we looked at England’s second city before there was a Selfridges or Harvey Nichols, and no Bullring as we know it today. Birmingham was a place of subway shops and underground passages that are now filled in and long since vanished.
These great pictures of Birmingham in the 1980s were taken by David Rostance. These photos show us the city that as the Birmingham Mail puts it:
There was no Selfridges or Harvey Nichols, no Bullring as we know it today. Instead you had to take your life into your hands as you ventured through the city’s subway shops and underground passages that are now filled in and long since vanished.
Birmingham, December 1986
Paradise Place, Birmingham, January 1987
Kitchener Street, Smethwick, February 1986
47624, Winson Green, Birmingham, February 1986
Nechells, Birmingham, February 1986
The Victoria, John Bright Street, Birmingham, August 1985
Moseley, Birmingham, August 10 1985
Garrison Lane, Birmingham, April 1985
Burlington Passage, Birmingham, February 1985
View from Birmingham Shopping Centre car park, December 1984
24 December 1984
24 December 1984
Winson Green, Birmingham, 21 January 1984
Waiting for the bus, Washwood Heath Road, Birmingham, November 1983
Paradise Circus, Birmingham, November 1983
Mk.I Metrobus, Birmingham, 5 November 1983
‘The Railway’, Winson Green, 6 March 1983
Corporation Street, Birmingham, December 1982
New Street, Birmingham, 30 December 1982
Corporation Street, Birmingham, 30 December 1982
Lower Temple Street, Birmingham, 30 December 1982
Lower Temple Street, Birmingham, a 30 December 1982
Birmingham New Street Station, December 1982