Today was a quiet one as Amy was packing to go home and then we got a taxi back to Curdworth to pick up her car. She then drove us to Water Orton to catch a bus before she set off for paddle boarding in Norfolk.
In the past we have been to the Prince of Wales pub and had some great afternoon/evenings of live Blues and Jazz, but we heard it had closed for a while. It has now been taken on and reopened. It is even better than ever as there are about 10 real ales and several ciders. It has been completely refurbished and is a lovely pub. It has been taken on by Lisa Travers who is the daughter of UB40's Saxaphone player, Bill Travers. They get plenty of folk in before/after the shows that are on at the Birmingham Rep, and ICC etc. and has included Lady Gaga apparently. It was built in 1854 but was threatened with demolition when the Centenary Square was being developed but the outcry by locals and actors etc helped to keep it open.
The Prince of Wales pub is the largest building in the row in the centre of the picture below the BM 473.7. The rest of the row has gone, but pleased to say the pub survives. I wonder if the pub was named after the Prince of Wales theatre that was in the bottom right corner of the map.
On the middle left, where it says saw mill is now where the Indoor arena now is. The land was mainly goods sidings and railway engine sheds.
In the bottom left hand corner the basins and glass cutting works are now where the Sealife Centre is now.
On the other side of the canal is the Brewery Wharf and Malthouse arm is. These buildings are still there and is the aptly named pub the Malthouse.
Cambrian Wharf at the middle of the top of the map is still there but the arm that ran north has now gone. The Flapper and Firkin is where the writing on the map is and it has re-opened when we passed.
The Prince Of Wales Theatre in 1929. It was built in 1856 as the Birmingham Royal Music Hall. It was renamed in 1862 to become the Prince of Wales Operetta and then just the PoW Theatre in 1865. It was bombed in 1940 and didn't re-open but it took until 1987 for it to be demolished and in 1991 the Symphony Hall opened on the site.
Bingley Hall in 1981. from King Alfred Place.
There had been a Bingley House on the site from at least 1553, but the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stour Valley Railway Co bought the house an land to build the New Street Tunnel. The house was demolished. In 1850 the new Bingley Hall was built, and it was the first purpose built exhibition hall in the country. It cost £6,000 and only took six weeks to complete. It used steel columns that were surplus to the construction of Euston Station and it is in the Roman Doric style! using red and blue bricks. The blue Staffordshire bricks were diverted from the Oxford Street Viaduct. The building was 68 x 67 mts and had 3,600 sq feet of glass. It also had 10 entrances. The first show was the Birmingham cattle and poultry show! Over they ears there have also been Dog and Chrysanthemum shows, boxing, cinema, circus, and pop concerts. When I was young there was an Ideal Home exhibition each year and I remember going to one as my Dad got free tickets as his office was on the corner of Broad Street and King Edward's Place and as they hung a banner across the street theygave him some tickets for doing it. I remember meeting Tufty from the Tufty Club. (A Road Safety Campaign of the time).
We also went to the Caravan and Camping show and it during one of these in 1984 that a fire started and the building was destroyed. The International Convention Centre now stands on the site.
The Bull from the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony is still drawing large crowds. They have no reactivated mechanics, the lights and smoke too. During the commentary of they ceremony they mentioned that it was to be displayed permanently. However it seems that this was not so, and once this was heard a massive petition was raised and it seems that now it IS going to saved somewhere.
We got off the bus in the middle of Brum and set off back to the boat. The bus took 30 minutes and was £2-40 for Helen and free for me as I am so old! It is very cheap compared with Hull! We passed the Great Western Arcade with its grand entrance on Temple Row. It is actually built over the Great Western Railways broad gauge line that ran from London to Birmingham. Originally it was a tunnel to Temple Row and then a cutting to Snow Hill Station. The cutting was covered over in 1874, and the Arcade was built just off the centre line 1875/76. It was designed by W.H. Ward of Paradise Street in Birmingham. The front is Renaissance style and the figures above the arch represent Art and History. The original roof was a glazed semicircular barrel roof with a central dome. However this was destroyed in WWII and replaced with a more mundane style.
When we got back to the boat and had tea, the great intentions of going out for a final night out faded and we just settled in. The boat seemed quiet tonight without Amy about.
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