New Buildings

Manor House, Great, but what date? I have no idea except after the war.

Sunbeam, I recall it was in front of, if I remember, a pet shop by the entrance to a dance school, but like others memory gets a bit hazy these days.

Rob I believe in 1936 nothing had been changed in New Buildings since Victorian days except maybe the Golden Lion. There were 'new rents' in Victorian times in Well Street, but no one seems to have mentioned - any ideas?

In the picture, I believe the first block of buildings on the left was erected between 1874 and 1888. The others are older. I think that these survived the war and seem to have been there still in the early 60s.

Hi Kaga, New Buildings, as a street, is a bit of a mystery to me, so I can only defer to your memories of its state in 1936. Along with Well Street they're among the places least photographed in our city. When I get time to check, there might more we can find out using newspaper archives and aerial photos, if there are any good enough quality images on Britain From Above.

Rob, If you look at post 14 on topic Trinity Street, you see it as 1936, bottom right-hand is Caldicots, as 1850 when it was next to Brecks, not been touched as far as I can see. Trinity Street destroyed it.

I didn't note the date Kaga. I was looking at something else and that picture was on the same page. I just know it was during the 1960s.

Hi Kaga, The problem with answering your question is that a lot happened between the Victorians and the war. The second issue arises from the shape of New Buildings. It started at the end of Ironmonger Row which was a few buildings beyond the bottom of Butcher Row/Bull Ring at what is now Nandos. It then travelled a short distance to the Meriden Tavern where it split and half went north to Hales Street the the other half continued east to the bottom of Hill Top. Originally it went further east by a few houses but it had been cut short by the Triumph Works. The south side then remained much the same apart from one timber building being rebuilt and cosmetic changes to the fronts of the timber buildings of which the Meriden Tavern belonged. Shortly after the planners had started designing Trinity Street on paper, Triumph bought a U shaped set of 3 terraces on the north side, next to their gates and built another factory unit there. From there the north side of that branch and the east side of the northern branch running all the way to the fire station didn't change much until they built over the river and the war. Butcher Row and the north side of Ironmonger Row were demolished to build the top end of Trinity Street and Owen Owen. Then the rest of New Buildings to the west was demolished, along with the Smithfield Market, Becks Yard and the east side of Palmer Lane. Caldicott's and a few buildings north of it on the west side of Palmer Lane were still there in 1939 and I assume they were destroyed during the war, although that's not guaranteed. As a reminder, this is the area looking south. New Buildings was at the top left, Palmer Lane on the right.

Another rare clippings shot from 1937 - don't you just love the ad, Anne!

Yes, Neil, we get everywhere! I have the history of the Yardley company, I wrote to them a long time ago and they sent me a book!

You Yardleys get everywhere Very nice picture and ties in very well with the previous one, which was also one of yours Everything to the left of the gap/gateway is New Buildings but there were, in Kaga's youth, additional buildings coming towards the camera. The image of the building on the right is mostly new to me and shows some very interesting details. Note the bricked up windows and the lighter brickwork showing the ghost of the neighbours. It's not unlikely that this building started out in timber but probably wasn't contemporary with the priory. It was built in the cathedral courtyard, which was built up at this end and cut into the hillside at the Priory Row end, to give a flat area accessed from partway up the Bull Ring/Butcher Row, where the Spotted Dog was sited. From the marks at the bottom of the building you can see that the courtyard floor was about 1.5 metres above the roadway. The retaining wall extends upwards almost as much again, which would have created privacy and safety for the monks. The wall continued closer to the camera and then headed both north and south. Apparently an additional gate would have cut off the New Buildings road and the wall would have extended all the way to the river. It was the western boundary to what eventually became Beck's. An additional boundary wall would have been at the eastern end of St Mary's cathedral though I'm not sure where.

See, this is why we are so lucky to have you here with us Helen. I had not even really taken much notice of that building on the right if I am honest. It's interesting to see it in comparison to today... So has that wall behind where the ladies walking been added or was it originally part of that building? It's certainly old stone. There is even an old blocked up doorway in it here, so it must be original? Whilst I'm playing with Google Maps I've also never really noticed before what they've done to get it all in and how narrow The Flying Standard gets!!

It's all about teamwork Neil I think that the whole wall, barring some tidy up of the end and top, is contemporary with the old picture. The missing string level at the bottom may be because of an early rebuild with less attention to detail or it may be stepped down and now below ground level as there is a slope towards the street. The ground level overall will be higher than when it was originally built. The doorway certainly looks original and I don't see a reason why it wouldn't have been original as it would have made a handy exit. I guestimate that it had steps up to the courtyard but in later years there was a small (brick?) building on the inside of the wall and small stables outside. There were multiple stables in that area. The arch doesn't properly finish at the top and I'm guessing that the wall had at least another foot of stonework on top of the current level including triangular coping stones. When the doorway was sealed up and the wall reduced is anyone's guess as there was plenty of spare stones to reuse. The Nandos building is post 1850 but the one next to it is older. That was a ribbon factory called Convent Place and now it's called the Ribbon Factory - both eras harking back to the past. I too had failed to notice how narrow The Flying Standard was at that end. Talk about beauty only being skin deep!

I well remember that narrow edge when I was trying to model the building, years ago now. It was all nice straight lines but every angle was odd and the ground not being level was a nightmare to get looking right. It certainly contributed to my eventual abandonment of the project.

Looks like you were doing a good job to me mcsporran