I took a photowalk down my local Stirchley High Street on Friday to log the growing diversity of shops I'd been noticing there of late, including a new pop-up tearoom…
There are lots of independents in Stirchley Village (as it now seems to be have been renamed), such as: P Browell Tobacconist, Wards greengrocers, Pandora's Music Box, Skinnys Ink tattoo parlour, Music Exchange, Maginnis Opticians, Wolseley Sausage Company, The British Oak pub and others.
This is NOT a homogenous high street – and all the more interesting for it. For example, how many other Birmingham high streets can boast a European consulate?
There are quite a few clusters of businesses, too: hairdressers, hydroponics shops, carpet stores, junk shops, nail bars, balti restaurants, Chinese takeaways and a growing number of estate and letting agents – a sign that things are changing for Stirchley.
But the most interesting shop for me was the pop-up tearoom on the corner of Ivy Road. It's only open for another month or so before it moves on like a magical moveable feast to Hodge Hill – but it's a lovely little place to go and hangout for a bit.
There is free tea served in bone china cups, free biscuits, art, craft and storytelling projects, community conversation and someone to reminisce about Stirchley with – in my case a former lollipop lady, who summed up Stirchley as having it all – except for parking spaces.
The tearoom events progamme is here. Some evening events are also in the pipeline, possibly a film screening and more tea-tasting sessions with Karen (pictured top).
I intend to revisit Stirchley's high street evolution in more detail in a future post, namely because I wrote my first ever published article on the breakdown of shops here. But for now here's the slideshow, or see the full set on Flickr.
Hire/commission me: fiona [at] fionacullinan.com
Great post! Made me miss Stirchley.
I know it's not probably meant to be a comprehensive list but a big shout out to:
Best beer shop in Brum (IMHO) > Stirchley Wines and Spirits
And a great green grocer > J&H Ward and Sons
Ta,
Sam.
Indeed, thankyou Mr Underwood – both of your suggestions are logged in the Flickr photors. Harry Ward's probably deserves a post all to himself.
Was that a large Co-op store I spotted? A remnant of the once-mighty empire of Ten Acres and Stirchley Co-operative Society?
Yes, the Coop still reigns here – even though Tesco has bought nearby land and if/when it builds that will probably be the final nail for the Coop. Tesco is the wrong brand for Stirchley, imo.
Hopefully the Coop will survive if it continues the move to more non-food concessions and also stock farmer's market foods as a differentiator.
:/
Thanks for mentioning our tearoom Fiona, and for the lovely pictures. I agree about Tesco being the wrong brand for this area, and we are having some really interesting conversations with people about the importance of self-sufficient high streets and their memories of all the shops that have been and gone. Hope you can pop in again soon!
Can you tell me the address of the Hodge Hill Pop up tea room. I spent an hour looking for it today.
Thank you
Hi Eleanor – I don't think it is open yet. They are moving there next, I think in March.
Fab! It just looks so dreary some days – but this makes us look quite vibrant. Will definitely try and pop into the Community Cafe. My neighbour Stella was telling me all about it 🙂
Hi Kim – alas, like the land at the top of the Magic Faraway tree, the cafe has now moved on.
when I was a girl it was always called "the village" – Mom used to say "just going down the village" that meant shopping – that was late 40s early 50s