Bishop Street

Hi, these images of Bishop Street 1935-6 may help. The small image is the beginning of the street and the second image is the rest.

This is the 1886 directory and there are two saddlers I think.

A new view of Bishop Street following the demolition of the Royal Mail building

These city centre streets really need building up again.

HI there, I live close to the building that was the Admiral Codrington and watched as it was converted into flats, approximately 6, used mainly by students. Also I am interested in the fact that St Columbas Close was once part of the main (Tamworth) road into/out of the city.

The way I saw it. Bishop Street was the bottom half of a Y junction, one fork led to Radford the other to Longford and beyond. And trams had a hard job to climb its steep hill. It was controlled by a policeman who stood on a small platform, at the middle of the junction, but its main drawback was for fire engines that had to negotiate its bends at speed. And the Castle pub, I swear we took coats of paint off it every time we went by, and the policeman cowered by the basin gates every time he heard the 'bells' in the distance heading his way. I can visualize the trams heading towards the Foleshill Road, but not Radford direction, anyone remember?

You bring so much to this site Kaga. Memories of yesteryear that many of us cannot even visualise. Thank you for your input. Robin

Quite correct Kaga, Radford wasn't served by trams, see this tramway map.

Thank you pixrobin.

Hello to one and all. And I agree with Robin. Now Kaga, I know that we are similar age but your memory is better than mine. I think that you were once in the fire service so is this true? The policeman at the top of Bishop St stood on a wooden platform so constructed to cancel out the quite steep slope at that section of road and so gave the policeman a level place to stand. The driver of any fire appliance would drive at the platform and send the copper running and demolish his platform at the same time. There was a joke that they tried to employ policemen with one leg longer than the other just for point duty at that junction. It was said that Radford Rd was unsuitable for trams due to the slope on the main road near the Grapes pub.

Norman Conquest. Hi, I have no idea why he stood on the stand, but there was not room for him and a fire truck of any kind in that space, if you approached it from Foleshill Rd to Radford it was the damned 1st bend to take at speed, it was like aiming for the pub, it was after a fire we should have drove into the pub, needed a drink. If you approached it from Bishop St it was a little better as the hill lessened your speed. but some of the guys nearly hit the canal wall, a real Dads Army crew.

Hi Kaga, I was stationed at Hales St in 1959 so I saw that run up Bishop St a few times as a few of the chimney fires were around the Radford area, so it was straight across. I was on red watch, and there were a couple of vintage firemen on our watch. There was some mention of the Green Goddess a while ago, it was used for training the Civil Defence volunteers when we were on nights.

Hi arthurp. Had the pub gone in 59 then, because there is slight left round the pub to Radford surely, I thought the plumbers house was opposite the pub but behind the basin wall, and the big double gate to the canal just slightly left and behind the policeman? Oh god those chimney fires, the water used to trickle down my arm, down the inside of my clothes, down my leg into my boots, on steep roofs.

Unusual view pre-clearance looking north - 1952

NeilsYard, great picture, now to get to Radford you had to go left slightly from Bishop Street, and right to Foleshill but coming from Foleshill to Radford in a fire engine at speed round that house was a bit hair-raising But to prove another point, in a dull picture like that you have a very attractive girl, Coventry had more than its fair share of them. I simply loved it.