Hurst Street junction with Bromsgrove Street

If we had crossed Bromsgrove Street here in the 1950s we would have had to look out for trams coming from our left and from the right down Hurst Street, as this is where the trams heading to and from the Moseley Road and Alcester Road routes ran. There were traffic lights, but nothing to help pedestrians get over the road at this busy junction.

A tram on the 43 route from Alcester Lanes End about to turn from Bromsgrove Street into Hurst Street
Another tram, closely pursued by a Daimler bus on their way into Hurst Street.
This was probably a Sunday evening as Wimbush’s on the corner was closed and the man crossing the road had been in the pub for a pint.
Yet another tram, but this time heading out of town in 1952.
The buildings next to Wimbush’s had been demolished, probably due to bomb damage.

If you’d had to wait to cross Bromsgrove Street, it would have been worthwhile as you could have nipped into Wimbush’s bread & cake shop for a pastie or a cream cake!

Today, upon most of this block stands a residential development called Latitude, so if the chap walking across the junction dodging the trams in the previous photographs had been transported to the 21st century, this is what he would have seen.

Corner of Hurst Street and Bromsgrove Street – 2020

Seventy years later this corner would feature in the tale of a murder, but we’ll have to wait until later to hear about this!