The Old Postcard Of Birmingham
Slag heaps,
Like Egyptian pyramids in a desert dusk
Rise into a dank smog
With its nauseous green and yellow stink,
As Birmingham’s industrial image spoils;
Factory stacks,
Like smouldering obelisks in a desert sandstorm
Smoke into a rank fog
With its bilious grey and obscene stink,
As Birmingham’s industrial workforce toils…
Pete Ray
September 2017
The postcard was used and sent on 12th September 1907, nearly 110 years ago.
But ‘Beautiful Birmingham’?
The writer reckons it was a good representation of what Saltley was like then.
I lived just 2 or 3 miles from Saltley as a young child in the early 1950s.
The heaps reminded me of ancient Egyptian pyramids and the chimneys of ancient Egyptian obelisks…
The postcard is one of those currently being displayed in Mary B Harding’s book: ‘Comic and Novelty Postcards of Birmingham’ by Maxam Publishing, Smethwick, West Midlands.
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