Snapshot of Birmingham: The Industrial and Commercial Life in the Mid-80s

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.

Hill Street, Birmingham, 15th September 1985

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