If you’re a history buff, one of the things you may have noticed while in lockdown is all the people who are experimenting with the various apps you can find for computer or smartphone which will colourise old photos. Far be it from us to see a bandwagon rumbling past without clambering on, so we’ve taken a few old pictures of Birmingham and put them through a number of these programs. The results are sometimes impressive, sometimes less so. Most end up looking like those hand-coloured postcards that people used to buy in the early 20th century. But either way, they do give us a small insight into life from the past, at least now in colour.
There’s some really lovely (and surprisingly well done) colourised photos of Birmingham throughout time here, mostly 1900-1930 I suspect. Unfortunately not all are dated, but still a good source of people in larger spaces too.