BullRing Shopping Centre part one

I have been thinking about this City where I live and how it has changed.  My mother's family lived here way back and I was thinking about how it must have been for Grandma to be growing up, then my Mother, me, my children and my Grandchildren. ................... how it has changed!!!

Bullring through the years postcard

A bit like this ................ same place - different years!!!

Take this one .............. this is how the central shopping area must have been when my Grandma was growing up. 

1890

Cobbled streets, long dresses, and a statue of Nelson.
This was the first statue in the world to be made to honour his deeds. This view looks up the hill, from St Martins Church, towards the main High Street and was taken about 1890.

1960

This is the same view but taken about 1960.  This is the Bullring my children knew.  The outdoor market and, just up by the bus (Cream and Navy coloured double decker), was a small roundabout (sort of Carousel for little ones) with a seating area - we needed that as there was a fish & chip shop nearby.................. so we sat and ate our chips and then the children rode on the roundabout - a small treat for being good while the shopping was completed.    I don't remember all this change, most of the city had been bombed during the war years so as I grew up new builds were going on all the time.  I can remember different stories about it but this is were I shopped with my children.

2011

Ha! Ha!  here is the same view as seen by my grandchildren!!!!

Now we all shop here, a big, beautiful, clean, shopping area with the market pushed down the hill.

Now although I don't have photos when I was growing up, what I do have is this -

1950

This is an overview of the Bullring, looking towards St Martins Church, as I grew up, Nelson's statue is there ......still in its original place.  The Buses all came into the Bullring from the south side of the city and terminated at the church, so everyone had to get off there which meant on market days it could be quite chaotic!!   I don't remember much about the actual buildings, as I have said before the Market Hall was just a bombed building - lots of them when I grew up.  It wasn't until the 1960's that Birmingham seemed to get its act together and knock it all down and rebuild and remodel the town centre.  There was lots of complaints, moaning (something we Brits are good at!!) but still it was built.