Coventry Pubs

Another view of the entrance to the Bull Yard with the Three Tuns on the left and the Peeping Tom on the right:

Dutchman, yes I am confused, I felt that the 'Peeping Tom' building was a little left of the church entrance almost in front of the church, and Neils picture 932 was to the left of your picture, being small the Three Tuns and the Vaults didn't register at all.

Midland Red, thanks for the Silver Link again. Now I thought before the war, the King's Head Hotel was in the old Smithford Street, nowhere near 'Peeping Tom'

Peeping Tom certainly moved about a bit. Looking for scantily clad ladies maybe. I don't know when he was carved but the first point I know he was located he was looking out of the window on the corner of Hertford Street and Smithford Street. It was above a tobacco shop. That building and the original Kings Head were demolished and the bigger more ornate Kings Head took up the whole location and Tom again had his own window. Later (post war or before?) he was moved to the Bull Yard entrance to the pub of the same name. Hertford Street itself isn't original but there is a cartoon sketch of what would be the corner with Smithford Street and the building had a Tom peeping out of his own niche. It doesn't look like the carving but that may just be artistic style. The date on the building read 1760 so he may have been there from the start. He may be even older.

Helen, I wonder who that is peeping through a keyhole (or up to no good)

Plans have been approved to turn The Black Horse in Spon End into a house of multiple occupancy. Black Horse

Before I was old enough to drink we'd spend a lot of our time hanging around outside The Bell Inn, in Keresley. We'd stand inside the door on the lounge side and warm ourselves on the radiator until the landlady would come and chuck us out. I think she would tolerate us for so long because of the money we spent in the offie on fags and sweets. Sometimes we'd cross the road to The Coronation Club and if someone's dad was about we'd get in there for a while. Strangely my first local became The Shepherd and Shepherdess, in those day a Berni Inn. We drank in the bar, much to the disgust of the locals at the time, though after a while we became accepted. The locals I remember were an old guy called Jack who played darts, he couldn't lift his arm above the shoulder and used to throw a sort of cross body underarm style. There was a guy called Graham who played darts too, his wife was an old school friend of Colin Stein's wife and brought him down the pub when he signed for the City. Another darts player was Gerry Hyland, a jovial Irishman, who was also on the committee at The Coronation. I remember him calling Bingo one night and he cleared the board after someone called for a line - I thought they were going to lynch him. There was a football team run from the bar as well by a disabled guy called Pete, who drove one of those blue disabled cars - lethally if you got in his way. If we were flush, after the bar shut we'd go round the back room and have a gammon and chips, then sit at the little bar in the downstairs restaurant chatting until they threw us out. Later a guy called Steve Mills became manager, and he took a dislike to me, so I started drinking in The Olde Hall on Tamworth Road more often. Nothing to do with the 2 barmaids, Julie and Trudi, nothing at all. When we got cars we'd take a drive on Sunday lunchtimes, starting at the Shepherd then out to The Bull and Butcher, then The Red Lion, onto the Cottage, then through the lanes to The Bulls Head in Meriden, and one at The Queens Head if there was time. In those days the pubs only opened 2 hours on a Sunday lunchtime, so we had to get a move on. Thus my early drinking years about 1971 to 1973. I became a member at The Coronation straight after my 18th birthday, as we all did, but everyone knew our ages in those days, so you couldn't get a pint there until you were 18, which for me was 1972.

So, you are now living the Sixties - your own,

Hi Disorganised.... Did you know Jimmy Reynolds who also used that club at the same time that you were drinking there?

PixRobin - You call this living ? Norman - My memory isn't what it used to be, and I'm especially bad at names. However there was a father and son called Big Jimmy and Little Jimmy, but I think their name was McCluskey. So sorry not by name alone, could you describe him, including his age at that time ?

Although I never had any connection with Keresley, a couple of Disorganised1's hostelries are certainly familiar to me. At the age of about 17 I was exploring the various pubs around Coventry and was then introduced to the world of working mens' clubs where the beer was invariably cheaper. My mates and I needed to join the CIU but most had full membership quotas. Then we heard that the Keresley Coronation Club was taking on members so we turned up and duly paid about a quid for the precious card that would admit us to any club in the city. We then took it upon ourselves to visit as many CIU clubs as we could and soon had been to most of them. The Coronation Club was very handy for when we had been playing football on the mudbath that masqueraded as football pitches at Coundon Hall Park so we did get to our 'home' club quite frequently. About 20 years later we were into quite serious quizzing and regularly did the Coronation quiz. Then I was asked to replace the former quiz host who had retired, so I wrote and presented the quiz there for about 3 years, along with a couple of other WMCs around the city. I also frequented the Shepherd & Shepherdess on occasions. As D1 says, it was a Berni Inn, so it was a useful place to take a potential girlfriend and impress her for relatively little money. Prawn cocktail, steak & chips and ice cream for about twenty five bob! I must have done that about half a dozen times. How sophisticated we were.....

My friends all had regular girlfriends and I didn't, so I started drinking in town. My first regular watering hole was The Golden Cross, and so it remained for next 10 years. We formed a darts team and played all around the city as we worked our way up the leagues, achieving promotion in 4 consecutive seasons. From the Cross we would regularly set out on a 'crawl' around the nearest pubs. From the Cross we would go to the 'Dive', The Lady Godiva, then down to The Greyhound, back to The Bear, then on to The Dog and Trumpet. If we had 'the ladies' with us we would choose a more sedate group of hostelries. Starting from the Cross we would go to Water's Wine Bar, from there to The Rose and Crown, then out the backdoor and across to The Penny Black, before finishing up at the 3 Tuns. Not many of these old time pubs are left now, but others less popular at the time have grown with the student influx. The Oak Inn, which used a be a linoleum floored run down pub, used mainly as an Irish Club is now a large student venue, The Colin Cambell has become The Phoenix. The Bear is now a building society, Water's just disappeared. Ray's Bar in the Hotel Leofric, where we used to stop for a 'Sky Blue Special' after an especially good City win, was closed, and years later the whole hotel followed. The Alhambra, a great character pub, run for while by Coventry singer Don Fardon, was pulled down for no apparent reason. The Greyhound, another pub I played darts for, fell to the developer's pen. Once again I found myself running out of friends, as they were taken away to 'The Institution' but I moved to another area of Coventry, and carried on drinking.

disorganised1. I do also remember these watering holes and you're right, they have all changed for the worse. Mymain local was the Market Tavern and the City Arms and the Rockhouse, ending up at the Top Spot but I also used go to the Penny Black and all of the pubs you have mentioned - good old days, why did they have to go.

The Grange transformed into a Co-op food store

Glad to see the old place is being used again instead of being demolished I hope they've kept the oak tree in the car park that my father in law paid for when he was landlord of the Grange we had some great times there.