Greetings from Birmingham!
This splendid view of the Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Birmingham seems to be from a more innocent time when university external communications focused simply on facts.
A new building for the School of Engineering was completed in February 2021. Featuring a full-sized set of railway points in the basement, a pantograph test-rig, and a test-track for hydrogen-powered trains, the new building has much to entertain. The old building, shown on the card is, I believe, still standing.
The back of this card, though, is the main event today. I’ve removed identifiers from the image to preserve the privacy of the sender and recipient.
Posted on 23 July 1967, it reads (as best as I can make out):
I had let some smoky basement rooms to the Rolling Stones for £15. People were dancing in them. I wondered whether all that hashish would be good for them. The Stones arrived in a Land Rover. They put on leather jackets and took no notice of my remonstrances. You were very [thin?] because one of them was boring you. They laughed and played cards all night, standing up. You never opened your mouth. You did not seem to notice me. I woke with a splitting headache – all those fumes I suppose.
I guess the card narrates a dream. But maybe someone out there knows better?
