City Hotel, Broadgate

And that was the rebuilt King's Head. One of the tallest (and maybe the tallest) buildings that wasn't a church was the 4/5 storey building you can see just behind the Kings Head on Smithford Street. Much to my surprise it turned out to be a timber framed building. What I don't know was if it was jettied or not. The roofline suggests it might have been which would have made it an impressive, if precarious, sight.

Thanks NY, I appreciate that - I have seen those, but not a similar view of the City Hotel to compare heights. Helen, do you mean the building jutting out? That was the King's Head Inn that was developed into the hotel, the building alongside Broadgate replaced a smaller building which had Piggott boot & shoe shop on its corner.

Good picture. No I mean the one beyond the King's Head, just visible in that picture you post, partially obscured by the City Hotel. It's taller than the King's Head, by some margin.

Ah! That one, I don't recall any info about it unfortunately.

Don't think I have put this one on before Helen. I find it fascinating that we think of Broadgate as an open space but this 1875 picture shows Smithford Street as the main thoroughfare with Hertford Street and Broadgate running off it. I think you can just see the tall building you are referring to behind the Kings Head on the left. The City Arms on a corner on the right. Broadgate on the right does not look very wide at all and appears to be cobbled.

Another great picture Anne. That's one of a series taken around the same time and everything about them is interesting. The clothes, the road surface, it's a real time travel image. The area was even more cramped originally, with overhangs and extra buildings. Hertford Street is 'new' and Broadgate was even narrower. The City Arms is marked by the red arrow on the map below. There were 2 or three buildings facing south in that block judging by the space. I don't know of a map that details their footprint. I know what the north and east sides look like but not the south.

Have you looked at the 1750 map in "Old map scans" under the Historic Coventry tab. It is a modern interpretation but it gives some idea.

Yes thanks Anne, I think I've seen all the maps. There is a theory that there was a passage running along the City Hotel to the Castle Hotel. It makes sense. It might have made the demolition easier. At the north end it ran under a building that intersected with the Castle Hotel. Similarly the south end might just have been a passage under one of the demolished buildings. However it might have been open air behind the frontage. Your site's looking good Osmiroid

If we look at Osmiroid's picture gallery we have some great history. On one we have the water-barrel-cart driven into Hertford Street. The water from the Well Street pump to various parts of the city at half-penny a bucket, and on another the people standing in line outside the City Hotel look like the Coventry statutes, male servants for hire, stood in row. Market stalls down to the Burges. But here we see the City Hotel in its heyday, by 1928, a century old, it was demolished.