Alpha House, Barras Green

Just found this old film regarding 'Jacked Flats'.. Is it Coventry, it came up in a Coventry search? Jacked Flats

The road layout is about right Foxcote, just out of shot there should be a pub on the left... Not too sure.. .

Evening NormK, I thought it would be a tricky one, it hardly gives much detail of the location, sorry about that.

The surrounding buildings shown are exactly correct for Barras Green - I'm sure it is Alpha House myself.

Thanks jvb, although it's a short bit of film, it's an interesting one if it is Alpha House, there was some writing on one of the models, I couldn't decipher it though

My great aunt Mrs Charlie, moved into Alpha House when it was first built, she use to live in Goring Rd, in a flat but they moved her to the 'Jack block' flats, she was on the first floor, which was up 2 flights of stairs. She loved the under floor heating, use to air all her clothes under her rugs, I was always expecting her to fall and break her neck as the rugs kept getting higher. She loved it there as the caretaker was a really nice man and looked after her well.

I too saw them being built in the 60s but with always going to visit the wife's family by car I've never seen them for years, on Monday we were in town so we got the number 10 bus and it took us past them so I had to take these two photo's just to show I can move about your city freely plus seen loads of changes over the years to all parts of your city

I spotted this the other day looking up a reference to Alpha House, I am sorry I am 4 years late in responding. I was a trainee with Costain's the construction company that invented Jack block, and I worked on the Barras Heath site summer 1962and summer 1963, the first and the last six months of the project. My job included taking many of the hundred of visitors round and explaining the technicalities of the building's construction. I wrote this up in a college essay which I still have. I can go into the technicalities if anyone is interested. I would like to correct some misunderstandings. Alpha House/Jackblock is unique in U.K. A modified version was used for a tall block in Holland, and the lifting technology was incorporated in a few earthquake zone buildings to allow the building to be corrected in the event of foundation movement. The car parks and office block elsewhere in Coventry were built using the Liftslab system (developed by RM Douglas of Wolverhampton), the technology was very different - the one thing in common was that a lifting process was involved. One correspondent mentioned problems with wedges. This cannot have been Jackblock as the floor structure was locked onto the vertical central core by post-tensioning (excuse technical term but the explanation is complicated), wedges were not involved. There is a lot more to this story but much would probably be of greater interest to a technical audience than the general reader.

An explanation of the construction technique can be found in a 1964 edition of New Scientist

Long before Alpha House was being constructed, I remember the fair being held on Barras Heath at the top end near Heath Crescent as I recall. It must have been about 1946. I don't know if it was a regular feature there at that time before the Hearsall Common one. Can anyone confirm?

When I lived in Powell Road as a child in 1944, I seem to remember being able to see from the end of the road, across Barras Heath, a derelict building that is in my memory as being an old stamping works. I can't now pin it down from any maps or websites. Does anyone recall such a building at that time?

Hi, Argon I lived in Burlington Road and recall being told that Bretts Stamping of Harnall Lane at one time had a drop forge shop there.

Sounds right Col, that name was at the back of my mind but even when I saw it, it seemed to be derelict. Thanks.

Bretts Stamping has its own forum thread here

There were 2 jack blocks in the city, Alpha House and the other one that never gets a mention, the office tower block at Massey Ferguson which went up in 1965. From my own collection, this shows Mercia House under construction.