Little Palace Yard

I almost wish I hadn't seen that Anne As will Rosemary. What was Unity Way?

Sorry about that Neil And Unity Way never happened

I'm sorry Anne I can't read your newspaper cutting the print is too small. Do they want to change the name of Little Park Street to Unity Way?

Nice one Anne. It reads The idea of changing the name of the Little Park Street to Unity Way, has been abandoned by Coventry Planning and Redevelopment Committee. A minute rescinding the earlier decision will come before the City Council for confirmation at tonight's meeting. The move to change the centuries-old street was made because the road is to be widened and the lay-out altered as part of the city's redevelopment scheme. Unity Way was chosen to mark the council's interest in friendships overseas, which led to the award to Coventry in 1955 of the "European Prize" given by the Council of Europe to the municipality which had done most tp propagate the idea of European unity. The proposal to change the name of the street aroused strong protest from the public, and at the April meeting of the Council the decision was taken to ask the committee to reconsider. Cough. In light of recent events it's just as well they changed their minds.

Thanks both! They can't leave anything alone can they?

Sorry, I should have said the article was 1962

Yes Hopkins owned Palace Yard, which had the building where the royal guests visited or in the case of Princess Elizabeth (daughter of James l) stayed during the Gunpowder Plot.

The really sad and maddening thing for me is to know that my mother (born there in 1921) would have played in that garden and no doubt in the arbour! If only I had asked more questions, we don't though until its too late. I only knew the garden when Bushills wooden building was directly in front of the gates leading to it. I just recall a lilac and a pear tree. Mum did tell me that they grew vegetables in there and kept rabbits. On the morning following the Blitz, when destruction lay all around they went home from a shelter, not knowing whether the Yard would still be standing and found the mother rabbit laying over her babies to protect them - they had all survived the terrible night. The Yard had survived intact (until 1961 that is!).

Thanks all so much again. As you probably can tell with my (and Rosemary's!) family connection this has been one of my favourite threads. Rosemary, that is one the best things about this forum - stories such as that would have been lost forever if it was not for us all here. Special thanks to Anne and Herbert's Lad who originally posted this (and Mr JH Bacon of 184 Charter Ave!) Here's the enlarged image pre-war of the Arbour when it stood in the park. Interestingly as per Garlands' photos of the 'ruins' now, the information board states it was moved in 1930 however our research seems to suggest it may have been earlier now. I was inspired so much by recent events on here. Look, guess where I was with my youngest son seen here yesterday afternoon - yes he is standing on the plinth of 'our' very same Arbour. Rob - believe it or not - despite you posting a photo of this base about six years ago on here and my going past literally hundreds of times I never knew the base was still there! Its now almost completely hidden by a very large laurel bush. This is the exact spot in the clipping above! You can see to the left the bases of the smaller 'columns' either side of the main Arbour Arch. Ahhh - I love Old Cov!

It's somehow magical but a bit spooky to be linking the different steps of the past and present together but nice photo Neil and son. Rosemary, apart from the removal of the arbour, I'm not sure how much changed in the garden between 1921 and when she moved. Probably the wall continued to decay and the paths became less distinct but I think the decline started well before. You can see the rapid changes to the city even in 1850 as wealthy owners moved out and the land was turned over to the earliest factories. Little Park Street was particularly affected because of the size of the plots. To clear enough for a big (by their standards) factory, companies didn't need to deal with lots of small owners. Rentals may have come with strict clauses that they could be evicted when the land was needed. So the view of the LPY garden was blocked by the ugly storage shed and there was nothing they could do about it. Bushill's bought one of the earliest factories (ribbon making) which was set back from Little Park Street. They then bought or owned several buildings fronting the corner of Little Park Street and Cow Lane. When they had all the plots they needed, they built the big factory we have an image of. Near the other end of the street the plot that had been Bridgeman's was combined with several large Georgian/Palladian houses (including a ladies seminary) and one of the cycle factories was built. Over on Much Park Street the same thing happened. First the big gardens were built on and then the old street front was demolished. The LPY may even have been 'saved' by the war because it interrupted the progress of the city. It cleared a lot of land for development but eventually the LPY was in the way.

I wonder how Bushills moved their stored items to the factory over the road? As Rosemary mentioned they used the store that came to be built within the LPY garden - there must have been a side path/route to get over to Little Park Street. Re what's left of the Arbour - I love the fact that we are touching the actual thing in those faded old photos. I've mentioned before here but it's so hard for anyone of my generation and more (late 60's boy!) to associate and picture what we see on the web/forum and in books with what's left today. It's changed so much as has the perception of the city. It's even changing again massively now for my lads with all the current building so I especially love to find small bits of what was now - hidden away hiding its past.

From historicengland.org.uk Just realised the first picture looks like post 109 but the background looks different so probably that is Bushills warehouse, looks like something on a pallet in front of the building.

What great photos Anne, are there any others on Historic England? The first one is a bit like post 109, but from a slightly different angle. It clearly shows Win & Ray Yardley's front door. The building visible at the entrance to the garden is the wooden Bushills building. Its wooden step leading up to the front door of the building which you can just see. I remember sitting on them! The other phot shows two houses at the lower end of the yard on the right, just past Win & Ray's house. The toilet block is just out of the picture set back from the second house. None of the black and white photographs do the Yard justice. It looks very shabby and run down. It was in fact quite picturesque with its window boxes and hanging baskets. You can see from the little points of architecture that at one time it must have been quite grand. If the arbour was moved in the 1920s or early 1930s it couldn't have been to protect it in WWII as I had been told?

Hi Rosemary, There are no more of Little Palace Yard but there are a lot of pictures on the site Historic England. You can spend hours searching! Yes I can imagine it looked much nicer in colour with flowers etc. Such a pity that no one seams to have taken a picture of the arbour in the garden or even painted it. I still think it seems a strange thing to have been at White Friars especially the animals.