Broadgate

I think this is the date of post 664, 23rd March 1956, Queen Elizabeth laid the foundation stone of the new cathedral. She also visited the Jaguar Factory.

Fantastic, well done Anne! I'd never have guessed the foundation laying ceremony, but at least that's another great Coventry photo-mystery solved, thanks to one of our super-sleuths!

Oh God! I'm losing it. 23 March 1956, I had gone to Liverpool to back the Queen Mother's horse Devon Loch, that slipped a few yards from the post. How could I forget her daughter visited Coventry.

Oh so very 'Coventry' that one Prof. Thanks for showing.

Prof, On post 671 you mention a bank, was that a building after the 50's as I know nothing about it. On the corner of Smithford St and Broadgate was the bank of Woodcock and Son, around 1820, probably Coventry's first bank - you can't be referring to that, can you?

Kaga, I think Prof is referring to the Nationwide which was in the gap under the bridge. The view will be a bit like it was before the bank was put there.

Yes, Anne only I thought it was Barclays! Bank has been removed Kaga to re-open the Broadgate Bridge over Hertford St.

Have not been to Broadgate for a while Prof so I cheated and googled pictures of Broadgate. I have just looked on Google maps and it was Nationwide. Barclays is in High Street, still where I remember it. Used to bank there until we left Coventry in 1972.

Thank you both, I can't remember such a bank, maybe after I left.

Thanks Anne - it just goes to show I have been away from Coventry too long!

I remember a hurricane lamp with a cracked, soot smeared, chimney still spluttering in the centre of the table. There was a radio that cracked and cackled above the settee on a table. The walls of my house had memories, had secrets, had laughter. Life had been breathed into them, hands had turned the latches, feet had trod the carpets, warmth had filled the walls. I suppose I must have been about two years old, but it was when I was about nine and could read and write that things really began to happen. I could go to the cinema and watch American movies, but no one could fly there - we couldn't even talk to people there, but shortly it would happen. But they were about to build us a new bridge, and in Coventry where I loved to wander round the streets, they were about to pull down many streets and shops. It was an exciting time but one of apprehension, mystery and great interest. And when it was gone would I remember it, would I be able to say, "Ah, yes I knew that turning, that street." Would I remember the unforgettable streets like Butcher Row, the Bull Ring? When you knew Butcher Row and Broadgate it made you feel you owned it, closer to the city than you were. The change is slow in the path I want to take. The old days, the lost days - in the half-closed eyes of memory now.

The difference between our ages really makes a world of difference - five years in the life of Coventry (1936-40) lifted it over a century of advancement. So we had little knowledge of what became everyday life to you, and Coventry more so. We knew little of the world outside the city. Most of the books you read on history had not been printed then, we could not visualise the things that came to be. A real bathroom with hot running water had to be imagined, so did places like USA and Australia - even libraries had few or no books on such places. A phone was a luxury that most people couldn't afford, or even knew how to use. I was nine years of age before I read that an aeroplane would attempt to fly from Oxford to New York - the plane had none of the comforts we know about today, no wireless, no warmth, no contact with anyone. It captured the imagination of everyone. But Broadgate was just a broad street width, most of it was Victorian built, with Victorian back alleys and a warren of small entrances and yards that led into the market. Hundreds of chimneys, some still had smoke spiralling heavenwards in the 30's. The Bull Ring and West Orchard were home to several seedsmen - on large stones on either side of a doorway were carved wheatsheaves that denoted it was a seedsman. In Ironmonger Row there was a shop with a chequered board above, advertising it was a gunsmiths. Another shop had a anvil, ironmonger's drainpipes often gave the date of the building. I believe at one time you could see the distinctive levels of the deep terracing around the Cathedral, the most likely explanation, the earthworks were a defensive measure at sometime.