This week, we’re taking a trip to Walsall for pictures from the past, but not just any old Walsall. Late eighties Walsall. A younger Bob could be walking these streets, I knew them so well at the time. This is a very evocative set for me, which I became aware of last weekend, when a link to it was posted on twatter by one of the local tweeting coppers – I think it was @PCStanleyWMP (PC Richard Stanley, response officer for Walsall Local Policing Unit, who also has a great blog). These images are taken from the Flickr stream of user ‘walsall_pete’ who appears to be a bus driver and sometime printer at the Lithographic. I take my hat off to him for a wonderful set of pictures, all dating from around 1988.
If Pete is passing, please do comment and say hello, but if you have any contributions, please do share them.
So similar, and yet so much has changed. Back then, there were no steps here. From walsall_pete's Flickr photostream.
I can't believe a picture of this place exists. It was said that the treacherous slope out front had heating running under it to melt the ice and snow in winter, but it never worked, probably apocryphal. From walsall_pete's Flickr photostream.
The Pen & Wig. Never salubrious, but usually heaving with punters. I sa my first ever video jukebox here. From walsall_pete's Flickr photostream.
I honestly think The Bridge was better with the traffic. It looks like Tito's grave now. With added Burberry. From walsall_pete's Flickr photostream.
Crikey, those Metro-Cammel busses. They used to stink of mould, and fill with water on top when it rained. Remember the rush hour chaos here, the computer shop on the coner of Marsh Street (used to deal in Dragon hardware I think) and the Doc Marten shop. From walsall_pete's Flickr photostream.
Dixons and Currys next door to each other. Of course, even then, they were the same company. From walsall_pete's Flickr photostream.
Ah, Georgies. Not a big haunt of mine, but I went in a few times. The classic eighties young peoples pub. From walsall_pete's Flickr photostream.
People seem oddly nostalgic for the old bus station, but it was a hideous place. I can remember it being dark, isolated and frightening at night. Usually filthy, too. From walsall_pete's Flickr photostream.