Spring 1967, Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM, WEST MIDLANDS This week we re-visit part of Sixties Brum that was about to see major changes, not all of them for the better
Good luck driving a BMC ADO16 through this part of Birmingham today. Christ Church Buildings ( left), locally known as Galloway’s Corner, are now buried under the pedestrianised Victoria Square. This magnificent late 19th century terrace on New Street was demolished in 1970. There’s more of the changing face of Brum beyond Pinfold Street on the right – that’s Birmingham New Street station being re-built in the distance. Rather horribly, as it turned out.
Our ADO16 is a shiny Morris 1100 MkI and would have been almost new when this photo was taken – the Morris was the first of the ADO16s to be launched, going on sale in August 1962. The only other badgeengineered variant to emerge that year was the MG, in September.
The Ford Cortina MkII lurking at the top of Pinfold Street would also have been less than 12 months old. 1967 was the year when the Cortina finally became Britain’s best-selling car, something that Ford had been trying to achieve since 1962. The model it had to topple? The aforementioned BMC 1100, no less.
Despite this being a notoriously busy city centre junction, our photographer (did his or her camera come from Galloway’s, we wonder?) seems to have picked a quiet time, because nearly all of the other cars in this image are parked.
They’re a typical mix of Sixties vehicles; ADO16s abound, naturally, with a white Austin in front of the grey Morris and a dark example visible on Pinfold Street. Of course, there are plenty of Minis, plus a Morris Minor parked in front of the gold Humber Sceptre MkII that starts the row on the side that contains Dixons, Woodhouse and the ABC cinema. The Humber Sceptre was originally intended as a fourdoor replacement for the Sunbeam Rapier, so was rather sportier than most Humbers. There was no wood inside, for example.
There’s also a blue Jaguar XK150 coupé a few cars along, – exotic now, but just an ageing Jag back then.
While British cars dominate, there are a couple of German interlopers. In front of the white Austin 1100 is an Opel Kadett B saloon. Opel usually produced quite stylish machines, so the slab-sided and utilitarian Kadett B came as a disappointment to some. However, its simplicity meant that it was competitively priced. It’s a rather less common import than the green Volkswagen Beetle 1200 further down from it, though.
Fast forward to the present day and while the buildings on the left have been demolished, those in the centre have survived and been revived. In fact, they look rather better now than they did 53 years ago!
‘Despite this being a busy city centre junction, nearly all the cars in this photo are parked.’
A SIGN OF QUIETER TIMES