Demolition around Coventry

Can anyone identify either of these 2 buildings for me. I am sure someone will know what the large building is but the half timbered one might be a bit more difficult.

The large one looks a bit like Leigh Mills, but I'm not sure if LM was that many floors?

Can anybody tell me why the Tudor style pub that was set back on the corner of Hales Street opposite the Hippodrome (now the Transport Museum) was knocked down and was replaced by just a boring patch of grass as I remember this building from when I was younger and is no longer there.

Has anyone else seen the huge holes on the site of the gas holders? Top deck of a double decker (900) coming down the slip road from the Holyhead Road onto the ring road gives an excellent view!

That would be The Smithfield If you put "Smithfield" in the search box at the top, you will find several references to it in other threads on this site

This is me lifting a underground petrol storage tank at the Foundry at the end of Grove Street..

Cracking action shot NormK Looks a delicate job, how deep were the tanks then?

From what I remember the top of the tank was about 3 feet below the surface, the tank itself was about 6/7 feet deep and 10 feet long. The reason why it looks like I was struggling a bit, most tanks are in wet sand and once you break the suction they come out quite easily

Looks as though you were a bit handy with a drot in those days Norm great photo

Are you thinking of the Smithfield? A lot of people couldn't understand why it came down. Protest as we did, the council, like a spoilt child, had to have its own way. The Coventry Theatre / Hippodrome, one of the pubs in Bishop Street, the next one to come down will be junction 6 on the ring road, because the spoilt brats in the Council House say so.

To be fair, the pub on Hales Street was supposed to be replaced by a new building, but it fell through due to the lack of demand for housing in the centre of the city (Coventry just isn't lively enough for city centre living). The last thing I heard they were trying to get student flats (Surprise surprise!) built there. That 'square' outside the car museum is pretty ghastly... A big empty space with those pointless arches and assorted clutter in it, and the 'phoenix' initiative, that was to incorporate the canal basin and the space between Trinity and Burges has stalled. The area was much better before - it should have been renovated, not all destroyed for a gimmicky development that hasn't worked. I disagree about junction 6, it goes some way to repair the considerable damage the ring road has done to the city. Even the changes made to made to remove all the subways make the link between and city centre and station better.

Ok, I've worked out the location of the half timbered building. It's the north side of Gosford Street, just east of the Royal Oak on the south. I'll give more details on the Gosford Street thread. The left side is the back of the buildings, the right is the side.

Hi all - sorry to report that George Hilditch passed away just before Christmas. Remembered many times on here although mainly for demolition but also for his attempts to save parts of the city the Council wasn't bothered with. RIP.

Hello all. I am new personally to this forum. I stumbled across this post and thought I would make an account. My father Norm K sadly passed earlier this year. It is lovely to read these posts that my Dad made on the forum and reminisce the stories he used to tell us.

Hi Vince, welcome to the forum Your Dad was a great contributor and was missed when he went. I'm glad you found his posts.