Phyllis Nicklin's slides of 1950s & 60s Birmingham Photo Gallery by Keith Berry at pbase.com

Phyllis Nicklin's slides of 1950s & 60s Birmingham

Phyllis Nicklin was the Staff Tutor in Geography in the University of Birmingham's
former Department of Extra Mural Studies in the 1950s and 60s and died in post in 1969,
leaving behind thousands of slides she had taken for her classes. 450 of these slides
had been scanned and had been viewable at http://www.chrysalisinfo.org.uk/nicklin.htm
for a while, but this site is currently unavailable and I had found no alternative one.

The University of Birmingham had kindly made the collection available to down-
load and redistribute for non-commercial research or private study purposes.

I downloaded a few when they were available and applied the same basic post-
processing to the scanned images as I would to my own photographs and they
are displayed here in alphabetical order of street names. With the disappear-
ance of the main body of her slides from the Internet, on 24th June, 2007, I
added the remaining ones that I had kept for later inclusion in the gallery.

UPDATE: The main slide collection has re-appeared on E-Bank/West
Midlands Library Challenge site. Many thanks to Pete Ashton and the
bloggers for this information. I have since added some more of
them to this gallery, which currently hosts 291 of her photos.

Alcester Street	Alcester Street	Alcester Street	Ampton Road
Anderton Street terraces	Anderton Street terraces	Armoury Road	Armoury Road
Armoury Road	Aston Church	Augusta Street	Augusta Street
Bells Farm 1	Bells Farm 2	Bells Farm 3	Bells Farm 4
Bennetts Hill at Waterloo Street	Birmingham Art Gallery	Bloomsbury Street	Bourn Brook
Bradford Street	Bradford Street	Bradford Street	Bradford Street
Bradford Street	Bradford Street	Bradford Street	Bradford Street
Bradford Street	Browning Street	Browning Street	Browning Street at St Vincent Street
Bull Ring	Bull Ring	Bull Ring	Bull Ring
Bull Ring	Bull Ring	Bull Ring	Bull Ring
Bull Street	Bullock Street	Calthorpe Road	Calthorpe Road
Calthorpe Road	Calthorpe Road	Camp Hill	Camp Hill
Camp Hill flyover	Caroline Street at Regent Street	Carpenter Road	Carpenter Road
Castle Bromwich Castle	Castle Bromwich	Chamberlain Square	Charlotte Street
Charlotte Street	Cheapside	Cheapside	Cheapside
Church Road	Church Road	Clark Street	Colmore Row
Council House	Council House	Crescent at Cambridge Street	Curzon Street Station
Dale End	Dean Street	Deritend	Deritend
Digbeth	Digbeth	Digbeth	Deritend High Street
Church Road	Duddeston Hall	Dudley Canal	Dulverton Road
Easy Row	Easy Row	Easy Row	Easy Row
Edgbaston Park Road	Edmund Street	Edmund Street	Edmund Street
Edmund Street	Electric Avenue	Electric Avenue	Electric Avenue Bridge
Electric Avenue Bridge	Ellen Street	Emily Street	Emily Street
Emily Street	Five Ways	Five Ways	Five Ways
Floodgate Street	Forge Mill Farm	Forge Mill	Forge Mill
Fort Dunlop	Frankley Green	Frankley Green	Frankley Green
Frederick Road	Furnace Lane	Furnace Lane	Furnace Lane
Gaumont cinema, Colmore Circus	Golden Hillock Road	Gower Street & Guildford Street	Grant Street
Great Brook Street	Great Charles Street	Great Charles Street	Great Colmore Street
Great Russell Street	Great Russell Street	Hagley Road	Hampton Street
Hampton Street near St George's Church	Handsworth Park	Harborne Road	Harborne Road
Hawthorne Road	Heath Mill Lane	Hockley flyover	Hockley flyover
Holloway Circus	Howard Street / Hampton Street	Howard Street	Howard Street at Mott Street
Hylton Street	Hylton Street	Icknield Port Wharf	Industrial area
Industrial area	Kingston Row	Ladywood Road	Lawrence Street / Ryder Street
Lawrence Street / Ryder Street	Lawrence Street / Ryder Street	Ledsam Street	Lee Crescent
Lifford Hall, Lifford Lane	Lifford Hall	Little Anne Street / Milk Street	Longbridge pumping station
Ludgate Hill	Ludgate Hill	Mary Street	Mary Street
Mason Orphanage	Mason Orphanage	Mill Lane	Moat Lane
Moat Lane	Moat Row to the left and Moat Lane to the right 68.jpg	Moor Pool Avenue	Moor Street
Moor Street Park Street Bull Ring 59.jpg	Moor Street Bull, Ring	Moseley Road	Moseley Road
Moseley Road	Nechells Gas Works	Nechells Gas Works	Nechells Power Station
Newhall Street	Newhall Street	Newhall Street	Northampton Street
Old Crescent Theatre	Old Square	Old Square	Osler Street - Icknield Port Road
Perry Hall Park	Porchester Street	Price Street	Price Street
Price Street	Price Street	Price Street	Princip Street
Princip Street	Proctor Street	Rea Valley	River Street
Roman road	Rotton Park Street	Rotton Park Street	Salford Bridge
Salford Bridge	Sand Street	Shakespeare Road	Smallbrook Ringway
Smallbrook Street	Smallbrook Street/Hill Street	Soho Hill	Soho Hill milestone
Soho Road	Soho Road	Soho Road / Grove Lane	Spencer Street
St. Mary's Row	St. Mary's Row	St. Mary's Row	St. Mary's Row
St. Mary's Row	St. Marys Row	St. Marys Row	St. Mary's Row
St. Mary's Row	St. Mary's Row	St. Mary's Row	St Paul's Square
St Paul's Square	St Paul's Square	St. Peter's Church	St. Peter's Church
St. Peter's Place	St. Peter's Collegiate Church churchyard	Stratford Street North	Stratford Street North
Tame Valley	Tame Valley	Temple Row	The Grove
The Grove	The Grove	Victoria Street	View east from top flat of Holte Estate flats
View east from top flat of Salford flats	View south from Holte Estate	Vincent Drive	Vincent Drive
Vyse Street	Vyse Street	Vyse Street	Vyse Street
Warwick - Birmingham canal	Welsh House Farm	Welsh House Farm	Welsh House Farm
Welsh House Farm	Welsh House Farm	Weoley Castle	Weoley Castle
Wheeler Street	Whittall Street	Whittall Street	Whittall Street
Whittall Street	Whittall Street	Whittall Street	Whittall Street
Whittall Street	Whittall Street	Whittall Street at Bath Street	Whittall Street
Worcester and Birmingham Canal	:: Views from the Rotunda 1966 ::

post a comment

Guest		30-Jun-2008 12:19
Great pictures.I know some buildings had to come down but why all those beautiful Georgian buildings?.They surely could have been saved and put to good use.Just a little point,the Rotton Park Road pictures are actually Rotton Park Street.BobS

Laurence Hogg		21-Jun-2008 10:07
An outstanding snapshot of the evolution of the Birmingham area during the timeframe. Quality images of some of the lesser known and peraphs often forgotten aspects of life in Birmingham.

Peter Walker		15-Jun-2008 23:54
Many thanks for putting this wonderful collection of views on public display. They are really priceless. They also disprove Shakespeare's adage that the good in people is oft interred in their bones. Those pictures certainly live after Phyllis, a very fitting tribute to her visiion and enterprise. Peter Walker

Guest		17-Apr-2008 01:25
Are you referring to the ivy covered building fronting the Bristol Road, between Halfords and the canal? If so it was the Birmingham Battery & Metal Co. Ltd., more usually known as the Birmingham Battery. You might have more success looking for it on the web under this name - I've never heard it called the Magazine Works, but I'm not saying it wasn't. I believe the company records are in the City Archives now.

Neil prendergast		16-Apr-2008 20:20
Help please ... i am after info / photo's of the "Magazine" works by the canal in Selly Oak now demolished apart from the front / main office building.Can't find anything on the web about it at all. Thanks.

andrew from oz		17-Mar-2008 04:32
I grew up in Nechells (Cuckoo road) up untill the age of eight,i remember the gas works and the power station but sadly little else. We moved Australia in 1970. The photos brought back some long forgotten memories of my childhood in the 60's thanks

Guest		04-Mar-2008 13:57
You may be thinking of the Robert Southey quote from 1807: "Probably in no other age or country was there ever such an astonishing display of human ingenuity as may be found in Birmingham"

john		02-Mar-2008 00:10
Before the new Bullring was built, as you approached the Out door market via High Street you went under the underpass, where Thorntons and Argos were and then down a slope....... and the markets were just there in the shadow of St Martins...... Now just off the markets ran a little lane and there was a part of a speech written by Chamberlain? (i think) on the wall, about Birmingham being the city of 1000 trades...... does anyone know exactly what it said?

bob		29-Feb-2008 21:34
fantastic brings back lots of memorys sorry you didnt have one of ravenhurst st i lived there until 1952

Keith Berry		12-Feb-2008 23:28
Good idea Tony, it's never too late to start, and now is all we have to photograph!

Tony W		11-Feb-2008 16:21
Sorry for the spelling. will DIG out my camera

Tony		11-Feb-2008 16:19
Brilliant, fantastic that someone has taken the time to record history like this, some pics brought a tear to my eyes, think i will did out my camera and record some of the pictures as they are now and a few more to. Than you Tony W

Martin		11-Feb-2008 14:56
Spent hours looking at Gt Russell st as I spent my childhood there. Memory plays tricks though. Great Photo's

selinab		02-Feb-2008 17:29
WOW! She had a wonderful eye. So much history in these photos.

RUPERT		06-Dec-2007 01:58
Wonderfull pictures of a bygone age. Priceless.

Bill Harriman		28-Jul-2007 17:35
What a wonderful collection of pictures. I'm not a Brummie but I worked in the gun trade in the 1980s. The old gaffers could remember St Mary's Row, Price Street before it all came down in about 1965. St Mary's Sq was the heart of the gun trade area and it's great to be able to see what it was like before it vanished. The trade was bsed on small units which were origianlly houses and this smallness of scale really comes through in these fantastic images. Great Stuff!

Gary Pritchett		13-Jul-2007 04:32
Sends shivers down the spine!, the good old days eh. Absolutely brilliant!

Simon Hope		04-Jul-2007 12:03
As a Birmingham based photographer with a particular interest in the city and its environs (especially Erdington)I find Phyllis' photographs absolutely fascinating. The shot looking up the Bull Ring towards New Street reminds me of my grandfather Albert Edwin Todd as he was Woolworths resident carpenter during the early 60s. Hope to see more photographs added soon. Keep up the good work All the best Si Hope

Bernard Martin		31-Mar-2007 22:32
I remember going inside the Orphanage in Mason Road as a young boy. It was ready to be demolished. I remember a huge staircase and many apple trees in the orchard behind it. I had tummy ache! Only one visit mind - Ma said not to go again as it was dangerous - and I was a good boy!

Ilya		18-Mar-2007 11:17
Fantastik photograpts! Thenk you!

Peter		10-Feb-2007 21:29
Absolutely fantastic photographs. Phyllis must have been very far sighted for those days. What a sad loss to the community it must have been when she died.

J HARBRON		04-Dec-2006 02:41
I CANT BELEIVE THE PHOTO OF GT COLMORE ST. IT SHOWS OUR HOUSE AND EVEN MY FATHERS WOLSEY PARKED OUTSIDE THE HOUSE WHICH IS NEXT TO THE FACTORY WE USED TO PARK ON THE PATH IN THAT RECESS, ABSOLUTLEY BRILL IT BROUGHT BACK WONDERFUL MEMORYS THANKYOU. I CAN SHOW THE GRAND KIDS WHERE GRANDAD LIVED. THANKYOU AGAIN ALL THE BEST JOE

Doreen Agutter		26-Oct-2006 21:50
I has Phyllis as my post grad tutor in the 60s before her tragic, early death. Anything she produced was of the highest quality and I often refer to her with admiration after all these years. It is a pity her work is not mor acknowledged. Thank you for bringing these to a later generation's notice.

Peter		24-Oct-2006 23:42
Brilliant Pictures

Elmira Zarli		24-Oct-2006 14:44
looks surrealistic. Love most of slides.

click on thumbnails for full image