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London North Western
Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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LMS Route: Evesham to Birmingham
Camp Hill Station: mrch1425c
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Close up of image 'mrch1425' showing Camp Hill station's First
Class Gentlemen's Room with a standard Midland Railway bench seat with the
station's name incorporated on the back support. VR Anderson and HN Twells
write in LMS Lineside Part Two, that the lettering in the panel
containing the station's name was white whilst the background was blue. The
enamel signs are advertising Stephens Ink and the Gaiety Theatre based in
Birmingham. A Dr Henry Stephens (17961864) was the inventor in 1832 of an
indelible "blue-black writing fluid" which was to become famous as Stephens'
Ink and was to form the foundation of a successful worldwide company for over
130 years. The writer remembers using the ink at Secondary School in the early
1960s. All school work having to be written using a fountain pen, biros
(ballpoint pens) being banned. The theatre was located at 88-90 Coleshill
Street, and opened in 1886 after extensive alterations and improvements. It
was, for a time, run by Charles Barnard, who owned theatres and music halls in
north Kent. At this time it had (surprisingly) a temperance bar. The 1897
rebuild within the brick shell of the old building was on fully theatrical
lines with horseshoe tiers, elaborate plasterwork and domed boxes. In 1920 it
reopened as a cinema. In September 1936 part of the gallery fell in after an
explosion in the operating box. The new Gaiety opened in 1938. It closed in
1969 and was demolished the following year.
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