Birmingham New Street Station: lnwrbns_str1733

About 60 years ago I emerged from a Euston train in order to go across to Snow Hill to make the final stage of my journey back to my unit in Salop. The arched canopy glass of the station had been badly damaged by a fall of incendiaries and had not yet been repaired. However the light falling through the slightly smoky atmosphere onto the platform made, it seemed to me, an interesting picture and I paused with my father's old Kodak Duo 620 - which I still have - waiting until the people on the platform were in a reasonable position to add acceptable interest. I thought little more about it and did little with the film after it was developed as I had more immediate concerns following demobilisation shortly afterwards.

Fifty years on, retired and able to spend more time on photography, I came across my 'forgotten' negative and found that it was indeed worth printing although with passage of time it had slight scratches and pinpricks on it's surface. I lost my darkroom when we had to move to a small bungalow in Cornwall. This meant that I had to use a computer if I still wished to process my own prints. With programmes like Photoshop Elements this obviously had it's advantages. The photograph is now more presentable and if you are interested I will scan it and send it on to you in jpeg format and reduced in size so that downloading will be no problem? It may, if nothing else, be of some historical interest. I fear I'm dragging on a bit but should perhaps add that I have fond memories of New Street as in the late 1920s and 30s Mother and I used the station frequently to go on holiday to my grandparents in North Wales. The steam train out of New Street was all part of the holiday - great excitement for a small child!

R.C. Bovill

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