Farewell Ian Allan Birmingham-Closed Saturday 14th September 2019!

The name Ian Allan is well known amongst British Transport Enthusiasts! An office worker with the Southern Railway in the thirties, Ian was the person assigned with answering queries from Railway Enthusiasts. To aid him in this, he suggested to his bosses that publishing a booklet containing all the details of it’s locomotives might make the company a little money, but this fell on death ears! His answer was to do this himself, calling the booklet the ABC. Leaving the Southern Railway, he set up Ian Allan Publishing in 1942 and produced ABCs for the other three Railways of the time, the Great Western Railway, the London Midland Scottish Railway and the London North Eastern Railway. In addition, he produced an ABC for all the vehicles of London Transport and began ABCs for various bus operations, including Midland Red (the first edition being published in 1948, of which I have a reproduced copy) and Birmingham City Transport.

He also began to publish books and magazines, the later including “Trains Illustrated” and “Buses Illustrated”, which would evolve into “Modern Railways” and “Buses” respectively, two titles still going strong today! Another magazine was “Railway World”, which is now today’s “Railways Illustrated” whilst, in association with the Light Rapid Transit Association, he produced “Modern Tramways”. In the late seventies, “Buses” would gain a bi monthly sister, “Buses Extra” which would be the first magazine to be sold off on licence in the nineties, becoming “Classic Bus” two issues latter. I’m not an expert on this but apparently the world of publishing has changed beyond all recognition and the ownership of the various magazines have all been sold on. Ian Allan himself sadly passed away in 2015.

But this blog is referring to the Ian Allan Transport Bookshop in Birmingham, originally one of four such shops across the country (the other’s being in Manchester, Cardiff and London Waterloo, this last one now being the only survivor, though for how much longer is anyone’s guess!)

The Birmingham shop has existed on three separate sites, the first being in the former Birmingham Shopping Centre, above New Street station. As well as the publishing business, Ian Allan had also opened a number of Travel Agents in his native South East (the business was based in Shepperton) and it was primarily as a Travel Agent that the Birmingham shop opened in the early eighties, with the rear of the shop being used for selling transport books and magazines. One company unhappy at this development was Birmingham’s main book store Hudsons, based on the corner of Stephenson Place & Stephenson Street, not too far from the new shop. Just a few years previously, Hudsons set up there own transport bookshop, a few doors along Stephenson Street from the main shop. Not only did Ian Allan take away many of this shop’s customers, they also head hunted it’s manager, Ann Davis, who certainly understood the business of selling Transport books. Hudson’s separate transport shop would soon close, such books returning to the main store. In the coming years, Hudsons would become part of the Dillons chain, which in turn would sell out to Waterstones, who subsequently moved all it’s Birmingham operations to it’s other stall on High Street, near to the junction of New Street (which I remember being Times Furnishing.) The Stephenson Place/Street stall is now Birmingham’s branch of the Apple Store (though it doesn’t look like a green grocers to me!)

The late eighties saw intense competition afflict the Travel Agency business, with the big boys (Thomas Cook, Lunn Poly etc) putting great pressure on smaller outfits like Ian Allan. Therefore, Ian Allan’s Travel Agency business was sold to WH Smiths, who took over the Birmingham Shopping Centre (by now known as the Pallasades) shop. The transport bookshop side wasn’t included, with a new shop being leased on Stephenson Street, almost directly opposite the Hudson’s Transport Bookshop of old. This shop was bigger, including a basement and lasted for many, many years! In the days to come, I’m sure it will be this shop that is remembered with most affection by the city’s transport enthusiasts. But it was in a block destined to be demolished to make way for the new New Street station building.

And so a third Ian Allan store would be opened, just off New Street on Ethel Street, now pedestrianised but once the home of an unloading only bus stop used by services from the south of the city terminating around the City loop (New Street, Corporation Street, Bull Street & Colmore Row) with short workings using Ethel Street as a terminus. This lasted until the pedestrianisation in September 1991.

The new store was opened by former music impresario Pete Waterman (of Stock, Aitken & Waterman, the team from the eighties who bought us Rick Astley, Sonia, Jason Donovan & Kylie Minogue-we should be so lucky!) whose also a keen Railway Enthusiast and was signing copies of his then new book about model railways. I was there, not because I wanted to meet Mr Waterman but because there was 10% off all purchases, so I was able to stock up on a few books that I wanted! Again, the new store had two floors, with the bus, tramway & railway section upstairs.

But times were changing! We were now in the era of the internet and many people were buying books cheaper from the likes of Amazon. Personally, I’ve always resisted this, as I’ve felt that having a Transport Bookshop like Ian Allan in the city was an asset too valuable to lose and besides, it was a real pleasure just to come into the shop and browse, looking at the new titles and usually buying at least one of these! Over the past thirty years, I’ve visited each of the three Birmingham stores regularly, mainly to buy “Buses” and other magazines. It was always nice to bump into fellow enthusiasts and have a chat, whilst looking at the books and I can honestly say that the store was an important part of my life! I suppose it was something I’d took for granted but alarm bells rang when it was announced that the Ian Allan shop in Manchester, on the approaches to Piccadilly station, was closing, due to the lease expiring. This wouldn’t have been long after Ian Allan’s death and I was told that it was he who had specifically kept the Transport Bookshops going in the business and that his two sons weren’t as keen to keep going what they considered to be declining businesses. Cardiff would soon follow, a victim of the redevelopment of the area around the bus station outside Cardiff railway station.

So I was prepared for the sad day when it was announced that the Birmingham shop was closing! But it didn’t stop me from feeling incredibly sad about it! Now there was no obvious place for me to go and get any new transport books that I wanted and, although “Buses” and most of the other magazines that I buy were available at branches of WH Smiths, there were several rarer magazines that could only be bought in the city at Ian Allan, without subscribing to them, such as the Omnibus Society Magazine, the Blackpool & Isle Of Man magazine “Trams” (and it’s associated videos) the LOTs Magazine “The London Bus” and it’s rival, “The Londoner,” all of which aren’t available elsewhere, other than by either signing up for subscriptions or by joining the relevant societies concerned. I suppose I’ll now have to consider doing this, though I doubt whether I’ll be able to subscribe to them all. Similarly, with the books, the only alternative to Amazon will be the various dealers who attend bus rallies and the like. Always happy to support these but, of course, bus rallies don’t happen every day!

But every cloud has a silver lining! Since the closure announcement, the store has been selling stock off at half price, with this being reduced even further, to a quarter of the marked price, on the last two days, meaning that I paid several visits to take advantage of this. To be honest, it was quite a sad experience to see the shop in such decline, with the shelves getting emptier as stock isn’t replenished but I was determined to take advantage of the final days of having an independent transport bookshop in my nearest big city! Here’s a photo of the books that I bought in the last days;

And so an era comes to an end! In conclusion, I’d like to wish all the staff the best of luck in finding alternative employment and raise a glass to an institution that has given me, and a lot of other Midlands based Transport Enthusiasts a lot of pleasure over the years!

Sadly, one less reason to visit Birmingham City Centre!

Update 2020

Fortunately, we Birmingham Transport Enthusiasts have been blessed with a new transport bookshop, run by a former manager at the Ian Alan store. Tornado Models & Books is based in Dalston Street, quite a tucked away little street near to the Crown Court. Dalston Street crosses Newton Street, and the shop is on the cul de sacked section opposite the NCP Car Park. Well worth seeking out next time you’re in town. Post Covid 19 Lockdown, the shop is open from 10-4 on Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays.