know they are born.
We lived at 1 back of 54 Cato street, having previously lived in part of a house in Cardigan street, eventually we got a maisonette in Hodnet grove, in Highgate and finally my parent got a house in Gooch street.
I lived in Woodcock street in the 1950’s. . We had the swimming baths and the washing baths and a shop called Mays. All gone now except the swimming pool.
two of my families lived in the back to back houses in Aston Cross and yes the toilets were outside pretty awful. but the quality of neighbourliness was terrific
I was raised in back to back house, along with my cousins. The toilet was shared by two families. No bathroom, metal bathtub stored in space under the stairs. Stone slab floor, first floor wooden but no plaster ceiling just painted joists and underside of floor boards. Coal fire, old sash windows. Miners strike my father and uncle would rob coal from nearby British Rail Yard sidings. This was in Yorkshire. yes I'm Pakistani born 1960's in Yorkshire, so I remember it well. Moved out of back to back in the 70's. So I can say, that was life and we made the best we could of such conditions.
The back-to-backs in Hurst Street are very swanky compared to the real thing. I spent much of my first six years at my Nan's in Alma Street, Aston and it was unbelievably grim, uninhabitable really.
This doesn't go back to the late 50s early 60s days of ATV studios at Aston Road North, when what I believe was the first woman Newscaster, Patricia Cox presented the Midlands News, no fancy titles then, after the main news which was only 10 minutes then. The News some years started at 5.55, and Midlands news at 6.05pm. And I forget wat came at 6.15. Then before long the 6.45 slot was taken by another ATV Aston that I loathed, bu my mum was glued to it, CROSSROADS - Aarrrgghhh!
It's amazing to think how poor England was several decades after the war. People still living in conditions straight out of Victorian times while I was a kid in comfortable and affluent Sweden in the early 70s... An outhouse was something you had at your summer cottage, not as a permanent fixture of everyday life.
My early years were in Northbrook St, Ladywood, back to back house, outside toilets, outside wash house, tin bath for Fridays and frost on the inside of the windows, and some of the nicest people you could wish to meet. We shared meal times with our neighbors sometimes, when money was tight. Happy times, certainly better than Thatchers Britain
I once lived on great king St in the 50's one attic one bedroom and one living room,me and a brother a sister.No hot water, coal fire and outside toilet.Imoved from Brum over 40yrs ago now live on edge of peak district in derbyshire.I have a 42 year old son who was born here
In the early 80's I lived with my wife & 2 gay teens in 2 rooms over a dilapidated shop-space in Harborne. A structural engineer spotted a fault in the cellar, which could have caused the building to cave in - hence I funded girders to prop the place up. We began selling books & opened a chess-cafe, but built it up to become a boutique. Then we invested in a 2up2down house ETC ETC and eventually bought a villa + art-gallery + apartments on the Italian Riviera. Enough is sufficient - to hell with greed - but I'm now building a private Art library, altho' I've enough volumes for 2, to sit & write & learn & draw & paint as my vast illustrated masterpiece continues to grow almost daily.
I lived on Great Brooke Street. We had to move to Elswick road when they starting demolishing the homes, they were from the Victorian era. No bathrooms inside the homes.
Raz Ullah, I was born and bred in Clifton Road Aston, holes in my shoes, frayed jeans , outside toilet and barrowed coal on a Saturday but i made good , with a nice wife and family in Sutton Coldfield all the best Raz
Birmingham is getting more funding than ever before but instead of using the money to address the cities' rampant poverty they are just gentrifying the city centre.
@@glennoc8585 Not nice most are racist and hostile lots of bigoted people in Birmingham and west Midlands in denial the city and region in is segregated and divided and crime is out of control now.
I'm only just finding out now how interesting my family were , Hawkers ,poor, id love to find out what they sold and it they worked off the narrowboats ?☺
Did they actually need to knock down the back-to-back houses? Surely they could have turned two houses that were 'back-to-back' into a single house, then turn one of the roads in front or behind the house into rear garden space for each house?
My Grandma lived in 2/93 Mansfield rd. All knocked down now..and area Black...all the lovely Victorian homes turned into scruffy flats..litter everywhere....😢
I dont like the new birmingham a lot of buildings they should have kept, they demolished they have taken away most of the character out of brum, its just not the same. Progress is ok as long as its in moderation and not an all out blitz..
mark caine I agree, the class divide in Birmingham brought by the gentrification caused loads of crime, loads of murders, loads of roadmen. It was nice when it was just chavs and poor ppl bcuz they weren’t murderers
I lived with my family at 1/452 new John Street West,Aston.. we bathed in the olde tin tub once a week usually Sunday.we lived in the back to backs 4 families sharing 2 toilets,one brew house . Being young I wasn't aware of the poverty,we were feed,clothed and attended school and Sunday school. It was only when my father passed in October 1963 that my mom sisters and brother were moved to Kingstanding...how posh was that...I have happy memories of my time living in Aston back to backs
Born in loveday street 1958 then home to a back to back at the top of Irving street . 1 room downstairs 1 room up stairs and shared toilet block at the top yard. Then moved out 1961 to a house in cattle road on the corner of Tilton road. Stayed there till 1965 because it was due for demolition . Then to dolman street until 1970 when that was due for demolition. Loved all the people in all my homes .trusted all our neighbours. Every Saturday in to the bull ring last thing before closing to get all bargains. Colin walker
I have lived in Birmingham all my life. Born in Nechells in the 1950's it architecturally an interesting and beautiful city with thriving industries. Now it is the laughing stock of the world, ugly, tacky and boring.
Birmingham has never been nice its always been rough and neglected Birmingham has suffered years of austerity and cuts areas are run down and locals are backwards and still live in the past ,brummies are not integrated and areas are racist and segregated , poverty is a big issue and drugs is a big factor ,Birmingham city council are lazy and don't invest in the people and waste money in areas not needed ,lack on underfunding lots of rif raf in Birmingham including locals.
Birmingham is very boring and dull it hasnt moved with the times it lacks a lot of things nothing to do locals are very unfriendly and backwards, nothing to do boring Birmingham lacks in cinemas in areas and doesnt have a IKEA its a dull depressing city full of cuts.
I was born and bred in ladywood in 1946 , one of 10 kids , we had free school dinners and daily mail boots ! our mother kept the house spotless , we always where fed well and had a very happy childhood , we didnt know we were poor because we were all in the same boat , perhaps we were made of sterner stuff in those days , and they were happy days
Well said. Some of us were tougher that average, and never gave in, but made the best of a bad situation.
@@MrDaiseymay
ABSOLUTELY.
My dad lived in Landywood. He was eldest of 11
Birmingham hasn't progressed its a racist segregated shithole city fill of crime poverty and divisions and drugs.
That's the difference everyone just got on with it and was still happy then ❤
My Aunt Mary used to live in a back to back in Balsall Heath ,I always remember visiting her as a kid and having to use the communal toilets with newspaper squares hung up by string on the wall , there was also a wash house where laundry was done, tough times tough people. My aunt was one of the toughest people I knew who I loved very much, my whole Brummie family were poor tough Hawkers I wish I could of met them ☺
Started my life in Balsall Heath!!
Born in Loveday Street and raised in Lower Essex Street ....... A true and proper Brummie . 💪🏴
I lived in a back to back house in a yard in ladywood in the late 1940s early 1950s. I just remember it as a wonderful time with no sense of depredation at all.
Garbot street my Auntie olive lived
I was one of those urchins in the Ladywood slums (featured in B&W early in the video) Our street, Anderton St. Had a sign on the corner saying 1.700 children live in this St drive carefully' The houses were very cramped, the outside toilets unhygenic, wasn't unusual to find cockroaches in your pocket in the morning. But the neighbours were wonderful and the kids were well looked after When they tore the place down, that spirit died with it. I was never happier than living there
I used to live in Ladywood in the 70's. though at the other end on St Vincent St West, and had to look Anderton St up as I didn't recognize the name. Slightly embarrassing as I attended Nelson Junior School too. FYI, over the next 20 or so years, virtually the whole of Ladywood is scheduled to be demolished and rebuilt, in a plan costing over £2bn. The only places that seem to be "safe" are the tower blocks, but that's prob due to the number of people who would need to be rehoused were they to be knocked down. Anderton St is in Phase 3, so it will still be there for a few years.
And now in 2022 people can’t afford to heat those wonderful new houses 🤷🏻♂️
Lived in a doss house on the Alcester Road, drank in The Bull in Moseley. Born in Small Heath now live on the Coventry Road.
I've so much to thank Birmingham for and I still think very fondly of it. I grew up in a Victorian terraced house in Kings Heath and lived there until I was 18. It was a great place to grow up in. It had 2 parks and a swimming pool (at the time), also a library and a cinema - all of which I used a lot as a child. We used to roll down the hill in Highbury Park (also called Uffculme Park)and play 'putting' there. I played tennis in Kings Heath Park. Every year we would go to 'The Tulip Festival' in Canon Hill Park which had a fair, and I once did a pottery course there. Kings Heath also had a ballet school opposite the Library which I went to but it closed down when I was 9. It had a brilliant record shop in Poplar Road, where I bought my first Beatles record and also a wonderful butchers (Lashfords) in Poplar Road that won prizes for their sausages (the best I've ever tasted) but they've now moved to Knowle, I came from a working class Irish family. My parents left school at age 14. I loved the local Kings Heath primary school (an old Victorian building). I was in the skittleball team and we played other schools in the area.Our class had a maximum of 44 pupils and our teacher who taught us for 2 years, got all but a handful through the 11 plus. My brother went to Moseley Art School and my sisters to Bishop Challoner school. Birmingham is quite a green city in many places once you get out of the centre. Kings Heath has got a lot shabbier now with garish cheap and shop signs of bright and clashing colours, on the front of shop buildings that have been neglected. The cinema is still there but has been derelict for many years and someone set fire to it. We used to go there for a children's session on Saturday mornings where someone called Uncle Archie (if I remember correctly) introduced us to the films we would be seeing - often a Western, and we'd buy ice cream in the interval. The Library is still there (last time I looked) The swimming pool and the school were pulled down but there is a new modern school with the same name in a different location there. The record shop is gone. I was a supporter of Birmingham City F.C. but that was a team to regularly raise hopes and break hearts. I saw George Best play at St Andrews when we played Manchester United in the F.A Cup, and I saw Trevor Francis play for Birmingham F.C.. He was the first player to be transferred for a million pounds. We also had 2 corner shops in our road so sweets and pop were always nearby. They've both been closed for many years now, like nearly all corner shops. We were only about 3 miles from the city centre. I travelled around by bus. The bus services were excellent. I've good memories and my best friend at school, who lived 5 doors away from me, still lives in the same house.
Born in small heath living in saltley
I was born in Tysley in Sunningdale Road, my nan put me in a washing basket ( lined I hope ) as soon as I was born , there was a man outside playing a penny box with a monkey on top,they were going to call me Penny but thought better of it ,it could of been worse I suppose 😂 you bought back a memory I'd forgotten about the tulip festival in Cannon hill park, is it still going? ☺
I lived in Lansdown House back in 1952/1972, and remember the park being built, we had our own play area in between the flats and the maisonettes, I also remember the back to back house's being demolished and the new house going up., I was luckily yes we had hot water, central heating, our own bathroom and toilet, but i didn't take it for granted as I had friends who lived in the back to backs
The back to back houses were a part of the history and should have been retained as much as possible.
@@brettc2727 not sure what your point is. The UK is third world?
They probably could have been upgraded, though people with children prefer to have a garden. Perhaps one line could have been removed so they were no longer back to back and bathrooms and gardens could have been created in the space.
no no and no
They were sluns
I loathe what Manzoni did to Birmingham, practically everything he built was vile, but the back-to-backs were beyond repair. I spent much of my first six years at my Nan's in Aston and it was nothing like the museum. Lots of basic terraced houses should have been renovated rather than destroying whole communities, though.
Excellent report. I arrived in Brum as a painfully shy 18-year-old student. I remember some areas such as Lozells, Nechells and Digbeth as being pretty awful, but when I returned for an FA Cup quarter-final in 1984 (Birmingham City 1, Watford 3, since you ask) the area around St Andrews was a lot, lot better. A documentary about West Bromwich Albion made in 1963 graphically displays how squalid it was for many people.
leave nechells alone it wasnt awful at all
I lived in Nechells and had friends who lived there, nice people and they would go out of there way to help.
My sister and her husband and two kids lived in St Martins St Edgbaston/Ladywood and it was real back to back two up and a living room and very small kitchen down stairs. The place was damp no decent heating. Washing was done in a copper with a coal fire underneath. The toilets were across the courtyard and used by everyone, the toilets were flush but that was a bit of a luxury. There was a local shop just up the street and the local post office, which became a nightclub years later. The people who lived there were moved out when the area was demolished and found themselves living in places like Warstock, split up from all the other people in the community. Some of them were moved over to maisonettes on the other side of Broad Street opposite what was the Children's Hospital, and even these places were, and still are rough. Other families were moved to Nechells to live in places like Humber Tower, one bedroom, bathroom, living room and a really small kitchen. One memory I have is a summer in St Martins St, it was really hot and humid, and flying ants decided it would be a good time to swarm! They got everywhere, into cloths, eyes, mouths, up your nose, it was terrible, all us kids were out in the street and the courtyard stamping on them, batting them out of the air. Times have changed since then but it's one of the things you never forget.
Interesting story thank you for sharing, I often think that people forget that times were genuinely were very hard for a lot of people back then - you see a lot of this on the Facebook history groups where people refer to those days as the “good old days” and “simpler times” but I’m not so sure about that in some ways.
We lived in one in Tenant street of Broad street,us five kids with mom & dad,tin bath on wall ,outside toilet,wash house shared and yes we relocated to Shorters avenue Warstock in a masonete a few years later to prince of wales lane,close community and we never had much,,
Maisonettes
This is great, thank you for sharing - #Birmingham is awesome...
I lived in Balsall Heath from 1962 to 1969, then we were moved out to Chelmsley Wood. I've been told I 'm a tough person, and I think that's why.
Lived my first years in Balsall Heath from 1968-77/78
Me too. Woodfield road.
Born and bred last over years when my parents came in 1960s 👌
Shameem Akhter your parents work hard?
Claire 01 yes they did my dad was working in Dudley and in December it was a lot of snow over 3ft when he finished his shift in evening he couldn't wait to come home that time I was 5 days old then what he says came out of the factory he saw the bus was stopping on bus stop he ran to get bus when he reach to the bus stop but there was no driver other people said due lot snow bus won't go no where all other people start walking so did he walked from Dudley to lozzels freezing cold. That time no central heating imagine how they coped no washing machine no Hoover's no tumble dryer no disposable nappies no junk food and low income also our mum bought us up in good manners ,but todays children don't want to know .
Born in 16 Kellet rd Nechells in 1959 moved to College st Springhill a back to back , no bathroom or hot water and a toilet we shared with 2 other families. My kids laugh when I tell them the conditions we lived in , live in Windsor now don't go back very often. ...
John Lee you were lucky. We had to live in a shoe box off college st with 5 other families. Toilet was a hole in the ground. Me and my 15 siblings had to walk 15 hours to school every day barefoot and when we had finished school we were made to work down the steel pit doing 25 hour shifts with no toilet break. Times were hard I grant you but we loved it and were always polite and well behaved. Kids today don’t know they are born.
joe bloggs My grandad DID walk to school barefoot in the snow. I’m not joking either.
We lived at 1 back of 54 Cato street, having previously lived in part of a house in Cardigan street, eventually we got a maisonette in Hodnet grove, in Highgate and finally my parent got a house in Gooch street.
I lived in Woodcock street in the 1950’s. . We had the swimming baths and the washing baths and a shop called Mays. All gone now except the swimming pool.
two of my families lived in the back to back houses in Aston Cross and yes the toilets were outside pretty awful. but the quality of neighbourliness was terrific
our toilets were outside, two buckets, so we brought them indoors
i was still living with an out side toilet one cold tape no bath room no heating lozells 1979
I was raised in back to back house, along with my cousins. The toilet was shared by two families. No bathroom, metal bathtub stored in space under the stairs. Stone slab floor, first floor wooden but no plaster ceiling just painted joists and underside of floor boards. Coal fire, old sash windows. Miners strike my father and uncle would rob coal from nearby British Rail Yard sidings. This was in Yorkshire. yes I'm Pakistani born 1960's in Yorkshire, so I remember it well. Moved out of back to back in the 70's. So I can say, that was life and we made the best we could of such conditions.
Yes i remember the back to back houses ..
The back-to-backs in Hurst Street are very swanky compared to the real thing. I spent much of my first six years at my Nan's in Alma Street, Aston and it was unbelievably grim, uninhabitable really.
I love olden days
Demolishing a house with only a sledgehammer. Now there's a productive process!
Lol 😆
I left Brum in the 8Os no regrets. Much better now but it's like a different world.
This doesn't go back to the late 50s early 60s days of ATV studios at Aston Road North, when what I believe was the first woman Newscaster, Patricia Cox presented the Midlands News, no fancy titles then, after the main news which was only 10 minutes then. The News some years started at 5.55, and Midlands news at 6.05pm. And I forget wat came at 6.15. Then before long the 6.45 slot was taken by another ATV Aston that I loathed, bu my mum was glued to it, CROSSROADS - Aarrrgghhh!
It's amazing to think how poor England was several decades after the war. People still living in conditions straight out of Victorian times while I was a kid in comfortable and affluent Sweden in the early 70s... An outhouse was something you had at your summer cottage, not as a permanent fixture of everyday life.
My early years were in Northbrook St, Ladywood, back to back house, outside toilets, outside wash house, tin bath for Fridays and frost on the inside of the windows, and some of the nicest people you could wish to meet. We shared meal times with our neighbors sometimes, when money was tight. Happy times, certainly better than Thatchers Britain
That old bullring lasted 60 years
I once lived on great king St in the 50's one attic one bedroom and one living room,me and a brother a sister.No hot water, coal fire and outside toilet.Imoved from Brum over 40yrs ago now live on edge of peak district in derbyshire.I have a 42 year old son who was born here
So that's where "Manzoni Gardens" got its name from !
Them high rise were the build back better of the time.
Doing it again now
In the early 80's I lived with my wife & 2 gay teens in 2 rooms over a dilapidated shop-space in Harborne. A structural engineer spotted a fault in the cellar, which could have caused the building to cave in - hence I funded girders to prop the place up. We began selling books & opened a chess-cafe, but built it up to become a boutique. Then we invested in a 2up2down house ETC ETC and eventually bought a villa + art-gallery + apartments on the Italian Riviera. Enough is sufficient - to hell with greed - but I'm now building a private Art library, altho' I've enough volumes for 2, to sit & write & learn & draw & paint as my vast illustrated masterpiece continues to grow almost daily.
Homophobic
@@myyt7590 Not guilty.
@@myyt7590 oh shut up, and quit promoting degeneration. Have you seen the state of society? Drones like you are the reason. Disgusting,
@ Jim,what a story,amazing ! ☺
@@myyt7590 How can having 2 gay boyfriends be homophobic!? Imbecile.
I lived in the back to back in greenway street , small heath
the bull ring be came a no go area in the late seventies and eighties, now its knocked down, i like to new hub cap bull ring, its very good.
my dad went to school upper thames
I love brum..
used to be 021
was born in balsall heath Thomas street it a car park now then lived in Darwin street named Williams truie brummie bluenose
We were born in Walsall heath and lived in Darwin street our name was Williams there were 14 of us .
I lived on Great Brooke Street. We had to move to Elswick road when they starting demolishing the homes, they were from the Victorian era. No bathrooms inside the homes.
Raz Ullah, I was born and bred in Clifton Road Aston, holes in my shoes, frayed jeans , outside toilet and barrowed coal on a Saturday but i made good , with a nice wife and family in Sutton Coldfield all the best Raz
Great to hear your story, I grew up in kings Heath
My dad says same. It may have been bad but at least they respected each other, considered each other and looked after each other....
Raz Ullah Hank Snow the wreck of Ninety severn
I roughed it in Sutton Coldfield, then moved to Aston
@@georgedeathe4683 I also grew up in Kings Heath.
The quality of people from Birmingham is getting worse
Birmingham is getting more funding than ever before but instead of using the money to address the cities' rampant poverty they are just gentrifying the city centre.
The quality of troll comments on youtube videos is also getting worse.
Birmingham is a poverty shithole nothing changes people are miserable and ignorant as fuck.
@@brainsmith3931 They were friendly in the 80s and 90s
@@glennoc8585 Not nice most are racist and hostile lots of bigoted people in Birmingham and west Midlands in denial the city and region in is segregated and divided and crime is out of control now.
At least I know I'm nearly twenty years older than the retunder that circle building in the city
Those where the days .You only know what it was really like when you have lived in them days
I'm only just finding out now how interesting my family were , Hawkers ,poor, id
love to find out what they sold and it they worked off the narrowboats ?☺
Obviously
Did they actually need to knock down the back-to-back houses? Surely they could have turned two houses that were 'back-to-back' into a single house, then turn one of the roads in front or behind the house into rear garden space for each house?
It was probably cheaper to knock them down and start again rather than refurbish them. Many of them were in very poor condition.
Not really. Many more old terraced houses should have been renovated, but the back-to-backs were beyond repair and uninhabitable.
Plus reinforced concrete was new and exciting, and pretty soon we were going to live on the moon and get everywhere by monorail.
My Grandma lived in 2/93 Mansfield rd. All knocked down now..and area Black...all the lovely Victorian homes turned into scruffy flats..litter everywhere....😢
there's so many people in the comment section that say they grew up in these areas... Just here wondering if they all once knew each other...
1:56 iv got rat mice and Beagles......plague of beagles
I dont like the new birmingham a lot of buildings they should have kept, they demolished they have taken away most of the character out of brum, its just not the same. Progress is ok as long as its in moderation and not an all out blitz..
mark caine I agree, the class divide in Birmingham brought by the gentrification caused loads of crime, loads of murders, loads of roadmen. It was nice when it was just chavs and poor ppl bcuz they weren’t murderers
I lived with my family at 1/452 new John Street West,Aston.. we bathed in the olde tin tub once a week usually Sunday.we lived in the back to backs 4 families sharing 2 toilets,one brew house .
Being young I wasn't aware of the poverty,we were feed,clothed and attended school and Sunday school.
It was only when my father passed in October 1963 that my mom sisters and brother were moved to Kingstanding...how posh was that...I have happy memories of my time living in Aston back to backs
@@mariecarolescott5846 i lived in Aston from 1962 1985 what was the name of your primary school you attended ?
@@yell50 i lived in and around aston from 1953 -1964..i attended Elkington Street School ...
Born in loveday street 1958 then home to a back to back at the top of Irving street . 1 room downstairs 1 room up stairs and shared toilet block at the top yard. Then moved out 1961 to a house in cattle road on the corner of Tilton road. Stayed there till 1965 because it was due for demolition . Then to dolman street until 1970 when that was due for demolition. Loved all the people in all my homes .trusted all our neighbours. Every Saturday in to the bull ring last thing before closing to get all bargains. Colin walker
me said 71 I was 11 in 79 in a house with out side toilet no hot water in lozells
lived in newtown in the late 70s but grew up in nechells
Rob 48 yup that was the normal thing , remember had a gas geyser was a great luxury , living in Lozells and going holte school was daily life 👍🇬🇧🇵🇰❤️
@@MrMagsimus My mothers family lived in Wheeler street.
Proud of my family history. Bullring traders.
These areas are Gangster areas now...
Red and white taxi base those back to back houses! If u know u know 😂
Did anyone in the slums in Landywood remember the Price family?
Did they run a pub in digbeth?
No Pete
It's a dump now
Birmingham was a dump in the 80s.and 90s run down neglected city full of poverty and ugly buildings.
Its old tradition tgat one of British people loving makin babies but after they dont know what to do with them.. it all revolvs around home education
That Indian her back to back would have a grass hut, or a stolen house in handsworth.
Till the 70s, ur joking right , lived in terraced block, 2002!, date in the brick stamped 1895, sparkhill,
Yeah there's white privilege
It's like that now for some people under this despicable goverment.
I have lived in Birmingham all my life. Born in Nechells in the 1950's it architecturally an interesting and beautiful city with thriving industries. Now it is the laughing stock of the world, ugly, tacky and boring.
Birmingham has never been nice its always been rough and neglected Birmingham has suffered years of austerity and cuts areas are run down and locals are backwards and still live in the past ,brummies are not integrated and areas are racist and segregated , poverty is a big issue and drugs is a big factor ,Birmingham city council are lazy and don't invest in the people and waste money in areas not needed ,lack on underfunding lots of rif raf in Birmingham including locals.
Bata
Whatever there Building in Birmingham now? It's becoming A Complete Dump!
Typical low quality news item
Still a nasty city!!!!
Full of racist ,chavs and drugs issues mental health is bad in Birmingham it's a dump.
Birmingham is very boring and dull it hasnt moved with the times it lacks a lot of things nothing to do locals are very unfriendly and backwards, nothing to do boring Birmingham lacks in cinemas in areas and doesnt have a IKEA its a dull depressing city full of cuts.