Earl Street (inc. Palace Yard)

North side, replaced by the Council House. Have a look at the fire insurance maps at the British Library (Rob's are too late).

It is a rare photo. Eventually more might pop up. Off ebay, I grabbed a copy of a postcard for a shop near the east end of Earl Street near Bayley Lane. Not part of the block demolished for the Council House but not covered elsewhere. Some of the shops seem to have had postcards as advertising. Kaga you need to expand that comment to explain what you mean.

An advert from 1886. They were still advertising until at least 1899. They moved in 1901 to the corner of Earl Street and St Mary Street

Thanks Anne. The purchase and demolition took years, so much so they built a little park with grass and railings. Some businesses owned multiple buildings so blocks vanished together but individual properties lingered. The yards weren't always owned by the same owner as the front property, so you get the view in the Phipson where the front has been demolished but the yard remains. The fronts were a mix of brick newer buildings and brick clad medieval timber buildings but the yards were often half timbered 2 storey properties. Troughton captured a few on that side of the road and a lot more on south side. As you see from the Prof's post at #34 once they removed the front row partway, they widened the road. Which is why the Phipson confused me as I expected the yard to be some distance from the road. I was. Some distance from the original road.

Looking at those Fire Maps they occupied most of that front row.

Helen F. I thought all three were coming in through from the entrance on Earl Street, the south side not being touched till the blitz?

Kaga, yes, there were 3 remaining buildings on the corner of Hay Lane after the bulk of the stretch had gone, 1 or 2 of them were still there even as they were building the council house but number 11 was further east and demolished some time before 1901. As you say, the south side wasn't part of that demolition, although bits of it were regularly being changed.

Any chance of seeing that one Helen?

If it turns up again, I'll link to it. It went in my unsorted pile of which there are now thousands!

Morning all Had to quickly post this one up from my friend Dean Nelson on the True Cov FB page - as we know the south side of the western end of Earl Street is poorly covered by photos however after looking in to this - this is 1923 and the Prince of Wales visiting - Gibberd's is showing behind which was at No.50 on the corner of Earl and Little Park Street. Don't think I have seen as good an image of that section head on before - *UPDATE* Dean has just sent me the link to this - the image was a captured still from this film which includes at 02:46 the section of that row - The Council House would only be about three years old here - great rare footage-find! 1923 Prince of Wales

Immensely popular at the time the Prince of Wales stood only five and a half feet tall, and as you can see he didn't look short, there were few six-footers in those days. Gone was most of the cloth caps - Coventry in its Sunday best. Helen, wasn't the old White Bear about where Gibberd stands, re-named in 1811 to the Craven after the popular and humorous Lord Craven by his friends? Also one of Coventry's leading Coaching Posts.

Kaga the White Bear was further along westwards in High Street -

Gibberds was right on the corner with Little Park Street and replaced some 2 storey half timbered, jettied buildings. At the same time the entrance to LPS was widened. One of Coventry's celebrated vaulted medieval cellars was on or near that corner plot. There is a theory that it might still be there. As Neil writes, the Craven/White Bear was further west. About halfway along the High Street. Confusingly The High Street and Earl Street appear somewhat interchangeable through the ages and few people were sure where they started or stopped. So a reference to the castle (real one not the pub) on Earl Street could as easily mean the High Street.

Helen, There you go, another one of those royal warrants, but this one must have been one of the oldest, on the Craven. Gilberts in the Burges had one. Fortune and Mason also - they were ten-a-penny at one time. Yes, I suspected the Craven was a little higher, but a little lower, could have been Jordan Well. east of the Council House was a large tract of waste land surrounded with a cattle fence for many years through the war.

Helen I missed that first line above the photo, my book says the White bear was changed to the Craven.