Smithford Street (inc. Ram Bridge)

I was hoping someone would ask me that Morgana It was George W. Jelley's chemist shop which was built into the frontage of the pub as was common practice at the time. There was another shop to the right of that one out-of-picture - Henry Godfrey, milliner and haberdasher - which may or may not have also been built into the pub frontage. The nearby City Arms, Rising Sun and King's Head also had retail shops built into their street frontage.

Hi forum, I am trying to research a 'J. Judd' who was the owner of the City Hotel that was just across the road from Peeping Tom on Smithford Street. I can't seem to find anything I guess he was the owner/landlord in the 1850's/60's. I was just wondering if anyone had a record at hand which might suggest when he left the place? I'm led to believe he might have left in the early 1860's. If anyone has anything, that would be amazing. Cheers.

Welcome to the Forum, Lookingback I'm no expert and you will need to confirm the following details. I have used genealogy sites and newspaper archive and found a bit of 'timeline' for you to use, it seems to flow for me and makes sense but as I say it must be confirmed. John Judd, 1811-1887 Married Rebecca Wilson, 1841, Blaby, Leics. 10th December, 1847, he was at the Kings Head Tavern, Parkgate, Coventry 13th October, 1854 there was a transfer of licence from Mr. Thomas Bailey to Mr. John Judd for the City Arms. 22nd June, 1860, another transfer of licence from John Judd to Robert Choules, City Arms. 1861 Census, John Judd, retired Innkeeper with Rebecca, Ladies Hill, Kenilworth. 1871 Census, the odd bit. John Judd and Rebecca, The Rodney Inn, Coleshill Street, Birmingham, 60years and 58 years . 1881 Census, Back to Kenilworth, Milbrook Cottage, Ladies Hill. Death of John Judd in 1887, aged 76, registered at Warwick. 10th September, 1887, Auction of two properties, 'Abbotsford' and ''Thornlea' in Kenilworth, Rebecca was living in 'Thornlea', that was gleaned from the newspaper archive. So, lots to study and contemplate, hope it helps.

Heck this is amazing I spent ages and couldn't find anything. Was sort of thinking someone might have the odd old trade book knocking about but this is great. I'm sure it's correct, so I guess being that the surname is a pretty unique one and all that it must be right. I can only guess that the City Arms must also have been the City Hotel?? The above does makes sense in other ways. I got the feeling that Mr Judd left the City 'whatever' no later than around 1860. I have a pretty blurred photo of the 'City Hotel' sign on the building. I'll dig it out put it in here if anyone is interested. Many thanks, your info should open a lot of doors with a bit of luck.

Brilliant! looks like that's been cracked now really. I wasn't 100% sure if he might have been there years later, say 1870's/80's because of the above photo, though other info pointed to around the 1850's. It's a bit confusing because all the other photo's on the 'Pictures of Coventry' site don't have that sign on. It would appear that Mr. Robert Choules took it down sometime around 22nd June 1860.

Helen F, here is a photo of Smithford Street off the net somewhere, I can't recall where I found it, I'm sure Rob was looking for this one too.

It's a nice photo and not identical to the ones I've already got for Smithford Street. It might show me a detail or two that is missing/changed in the later ones. I continually marvel when I see the older pictures with horses in them. Horse drawn vehicles and photography don't fit in my mind. Thanks. Unfortunately the views that looked good for one photographer looked good for the next and for artists too. In consequence I've got loads of pictures of the same things and nothing of the boring bits. Sometimes I can zoom into the background of images and see hints of what was out of plain sight so they're all useful. Every time I go through the books I've got on Coventry I see a picture that previously I'd skipped over because I didn't think it held any new clues. The oddest photos show the new stuff. Pictures of pubs or the Godiva procession often yield snippets of buildings not normally captured and aerial photos are useful because they show roofs and the order buildings appeared. Sometimes you get a photo of a street and can't work out where it is on the map but proximity to pubs or an outline from an aerial photo can often pinpoint them.

Yes interesting when you can zoom onto the buildings in the background. I was wondering, right to the back of the photo, bottom of the street, it looks like a building shaped like one of the gates of Coventry, square shaped. funny you should mention snips of pubs, that still goes for directions nowadays. I do think paintings reveal more detail, that of course depends on the artists as they do tend to leave some things out.

That is the tower of St John's Church, morgana

Thank you Midland Red for the ID of the building.

Interesting that you would be able to see that from the main shopping street. It's sad that they never kept that church as a 'landmark' building, but instead obscured it so you can't really see it from the Precinct area. Would have made an interesting townscape and could have been tastefully incorporated into the new city. I read that Mercia House (the tower in the Lower Precinct) was built because someone decided that the area needed a 'focal point'... (focal point meaning, I presume, that an architect thought his ego needed stroking by randomly plonking a tall office block in a somewhat arbitrary location).

I think we need you on the Town Planning Council Flapdoodle! I agree with a lot of what you say with regard to the town planning. My judgment is only from what I learn from you all on the forum but I do see the changes made since 1974 and I can't say I like or agree with most of them but progress has to be made so some have to live with that. Your comments on Coventry are very interesting.

I think that Mercia House was intended to be some sort of 'statement' and was subsequently copied by Hillman House and Coventry Point. Of these three only Mercia House was built by the Council and included 96 flats on 19 floors and it was a small attempt to bring residential property back into the centre. They were let on short leases by the Council and consequently did not form part of the Council Housing Stock [similarly two blocks of flats in Corporation Street - one now part of the Belgrade Theatre and the other in Belgrade Square over the top of Newsomes showroom/Lunn Poly]. Mercia House was subsequently transferred into the Housing Stock and as such transferred to Whitefriars in 2001. I lived on the nineteenth floor of Mercia House between 1971 and 1975. My abiding memories are the power cuts which involved a lengthy climb in semi or sometimes complete darkness and the IRA explosion which I was convinced was right beneath me!

Mercia House was actually originally planned as an office development, but they changed it to residential sometime between planning it and finishing it off and converted it to flats. I assume that this happened because of the lack of demand for commercial office space in the city centre. As a residential tower it was apparently difficult to let the flats and this is why it's ended up neglected. If you go round the back of the Lower Precinct, there's a very odd space that's been created due to the angles between buildings - I guess some of it still follows the line of Smithford Street (the shop that used to be Superfi) whereas the precinct is at a different angle. It was probably a consequence of the restrictions on tall buildings being lifted that led to a series of 'towers' going up. I don't mind tall buildings, myself, but Coventry's are all in somewhat odd locations. Especially the three mentioned.