Before the Concrete Collar

Then-and-now photographs of a city are pretty common but there's something special about these photos by DJ Norton taken of Birmingham in the late 50s, early 60s just before the concrete revolution which his son, Mark, has recreated in 2005.

Take this gobsmacking view down Dale End near the Academy.



The photos mainly concentrate on the Inner Ring Road where most of the government sanctioned vandalism, sorry, redevelopment occurred. Mark provides this handy map showing how it was before with the concrete collar superimposed.

In the middle of this is the old New Street Station which I always find fascinating. Apparently it had a road running right through the middle of it! There's more about New St on Virtual Brum with some photos from the mid 1800s.

Mark's dad also took some stunning colour shots from the same period which are really odd to see. These mainly cover the suburbs in the south - Moseley, Pershore Road and a lot of Cotteridge.

Great stuff. Put aside a good hour or so to pour over these. Or you could buy his book, presumably stocked by our local book emporiums.

via this Birmingham Flickr thread