Aged Birmingham Resident sought

I'd start by looking for a JobCentrePlus in that location, maybe this?

Many thanks.

That could be its modern equivalent but to memory it was on the other side of the road in an older building. I think you are in the right area as, again to memory, the railway line was in that relationship. All changed drastically since my day :-(

Like most places. I remember the employment place being moved here in Kingston to a newly built site near a shopping centre under a multi storey car park, I remember the opening in the 1970s, in which the luminary said, this will be a fitting place for local residents and their children to visit.

Need I tell you they are not knocking the whole town centre down and building it again with loads of swanky flats on top. So much for longevity. Brian

If the building is still there, you should be able to see it on Google Street View. Have you tried that? If it's now used for something different, you won't see its original name on Google Maps. Of course, if it's been demolished . . .

One of the birmingham history websites says similar, the DHSS building was the 60's office block and the labour exchange was roughly opposite, but it looks like lots of demolished/replaced buildings in the area.

The school I first went to was Victorian, I'd guess the best part of a century old.

I went back a few years ago. The school had been demolished.

What got me though was that the replacement had also been demolished...

Andy

I suggest you'd do better to search for "labour exchange". See e.g.

Try local OS maps of Birmingham from that period. Some may be online.

What an incredible resource that is - many, many thanks for the link.

Out of interest, I had a look at a 1912/1917 25 inch to the mile map of the Soho Road area, and found "Labr Ex" on the left (when going out of town) just past Louise Road, and with a Post office next door. I guess that's what the OP is looking for.

Looking at a current map, Louise Road is no longer there, but the larger road just before it (Nineveh Road) is still there.

I've uploaded some screenshots of the old map, the current satellite view and the two buildings which I suspect were the Post Office and Labour Exchange, and whose facades - dated 1914 and 1912 - are still there. You can find them at

If you get the zoom right, Louise Road has become Tara Lane, with an alley coming out at Diya's dress shop

Well stone me. I've just found the layout of the 4.1-acre plot my father bought in Crawley around the time of the 1929 stock market crash. Put a chicken farm on it, and, later, built several houses and cottages on part of the frontage.

I went to my old University the other week (my dentist is based there).

I actually got lost trying to find my way back to the bus stop. They've moved all the doors, which makes it feel like they've moved the buildings because the relationship between entrances has been lost.

Obviously they've moved the bus stop too, but I was expecting that.

Owain

According to

I suppose it could have moved across the road to a new building in 1912.

On reflection, I think that the two buildings which I suspected were the Post Office and Labour Exchange are too far along the road. The building most likely to have been labelled Labr Ex on the old map is the white building which has a Lloyds Pharmacy on the ground floor and Syeds Solicitors above it.

Does the OP remember what the building in question looked like?

Extremely interesting.

Would you say that the unmarked thoroughfare (pedestrianised?) which leads south from the main road to the bend in Tara Lane might be the former Louise Road? It looks as though it starts the same number of addresses west of the junction with Nineveh Road as did Louise Lane on the 1912 map.

PS: I've never met Louise Lane.

That would indeed be my hypothesis.

If you get the zoom right, Louise Road has become Tara Lane, with an alley coming out at Diya's dress shop

Owain

It is also worthwhile doing a search on eBay for postcards of any businesses and street that have unusual names and were nearby. You might get lucky and find a photo. There was a postcard craze about 1900-1920.

You don't know what you've missed! <g>

Yes, that is my current thinking. Did you see my later post in which I suggested that the second building past that alley - which is now a chemist with a solicitor above - may have been the Labour Exchange rather than the one I suggested earlier?

WOW, I've been out of touch for a few days and I am overwhelmed by the help and knowledge shown here. I see I'm not alone as a cartophile. Its going to take me a bit of time to explore all the hints given but it will be most enjoyable.

A little word of explanation. My first job on leaving college was working as a clerk in Handsworth labour exchange so got to know the area reasonably well, but it has all utterly changed since those halcyon days I recognise none of it. (Listening to Wogan one morning he mentioned Halycon days. It stunned me. Had I been saying it wrong all along ? Couldn't wait to get to the office and check it out.)