'lozells', Such An Exotic Sounding Place.

A Memory of Birmingham.

We lived in Gerrard Street, Lozells, until I was about 6. My father had an allotment where we would go and play, I still have a photo taken when I was about 4 of my father, older brother, and myself at the allotment with my brother on a wooden 'horse' and me on a rocking 'duck'. Our house was opposite a training school for nursery nurses and I was used as a 'model' for them from when I was almost a new born baby.

The house in which we lived was a 'two up', 'two down' house with an outside toilet, which was shared with our next door neighbours. It had no garden (Hence the allotment) but there was a small backyard, where the washing was done and where we could occasionally play if there was no washing hanging out. Our house fronted directly onto the road and, back then, there was little traffic, so we could play in the street if the weather was good.

We moved in about 1956 to a ground floor flat in Rubery Hill and I thought it was 'heaven' as there was a lawn at the front of the apartments and a park nearby where we could play.