Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men — John Shaqi
Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham MenEdwards, Eliezer
History
Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men
Edwards, Eliezer
Birmingham (England)
Bennetts Hill was considered _the_ street of the town, architecturally.
The Norwich Union Office then held aloft the same lady, who, long
neglected, looks now as if her eyes were bandaged to hide the tears
which she is shedding over her broken scales. The Bank of England has
not been altered, though at that time it was occupied by a private
company. Where the Inland Revenue Offices now stand, was a stone barn,
which was called a news-room. It was a desolate-looking place, inside
and out, and it was a mercy when it was pulled down. At the right-hand
corner, at the top, where Harrison's music shop now stands, there was,
in a large open court-yard, a square old brick mansion, having a brick
portico. A walled garden belonging to this house, ran down Bennetts
Hill, nearly to Waterloo Street, and an old brick summer-house, which
stood in the angle, was then occupied by Messrs. Whateley as offices,
and afterwards by Mr. Nathaniel Lea, the sharebroker. At the corner of
Temple Row West was a draper's shop, carried on by two brothers--William
and John Boulton. The brothers fell out, and dissolved partnership.
William took Mr. R.W. Gem's house and offices in New Street, and
converted them into the shop now occupied by Messrs. Dew; stocked it;
married a lady at Harborne; started off to Leamington on his wedding
tour; was taken ill in the carriage on the way; was carried to bed at
the hotel at Leamington, and died the same evening. His brother took to
the New Street shop; closed the one in Temple Row; made his fortune; and
died a few years ago--a bachelor--at Solihull.
The present iron railings of St. Philip's Churchyard had not then been
erected. There was a low fence, and pleasant avenues of trees skirted
the fence on the sides next Colmore Row and Temple Row. I used to like
to walk here in the quiet of evening, and I loved to listen to the
bells in St. Philip's Church as they chimed out every three hours the
merry air, "Life let us Cherish."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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