Little Park Street

Yes, and the stirrup pump still hangs on the wall, should he still come back.

NeilsYard. You say it's the clarity in some of the detail, but would I be wrong in saying they're only about twenty/thirty years old, those old court houses?

Kaga, the photos are post war, maybe the 50s, whether to record the damage or more probably to capture the buildings before demolition. Care was obviously taken to get good shots as it was to be a record for posterity. The date of the buildings is hard to know but they were there in 1850. Court 17 was called Queens Court and there was another row of houses against the wall with the pump running, back towards LPS. The open doorway at the end isn't someone's front door, it's a passage to another court with more houses that in turn had a passageway to a final pair of houses and the boundary wall with the brewery (or a fancy house as it was then).

Helen F. I was thinking of what Neil had said, that washing will be fine there, making the best of what they had. Well, they had fun and laughter, tears and heartaches, all etched into those walls. A pair of houses, just two up and two down, the stairs probably on the inside of the outside wall, two steps up, then sharp right or left to a centre landing and wall, making the front bedroom tiny and the back room a larger room. In my father's house in 1903 onwards, the back room was shared by five girls and six boys. As they grew up, can you imagine, a boy gets toothache - "ouch" - they lived and grew up with each other's pain. Downstairs, a central chimney, the fireplace back to back in each house. Back room was kitchen, washroom, pantry; front room was dining room, playroom, and fireplace - warm room. Outside there would be toilets, wash houses etc, and kids. Can you imagine the rejoicing from a family like that at his return from the First World War?

Absolutely. One of the downsides of modern technology, e.g. mobile phones and Facebook. People can advertise to the world an image of well off they are, how well they are doing, photoshop pictures of themselves to look like models, etc. I find that rather sad.

So I have to thank Phowes1958, over on the Much Park Street topic for asking about Earl's Court and Midland Red for finding it, but not until I'd fruitlessly searched the Board of Health Map (the court doesn't appear till later). Not finding it on Much Park Street, I looked over at Little Park Street and noticed a place called Thoroughfare Yard and it rang a bell. I'd picked up some images drawn by children and their location was put at 'In the Thoroughfare'. Naturally I'd been looking to match them with a main road through the city but not Little Park Street, because there were others for the street. I haven't matched them all up yet with the map but I'm at least looking at the right area In the picture below, the skeleton of the cottage clinging to the factory wall is of the building fronting Thoroughfare Yard, although the buildings that lined the northern edge of the yard were demolished when they built the factory. The name is a bit of a mystery. It would have been possible to walk from LPS to Cheylesmore through the yard, out the other end and along a path, even after the factory was built. It would have been a useful shortcut, especially while the gates were still in operation. Alternatively maybe Little Park Street was sometimes known as the thoroughfare and the yard derived its name from that? There still more to learn

Helen, There seems to be several Thoroughfare Yards mentioned in the CET so it must have been quite a common name. Several articles in the 1860s describe this one as leading from Cheylsmore to Little Park Street as you say. In 1869 it was described as dirty and disgraceful and smells coming from open drains!

Does anyone recall/know of a butchers in LPS called Chapman's? I think they were at the southern end. Trying to confirm the number?

Hi Neil, There is a William John Chapman, butcher, in a 1924 directory at 61a Little Park Street and 61a St John Street. He was still there in 1940 when he was fined for selling dripping for 8d per pound instead if 6d!

Brilliant Anne Is that fine 'incident' from a newspaper clipping? If so and not too much trouble could you pass on? I am in touch with Mr Chapman's grandson's wife! Looking at maps it must have been on the corner of St John Street although the pics we have of that spot on here (with the Machinist Company ruins) - post #210 - show it was Hygrade Boot Repairers on that corner? It definitely looks like No.61 on that photo?

I have sent the picture to your email Neil. Just found him on the 1939 register and he is living at 74 St John Street but that may just be his house. Various Kelly's directories say 61a both of Little Park Street and St John's Street.

That suggests it was on the corner of the two streets, and they weren't certain which one it was actually in

61 as far as I can gather was the building on the south corner of St John's and Little Park Street so the building the girl is leaning against, not the boot shop.

Hmm, by post war, 62 and 61 were the bootshop building and 74 St John's was the building in the picture above with the girl leaning against the wall. So maybe he lived opposite the shop or maybe they were one and the same? The shop to the north part of the Hydrograde Boot Service by the war is L Woodcock. On the St John's side of the Hydrograde, the building next door doesn't look like a shop at all.