Sporrophon Gramophone (weight driven)
One elderly resident of Kingstanding Estate in east Birmingham recalled that as tenants gradually began to settle into their new lives they also started to manage their money better and got better dressed.1 ...
Neville Chamberlain, by Basil Byng
Pencil portrait.
Bath Row Redevelopment Scheme
Pencil sketch by Reginald Edgecombe depicting an artist impression of new housing and road infrastructure for the new Bath Row Redevelopment Zone which encompassed Lee Bank.
Great Colmore Street, Lee Bank
New council flats being built on slum clearance land off Great Colmore Street in the Lee Bank Redevelopment Area.
Birmingham City Council Interviewing Sub-Committee Minutes
Using powers conferred by public health and housing legislation, the Improvement Committee had condemned and demolished whole swathes of slum housing and overseen a number of improvements made in central ...
Domestic Interior, by Reginald Edgecombe
The Edgecombe drawings demonstrate that urban planners in Birmingham were considering the internal layout as much as the external appearance of new houses. This sketch illustrates the creative processes ...
View of New Tower Blocks and Infrastructure, by Reginald Edgecombe
Reginald Edgecombe was a designer commissioned by the Council to produce artist’s impressions of what Birmingham might look like post-war once reconstruction was complete. A collection of his watercolour ...
Quinton, Harborne and Edgbaston Town Planning Scheme Map
This map illustrates one of Birmingham’s first comprehensive town planning schemes to regulate suburban development in south-west Birmingham. What is remarkable when comparing it to maps from just 20 ...
Postcard of the School of Art, Birmingham
This postcard carries a handwritten message from Gertie of Sparkhill to Lily Morris, who was staying in the popular holiday and health resort of Llandudno. At this time the back of the card was reserved ...
Label from Men's Tennis Trouser
These flannel tennis trousers were probably worn by Alderman Wilfred Byng Kenrick. This label is an interesting early example of washing instructions.
Men's Tennis Trousers
These flannel tennis trousers were probably worn by Alderman Wilfred Byng Kenrick. The Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society declared in 1879 that ‘each Member (Gentleman) playing Tennis shall wear ...
Crescent Bicycles Catalogue, Arthur E. Sayer & Co., Sherlock Street, Birmingham
This catalogue shows that companies were actively marketing bicycles to women by 1900. Inside we find the 'Crescent No 3' Ladies Safety model, which has 'saddle and handle positions arranged to allow ...
African Barkcloth Beater
This barkcloth beater, made from wood and horn, was collected in Africa by the traveller and diarist Helen Caddick, who lived in York Road, Edgbaston.
Postcard of Bristol Road, Edgbaston
This postcard shows the overhead tram cables along Bristol Road. This modern form of transport co-existed with horsedrawn vehicles, one of which appears in the background.
Invitation to the Opening of Calthorpe Park
This invitation was issued to William Sands Cox, founder of Queen's Hospital in 1840 as a clincal school for the Birmingham Royal School of Medicine. The invitation is richly illustrated and contains ...
Proposal for a Midlands Arts Centre for Young People
This is the first page of a proposal prepared by John English concerning the establishment in Cannon Hill Park of a Midland Arts Centre, which he hoped would be administered by an independent trust. It ...
Bonnet from Fancy Dress Costume
This fancy dress costume was worn by Florence Barrow, aged 10, in 1886 for the Lord Mayor's Children's Party.
'The Taming of the Shrew' at Cannon Hill Park
This photograph shows a matinee performance at the arena at Cannon Hill Park. Plays had first been performed in the parks as part of the wartime entertainments organised as part of the Brighter Birmingham ...