Little Park Street

Morning Neil, That's a good one, I would be interested in that too.

The big white 'box' on the corner of Little Park Street and Earl Street is Gibberd's temporary showroom. It occupies the same site as their prewar showroom.

Whats the taller building to the lower right - with the long arched windows - pretty much where the Magistrates Car Park would be now?

It had once been a ribbon factory but was later used as the technical college.

Any ideas which ribbon factory it was, Dutchman? Is there a reference book about each of the weaving factories and where they were situated in the city?

David Spencer's

Does this help?

This one from a 1935-6 directory.

The ribbon factory had a postal address in Earl Street Heathite, No.37 according to the 1886 directory. It had become a technical college long before the turn of the century. At least 50% of the original factory buildings behind Earl Street were destroyed in the Blitz.

Hi Dutchman, thanks for the information. It seems the area was teeming with Ribbon manufacturers around 1886. Regarding 'where the photograph of Little Park Street' was taken, I find it difficult to believe it was taken from where you suggest. It seems far higher than that. Could it not have been taken from an aeroplane? Thanks.

Kirby House looks much better here in 2015

I think Dutchman was referring to the one linked in above by Red Heathite.

Yes I was NeilsYard and having looked at old maps it could not have been the brewery building but may well have been the planning office which replaced the old ribbon factory/technical college.

One of the four (?) cottages in Little Park Street between Kirby House and the other taller building was the original Coventry Register Office. I know that because in 1966 I was married there. Those were the days before plastic wheelie bins and the binmen used to hoist metal dustbins on their backs to take them to the bin lorries. The Registrar had just begun our wedding service when there were loud clanking sounds coming from the small alleyway between the Register Office and the next cottage. We were all told to sit down and wait for the din to subside before the service could start again!