Hi Vin T,
I knew Cotteridge pretty well from the mid-1950s through to the mid-1970s. The main road from the city is the Pershore Road and at Cotteridge this is the main shopping area and the location of the tram depot and terminus of the 36 tram route. By 1953 the depot was converted to bus operation and the site of the depot is now a housing development. If you came from The Swan on the outer circle No. 11 via King's Heath, you would also join the Pershore Road near the Breedon Cross and climb up Pershore Road into Cotteridge. The outer circle bus turned right at the bus depot into Watford Road, where there is another busy shopping area.
I can't recall the lions, but we had a massive second-hand/antique shop called the Treasure Trove, and they had a couple of stuffed black bears standing on their frontage.
This photo shows Pershore Road at the end of the 1960s, with the entrance to the bus depot on the left, just after Rhodes glass and china shop. You can just make out one of the BCT bus shelters in the distance. This picture was provided by Terry Pearson, whose father was MD of the Rhodes shops.
Brian