Cars and buses in an industrial urban setting
Birmingham, West Midlands, summer 1964
You can almost smell the whiff of Woodbines in this wonderfully gritty shot of mid-Sixties Birmingham. Our location is the junction of Navigation Street and Pinfold Street, now dominated by the glitzy chrome Grand Central structure built atop neighbouring New Street Station in 2015. But there’s little glamour 60 years previously, although PC’s resident bus botherer, Nick Larkin, may well disagree thanks to the presence of Birmingham Corporation Transport’s and Midland Red’s finest. But we’ll get to these later.
Over on the left, there’s a lesson in small Ford history, with three generations of diminutive Blue Ovals. Bang up to date is the Z-line shape of a Ford Anglia 105E, right at the edge of the photograph. This one is in base Standard form, with a narrow-width grille, lack of brightwork and other economies.
Behind it is a Ford Popular 103E, the reworking of the original Anglia ‘sit up and beg’ design as ultra-basic inexpensive transport from 1953 to 1959. Then there’s another Popular, but this time the 100E variant – which took the 1953-59 Anglia incarnation as its simple basis. Its bigger sibling beyond is a ‘Lowline’ Ford Consul MkII, after which there’s a big-finned Morris Oxford Series V and a hint of Vauxhall Victor F Series II nose.
On the buses
And so, to those stalwart public transport vehicles. JOC 200 is a Birmingham Corporation Transport 1949 Daimler CVG6 with 54-seat Metro-Cammell-built body, while the Midland Red number 130 service behind it is being worked by a Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company D9.
And yes, Nick
