the shops of brum city center in the 50s

[Phil]

Brian

Another view of The Great Western Arcade, this one a coloured postcard. And a black & white one of the Midland Arcade. Its a great pity that some of these arcades were swallowed up in the rush for modernisation.

Phil

[9teen48]

Phil,

Thanks for the fabulous pictures, especially the colour postcard.  Thse period shots show how ornate these arcades were.  As under cover shopping areas I suppose they were way ahead of the time.

Brian

[Phil]

Brian

Another arcade this one is the Piccadilly Arcade. Did you know it was a luxury cinema showing silent films before it closed. It was known as The Picture House and had a reading room and two cafés upstairs.

When it closed it became the Piccadilly Arcade as we know it today.

Photo 1 The Picture House
Photo 2 The Entrance to The Piccadilly Arcade
Photo 3 The Piccadilly Arcade.

Phil

[roy one]

hi Phil this thread is turning out to be a good history lesson of old brum shops well done to all who have added to this thread i did not know about piccadilly  was that down by the law courts? roy

[Phil]

Roy

No Piccadilly Arcade runs from New Street to Stephenson St . At the bottom end there used to be a cracking snooker club. I'm not sure of the name but we always knew it as the Piccadilly Club.

Phil

[jaykay]

Here you are lads, all decked up for Christmas.
Taken last Tuesday
Piccadily arcade and Gt. Western arcade..

[jaykay]

Gt. Western...

[9teen48]

Phil,

Thanks for the Piccadilly series of photos - I didn't know about the silent film picture house origins.  What an interesting building.

Jaykay,

Fabulous pictures - nice to see our arcades as they are now.

Roy - thanks for the thread, it shows that we had great shops in the centre of Brum in the 50s and well before.

Brian

[roy one]

9teen48
             thanks you for you re kind words i try to put posts up that are of interest to most members its hard some times but brum has so much to offer and the sad thing is its being lost in time but we can help to keep it alive and hand it down to the next generation has our forefathers did for us roy

[ALANA124]

YES I REMEMBER THE CHIMPS THEY WERE AT LEWIS S MY DAUGHTER HD HER PHOTO TOOK HOLDING ONE
LEWIS S HAD A ROOF GARDEN AND SOME PEOPLE JUMPED AND COMMITED SUICIDE OFF IT
I WORKED ON THE GROUND FLOOR IN THE FOOD HALL ON THE FROZEN VEG DEPT
THEY USED TO SELL LOVELEY FRESH CREAM SLAB CAKE YOU COULD BUY BY MEASURING IT

[Phil]

Here is a photo of The North Western Arcade Corporation St, which looks to be some time in the thirties. It could be earlier or later, the one thing about the old building they remained looking the same for most of their lives. There was just no need to mess about with them.

The second one is of the interior of the same arcade. Dated 1961 but you only have to look at it to date it to that time period. It was a sad time when we thought that anything that was not made out of concrete was no longer of value. I loved the Birmingham of the 60's its just a shame that we had to do away with so much of the old to bring it about.

Phil