Then and Now Images - B1 Postcode
Some locations that were on this page: Centenary Square, Colmore Row, Hill Street, Holloway Circus, Holloway Head, Paradise Street.
In this ‘Now and Then’ section I attempted to recreate scenes from older images from the same viewpoint - or as close as I could get to it. In some photos, things like trees, recently built walls, new road layouts, and road signs have obstructed the 'shot', in others it may have meant that to obtain a more precise comparison I would have had to stand in the middle of a busy road - sorry, but I have no intention of doing that.
Boundary changes over the years have blurred the lines between districts, over time, one district may have become part of another one, local council, and parliamentary boundaries dictate these area changes.
To avoid confusion on the area names, I grouped these composites by postcode area, although, by doing that, it also has some ‘oddities’, for example, a building that has a different postcode to the one that is next door to it, or different postcodes on opposite sides of the street.
At the bottom of each page There are buttons that you can navigate to a specific postcode, or you can just use the 'Next' button to move to the next page.
There were 166 Images in this collection.
Colmore Row - Birmingham City Council House on the left, Victoria Square is to the right, and the Town Hall is behind me.
Upper Image: Author - John Ball, Copyright - John Ball.
Upper Image Date: 1963.
Lower Image Date: 11/03/2026.
Hill Street from its junction with Paradise Street .
Upper Image: Author - John Ball, Copyright - John Ball.
Upper Image Date: 1963.
Lower Image Date: 05/02/2020.
The church in the centre of the upper image is Christ Church, it was on the corner of New Street and Anne Street (later to become Colmore Row), the foundation stone was laid on 22 July 1805, it was demolished in 1899
Upper Image: Author, and copyright status not known.
Upper Image Date: Before 1899.
Lower Image Date: 27/04/2026.
The older image shows Holloway Circus with The Albany Hotel on the left, The Scala Cinema on the right, and The Rotunda in the middle. The more recent image shows part of Beetham Tower (Radison Blue Hotel), The Albany Hotel is now a Holiday Inn, The Scala Cinema which later became the ODEON is now disused (although There are plans to redevelop the building), and the Rotunda is obscured by Centre City office block.
Upper Image: Author - Phyllis Nicklin, Copyright - MLA West Midlands and the University of Birmingham.
Upper Image Date: 06/01/1966.
Lower Image Date: 15/11/2018.
Looking down Holloway Head towards Holloway Circus, the 31 storey residential tower block in the more recent image is Clydesdale Tower.
Upper Image: Author - Phyllis Nicklin, Copyright - MLA West Midlands and the University of Birmingham.
Upper Image Date: 29/06/1968.
Lower Image Date: 15/11/2018.
Baskerville House, named after John Baskerville, designed by Thomas Cecil Howitt, and built in 1938, its purpose at the time was a ‘Civic Centre’, it is now offices. The building is Grade II listed.
Upper Image: Author - Phyllis Nicklin, Copyright - MLA West Midlands and the University of Birmingham.
Upper Image Date: 28/08/1961.
Lower Image Date: 27/04/2026.
Baskerville House - Named after John Baskerville, designed by Thomas Cecil Howitt, and built in 1938, its purpose at the time was a ‘Civic Centre’, it is now offices.
In the upper image, the road in front of Baskerville House is Baskerville Passage, that road was there long before the building existed.
In the lower image, the road has now been pedestrianised, the sculpture that can be seen is titled ‘Industry and Genius’, it has a letter on top of each post, they spell out VIRGIL in the Baskerville typeface/font – the letters are reversed to show how they would look on a printing block.
The sculpture was created by local artist David Patten in 1990, and honours the fact that John Baskerville printed the works of the Roman poet Virgil.
Upper Image: Author - Phyllis Nicklin, Copyright - MLA West Midlands and the University of Birmingham.
Upper Image Date: 28/08/1961.
Lower Image Date: 08/04/2026.