Some history on Stratford Road from Sparkbrook to Hall Green in Birmingham in the county of Warwickshire

Stratford Road Pubs

other houses ...

Angel Hotel
Antelope
Bear
Black Horse Inn
Bull's Head
College Arms
Horse Shoe Tavern
Mermaid Hotel
Robin Hood
Shakespeare
Victoria Inn

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Stratford Road Photographs

This page looks at Stratford Road, from Camp Hill, through Sparkbrook, Sparkhill and Hall Green to the city boundary. The road started, or ended depending on how one views things, where Camp Hill, Stratford Place and Sandy Lane formed a large five-ways junction. I have not seen a detailed map of this junction earlier than the one reproduced below which was surveyed in 1887 and published two years later.

Birmingham : Map extract showing the junction of Stratford Road, Camp Hill, Sandy Lane and Stratford Place [1889]
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with kind permission of the National Library of Scotland under the Creative Commons Attribution licence.

There are plenty of interesting elements to this map, including the Camp Hill Goods Station. However, for now I will concentrate on the eastern side of the thoroughfare. The map was, of course, published after the construction of the Grammar School of King Edward VI, opened in 1883.¹ The building occupying the plot to the south of the school was Camp Hill House. In 1881 this building was procured for use as Camp Hill Girls's School, a forerunner of King Edward's Grammar School for Girls. The school had originated in a room above the boys' section at the Lower Middle School in Meriden Street, Digbeth. The move to this house was a temporary measure, as was a subsequent move to The Poplars on Stratford Road, whilst a new school was built at Camp Hill.² In the 1870s the house, No.275, was occupied by the widow, Elizabeth Potter. She employed two live-in servants, along with a gardener who took up residence in the lodge seen on the map extract above.³

The site for the new grammar school, construction of which commenced in 1881, required the clearance of properties fronting Stratford Road between Stratford Street/Sandy Lane and Camp Hill House. These buildings can be seen here in a photograph thought to have been taken around 1880. The image was used for a picture postcard issued in Edwardian times. This suggested a date of 1875 but I am not so sure. Certainly, the image is sometime between that date and 1881 when the site was cleared for construction of the school. The boys' school was designed by Martin and Chamberlain, the same practice being responsible for the girls' school which was constructed between 1891-3.⁴

Looking at these properties in detail, this shows the haberdashery shop on the corner of Stratford Street, making it the first [or last] property on the east side of Stratford Road. In the early 1870s the business was operated by John and Mary Surplice. By 1880 the premises was occupied by William Henry Bayliss.⁵ The element of the photograph that caught my eye was the advertisement for the Venetian blind-maker, William Dixon, of 40 Sandy Lane. This is on the first floor close to the left corner of the building and features some miniature blinds made by William Dixon. I checked the 1871 census to see who was living in the house next door but the enumerator recorded that the occupier was "absent in London." The enumerator, John William Jebbett, recorded the properties as Five Ways Terrace rather than their house number on Stratford Road.

This image shows the adjacent properties. On the left is the house of John Baxter, a tailor by trade. In the early 1870s the premises also acted as a post-office receiving house.³ At that time the building was recorded as No.282 Stratford Road, but this was after re-numbering of the row. After plying his trade at Kent Street in the 1850s, Solihull-born John Baxter and his family moved to Camp Hill where they were recorded in the 1861 census. Forced to give up their premises for the redevelopment of the site, John and Susannah Baxter moved the short distance to Turner Street.⁶ As a widower, John Baxter would later reside in Erasmus Street where he was joined in the tailoring business by daughter Jemimah.⁷

Returning to the Stratford Road image, next door to the Baxter family was the grocery shop run by the Robinson's. The premises had been a grocery store for many years. In the 1850s it was kept by the Lancashire-born grocer and tea dealer, Charles Tomlinson.⁸ He had moved south to Birmingham where he married Grace Perkins in 1846. Following the grocer's death in September 1860, she relocated to Willington in Derbyshire.

The shopkeepers at the time of the photograph were John and Selina Robinson. The notices in the window display advertised fresh bread so they may have perhaps baked on the premises. Or maybe they retailed bread made locally, perhaps across the road at the Brewer and Baker? John William Jebbett, the census enumerator in 1871, listed this shop at No.4 Five Ways terrace whilst trade directories listed it at No.281 Stratford Road. It is possible that this row of properties were bundled in with listings for Camp Hill in previous years. The reason for me thinking this is that Selina Robinson was the daughter of Robert and Mary Gillman. In November 1856 Aris's Birmingham Gazette listed Robert Gillman running a branch post-office at 138 Camp Hill. However, five years earlier the census enumerator had recorded him on Stratford Road. Published in 1851, White's trade directory also recorded Robert Gillman in Stratford Road. In 1861 Selina Gillman was recorded as a sub-post mistress at 136 Camp Hill, next door to the aforementioned tailor, John Baxter. The census of 1881 shows Selina running the shop at 136 Stratford Road with her husband John. Her mother was living two doors away at No.138 and between them was Jemimah Baxter, the tailor's daughter. This seems to indicate that the old post-office was on this row. When the row was cleared for the grammar school, John and Selina Robinson moved further along Stratford Road and continued in the grocery trade.

Another building swept away for the construction of King Edward VI Grammar School was Bromfield House, named after the landlord's agent, Robert Bromfield Potter who lived here in his latter days. Above the ground floor window to the left a sign reads Bromfield House. Born around 1803, he had offices in Cherry Street. Following a lingering illness, he died at a relatively early age in May 1852, following which the Birmingham Journal commented : "By his untiring energy, affability, and integrity, Robert Potter had not only obtained a foremost position in the town, in his profession as a landlord's agent, but secured a widespread and cordial esteem from all who knew him. In the discharge of more that one public office he had shown great diligence and straightforwardness of character." ⁹. Following his death widow, the aforementioned Elizabeth Potter, moved to the neighbouring Camp Hill House, following which Bromfield House was advertised to be let. The notice stated that the house contained "an entrance hall, dining, drawing, and breakfast rooms, seven bedrooms, dressing room, water closet, two kitchens, stable, coach-house, and good gardens." ¹⁰ By 1870 Bromfield House was rented by the surgeon Henry Cox who hailed from Reading in Berkshire. His wife, Sarah, was born in Paris. The couple hired a coachman, servants and nursemaid.

More information to follow ....

Further along Stratford Road ...

Although an original photograph, this image is a bit fuzzy so blame the person holding the camera in 1921. It was in August of that year that "The Kid," Charlie Chaplin's first full-length film as a director, was premiered at Birmingham here at The Picturedrome at Sparkhill, and also at the New Street Picture House and The Futurist. It was a fairly lengthy queue to get into the show, fuelled no doubt by the fact that the cinema has posted a sign stating "for 6 days."

The Picturedrome was opened around 1912-13 and stood on the north-east side of Stratford Road, close to the junction of Warwick Road. It was replaced by the larger Piccadilly Super Cinema at the end of the 1920s, the new cinema opening in May 1930. It is possible to visualise the cinema as it was very similar to another Picturedrome at Liverpool, a building that has survived.

The manager of The Picturedrome at the time of this photograph was George Williams. He possibly got an earful from the trader next door as his customers could not get into his shop due to the queues! The furniture emporium was run by Fred Darby who sold both new and used furniture. The premises have survived into the 21st century. The last time I was along this stretch of the Stratford Road there was an Arabian grill called Damascus Legend trading here. At the extreme left of the photograph, the shop with a canopy extended over the pavement was that of the fishmonger William Homan.

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Birmingham : Saint Agatha's Church on Stratford Road at Sparkbrook [2017]
© Photo taken by author on August 25th, 2017. DO NOT COPY

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