Longmore St, ( balsall Heath) Birmingham,
had 3 pubs, one at each end and a free house ( owned by the Hope family), the free house ( in the middel) had an open space agross the road from them, which backed on to the river Rea, later it was turned into a car show ( bombsite car sales),
Starting from Balsall Haeth Rd on the left, we had a furniture shop,same side a fish and chip shop, an Army Navy store, great for donkey jackets and Dr Martins (brover = brother boots) then acouple of more shops, ( cant remember what they sold, ( old age getting to me, again) after the car show area ( bombsite) where some small business, one or two more shops then you came to Belgrave Rd,
Now back again to Balsall Heath Rd this time on the right, you had a pub ( phill has a pic of it some where), a couple of houses, the a small shop that sold bread/tinned stuff/ ham/and best of all cake, after that was an tool shop, great stuff there, I even bought my tools from there, ( paid a lot of money for them but had them for years after). some more houses, the free house pub ( corner of Longmore St and Sherborne Rd, cross over Sherborne Rd, there was a very small bombed area ( one house was hit),next was some more houses, then Amberlers the coffin makers, ( you could ask if they had any empty boxs,) but you had to run then, Amblerlers Brothers was on the corner of Longmore St and River St, some more houses and then the Belgrave pub,
I was the main shopping area of Balsall Heath, going from Longmore st over Belgrave Rd to Gooch St which also had lots of small business's, in retail..
Happy hunting..
Sadlly it has all gone now they took the life and the heart beat away when they pulled it all down, leaving in its place an empty space and lots of memories,,J2