Gosford Street

Rare painting of Gosford Street (95% sure). The building on the right of the picture is east of the chapel that was opposite Whitefriars Lane. Before the chapel was build there was a once grand half timbered building that had been converted into a malt house. There was an outside chance that the buildings on the left were those in Much Park Street but the steeple fits better with this being Gosford Street. I'm not entirely sure exactly which buildings the ones on the left are on the map. Somewhere from the Mermaid eastwards.

I can see why you would think that was Gosford Street Helen but there a number of problems with the picture: The building immediately this side of the chapel (No.22) did not have dormer windows as far as I know. The gap between Nos.18 and 22 in front of the chapel should have trees in it. The far end of the street appears to have trees in it. There appears to be an onion dome or decorative gable end above the rooftops on the right. The road in the foreground curves the wrong way.

Thanks Dutchman. All things I first thought, but I'm cheating. I've got a picture of 22 when the malt house was still there and it did have dormers. The trees in front of the chapel were planted when the chapel was erected and this image is while the malt house was still there (the black and white building that juts out on the right, which the malt house did). It might be trees in the distance but I assumed it was the fuzzy images of the street curving round to the right. The curve of the road on the left is a bit of an issue but that's why I'm having a bit of a problem placing it. I think that the left is a few buildings further east, where there was a slight bulge of buildings into the road. The older buildings were often more irregularly placed and when new buildings replaced them the street was tidied up. The painter is fairly close to the left side, which is perhaps emphasising that angle. There's an image somewhere looking the other way at Chambers wallpaper depot. I think the buildings on the left were where that was built. The onion dome is a bit of a mystery and the only thing I could come up with was that it was a wonky gable. It's a watercolour so that's a possibility. I may be stretching credibility a bit but I couldn't fit the view to any other street.

Gosford Street 1965

The white building's a paint shop Helen, "Stratacolour". It didn't sell anything except paint. There's a warehouse to the left of your picture, set back from the road, but that sold mainly ladieswear. There used to be a timber framed shop to the side of it but that was demolished around 1953 to make a customer car park. It was last used as a pet shop.

The Ring Road arrives......... Edited by Midland Red, 25th Jan 2016 8:53 am (Copied into "Inner Ring Road" thread for further discussion)

The beginning of the end.

Some time ago Annewiggy posted this image - I've now located it. The buildings were on the north side of Gosford Street. In the aerial photo below the red arrow shows the direction of view in Anne's photo. The large gabled building is left of the line and the building on the right of the photo is to the right of the red arrow. That's the three storey building still standing to the east of the Royal Oak. The arrow points roughly south east. I love these snippets of Coventry's architecture and they are essential to modelling the city. Thank you

Helen/Dutchman - this image purports to be a very early 1800's one of Gosford Street - any idea whereabouts?

The view is very similar to the one you posted just before only with much of the buildings changed. On the left is the New Inn. In the middle is a factory that replaced the old guard house to the gate. The wall to the right of centre is the bridge over the river and second to the right is the Anchor Smith pub. For more info see Images showing Gosford gate area

Brilliant Helen thanks - any idea of the date of that last one?

I know the factory was built after 1822 when the chapel was demolished and was itself demolished in 1889. The New Inn was rebuilt at some point but I don't know when. In another picture of it there is clearly a red pillar box near it and you can just see it behind someone in the photo and they came in after 1852. So somewhere between 1852 and 1889.

Just found a Coventry guide book from the early 1900's that I had forgotten about, it has some sketches that might be of interest.