So, farewell then Longbridge

Driving out of Birmingham on the Bristol Road, one would go through and past the Longbridge car works.

Not for much longer:

This part of the works was rather elegent, with a long low brick building, with clean lines, and well placed and well balanced windows. The frames were shabby, the glass broken, the paint peeling, but it had a surprisingly gracious beauty none-the-less.

One can glimpse the sky through the back of the windows and it looks as if they have removed the slates from the roof leaving some bright and shiny modern roof insulation which must have been added a good while after the building was built.

These were taken early in September and the day was as hot as it looks.

This shows rather clearly how much uglier the newer buildings were.

I took these with my mobile phone. I do wish I’d had a decent long lens: the interiors were fascinating and evocative, and have probably disappeared forever by now.

Again, one is far more aware of the later building, now one can see it, though it is presumably next in line for the bulldozers.

So, farewell then
Longbridge.
We’ll go no more in
Rovers,
or MGs.

They’re building
‘luxury apartments’
where Red Robbo
roused the rabble.

The cars that pass
are Korean
now.

EJ Thribb - aged 57