Bishop Street

What I like about some of these old photos is that they show how busy the streets were. That whole area is now economically dead.

Unusual view from a postcard looking up Bishop Street circa 1910: (apologies, Red already has the coloured-tinted version) What's the building at the top of the road?

I am fairly certain these were the offices of the canal company.

There used to be a bust of Peeping Tom attached to a building at the bottom of Bishop Street. I noticed on GoogleEarth that all the buildings have now gone. Anyone know what happened to the statue? I always looked for it from the top deck deck of the No.2 bus from Radford when it stopped adjacent to it. Apologies if this has already been covered but I cannot find reference to it elsewhere on the forum.

Bottom of Bishop Street 1931

King Street used to run down the side of The Admiral Codrington, from the Leicester Row / St Nicholas St / St Columba's Close junction, which is opposite the gate to the canal basin, to what today is Wickes car park.

Mother, aged 85 and visiting me from Coventry at the moment, believes this is the junction of Bishop and King Streets and that the pub on the corner is the Castle.

As Primrose points out, The Castle Hotel was on the corner of King Street while the Codrington was some distance up St Nicholas Street at the junction with Radford Road:

The Codrington is definitely in St Columba's Close today, Could the road layout have been different then? Or could the Castle have had a name change? I thought The Stag, but today that's on the corner of Lamb Street and Bishop Street.

Bishop Street 1875, with the name "Castle" on the pub. I notice there is also an "Inn" on the other side of the road!

That'll be the Cranes Inn

The road layout was different then. Radford Road was diverted and the orphaned section renamed St Columba's Close. The Castle was demolished not long after the Ring Road was built in 1960 for no good reason.

The pub closed a while ago now. It's been turned into a set of offices. I walk past there twice a week Glad I found out about the history of how St Columba's Close came about - thanks Dutchman

I know it closed, I'm surprised it's been converted into offices, I thought it would have been flats. I'm still confused about the whereabouts of King Street, Could it have been where the footpath is today down the side of Machine Mart, to Upper Well Street?

Pretty much, although the route has been straightened-out and the original buildings demolished so it's difficult to make a direct comparison with the past. Likewise "Lamb Street" which didn't even connect to Bishop Street originally!