The Way We Were
SNOW HILL, BIRMINGHAM
1979, Snow Hill, Birmingham
We go back four decades to a makeshift car park in Brum full of colourful British cars – and a few European and Japanese interlopers
Today, Snow Hill is a busy railway station in the middle of Birmingham, just as it was between 1852 and 1972, when post-Beeching closures signalled a temporary end to services. The old buildings and platforms were demolished in 1977, leaving the large expanse of brownfield site we see here rapidly re-employed as a car park.
Re-construction began in the mid-Eighties when cross-city rail services were restored but in the meantime we have a view of St Chad’s Cathedral (centre left) and some ugly old tower blocks, since replaced by ugly new ones.
Much more excitingly, we have a vast cross-section of Britain’s cars – and in those days most of Britain’s cars were British. Of the 115 motors in the near section of the car park, only 21 are foreign. Of those, just four are Japanese and three are German. French cars make up the bulk (can you spot the Renault 20s and lone Citroën GS?), along with the odd Fiat and Alfa Romeo.
Ford’s continued dominance is clear – there are 17 Cortina MkIVs here – more than all of the Vauxhall and Rootes cars added together.
Nearest the camera, we have an Almond Rover P6 and what looks like a Tara Green metallic Leyland Princess. To the left of the British Leyland wedge is a white Vauxhall Chevette on what appears to be a V-suffix registration plate, which makes it only a few months old. Next to the Chevette is one of the many aforementioned Cortinas – this one appears to be a lower spec fourdoor L model with unadorned steel wheels. There’s another Ford next to it in the shape of a first-gen Escort.
Highlights behind our first row of cars include the Citron (not Citroën) Yellow Austin Allegro behind the P6, the really rather lovely Vauxhall Viva HC in blue with vinyl roof to the right of the Allegro, while the nearby Sunbeam Rapier fastback with roof rack in the second row of cars epitomises Seventies cool.
Another yellow car catching our eye is the unmistakable shape of an early Renault 5 behind our aforementioned gold Cortina. Parked next to it on the left is a Reliant Scimitar with fetching gold paintwork and brown vinyl roof. In the second row, central within the image, a white Allegro and Rover SD1 sandwich a Renault 4 facing one of the few Minis in the shot.
We can’t wrap things up without mentioning the other Renault that made us squeal with excitement – the R16 in brown to the left of the blue Ford Transit on the back row. Nearby is a very brave owner to be driving a Triumph Spitfire 1500 in winter. That said, the 2CV behind it isn’t going to be much more accomplished when it comes to keeping its owners warm!
Have you spotted the Citroën GS we mentioned earlier yet? Do you give up? Okay. Find the red Ford Capri Laser in the first row and look up past the VW Beetle to find the white French fancy sitting on the end of the second row. And if it was rare back in 1979, it’s getting on for borderline extinct now.