Holyhead Road

There's another proposal in today's Coventry Times regarding developing (read bulldozing!) the row of Court buildings at 5-7 Lower Holyhead Road. This is the planning proposal. I urge all forummers to register an Objection Comment on there. The row has been looked at to develop before. This was a proposal from 2008 when the Council's analysis declared "Despite the interesting historical nature of the site; little of historical interest remains at 5-7 Lower Holyhead Road." To be honest I never realised they were still there but surely they are worth saving!

I'd rather see money spent on rebuilding them from scratch and turning them into accommodation like they did with the Top Shops further up the road by the ring road, than let a developer bulldoze the lot and build something completely out of character, maximising the space to suit their financial gains without a hint of concern that it's in a conservation area.

Difficult one this. This is another little fragment of the pre-war city that is going to be demolished, and over the years many of these little isolated buildings have been demolished, such as pubs, fragments of old streets (such as on Bishop Street). They seem to be fragments left over during the post-war demolition that took place and sit awkwardly with the new streets. This is in an awkward position and might be difficult to get back into use. On the other hand, I think I'd rather see the Spon Street area expanded and reconstructed somewhat - all the gap sites filled in to make it look like proper frontages again and maybe re-used as housing, whether that's for students or residents. It is very worrying to see nothing but student developments. This is now a way to regenerate a city, and having a city centre that's slowly becoming reliant on downmarket stores, junk food and students is not good.

They''ll suffer the same fate as Wellington Gardens and Stanley Terrace. They'll be left to rot until the neighbours complain they've become an eyesore then they'll be pulled down and a memorial plaque erected on the site telling us what an interesting group of buildings they used to be. That's all that'll be left of Coventry soon, memorial plaques. I can visualise future generations reading the inscriptions on the plaques and thinking to themselves "If the buildings were so interesting why did they pull them down in the first place?"

A relative of mine died in 1917 at 50 Holyhead Road. Was this a hospital does anybody know, because she had an emergency operation for appendicitis. Thanks.

Hi Janeyb, In the Spennell's annual directory of Coventry & Districts 1912-13 (Source- page 541): "50 Holyhead Road: Medical and Surgical Home, (Wire, Nursing, Cov.; Tel 594) - Morley Miss, Matron." In the 1911 Census: 50 Holyhead Road is called "West & Sus House". It was run by Matron Elizabeth Gertrude Morley. There were 9 people (all women) living there at the time - 6 working there (1 matron, 3 nurses, 1 domestic cook & 1 domestic housemaid) and 3 patients. It seems odd that 2 of the people listed as patients have the occupation of nurse (perhaps they became ill/infected while treating others). They seem to refer to the house as a 'sick house'. The residents and patients of the house came from various places (Yorkshire, Dublin, Scotland, etc.) - none of the residents were born in Coventry. The house was a considerable size having 10 rooms (not including bathrooms or offices). In 1914 - the house seems to be referred to as "Coventry Shelter" - which is assumedly a children's home (as well as a hospital?) (Source). Luke.

My mother died of TB Christmas time 1939. My siblings and I would go to a house in that vicinity for regular check ups and x rays. Maybe the same house.

Was this building on a corner, of Barras Lane perhaps? If so, it was an orphanage in the 1960's. I was a pal of one of the boys there and if he came for tea, my mother had to write a note to the guy who ran the place.

There are several adverts in the Coventry newspapers between 1914 and 1918 for staff, it is called a nursing home then.

In the 1950's my mum used to take me to a clinic there, maybe on the corner of Dover Street. Not sure if this is/was the same place. Had a problem, whereby my toes were crossing over each other. They bandaged or plastered them together. Was convenient for us, as we lived in Sewall Highway, the No. 7 bus took us all the way.

Thank you everybody, it all makes more sense now. She must have been in the nursing home when she died. Her name was Connie Tatlow and she lived at The Rainbow Inn at Allesley. Is the nursing home building still there? I am not local.

All the buildings on that side of the road are long gone as also is the clinic on the other side. On this 1953 planning application No.50 is marked as "BLIND HOME". Click on image to view full-size:

Thanks Dutchman, That bit of information allowed me to find the name of (what I believe is) the shelter we are looking for: St Faith's Shelter (a charitable Anglican voluntary organisation - for women and infants in need) moved to the Holyhead Road in 1916-17 and left in 1946 (link to British-history.ac.uk). The Holyhead Road premises were then sold to the Coventry Society for the blind (link to British-history.ac.uk - 2). I cannot be 100% sure that this is 50 Holyhead Road - but it seems extremely likely in light of Dutchman's map above. I would imagine that the nearby Paybody eye hospital may have had connections with the house when it was owned by the Society for the Blind (?). Luke.

This link was posted very recently, Spennell's. No plagiarism here!

It was a link for Spennell's 1912-13.