Coventry Fire Brigade (inc. Hales Street Fire Station)

What year is this please - just after the war? What is the old building just to the left of the Fire Station? Love it!!

Art School and Trinity Hall - link

Thanks MR. I knew there was an old Art School but hadn't realised it was near the Fire Station. I had a relative who went there before the war WWII. It looked a magnificent building.

No longer possible Demolition almost complete

After the recent activity of the fire brigade round here reminded me: Hales Street Fire Station - the bells went down, the men scrambled and the machine raced out, but in the doorway lay a wallet. A fireman stooped and picked up a leather wallet. This was no cheap thing, old leather and with a clasp - the fireman thought he was justified in opening it to see who it belonged to. He undid the clasp and 'Good heavens!' he cried, looking at a photo of a lady. Agitated he buried his head in his hands - after a few minutes he took a second look then looked through the wallet. Nothing else in the wallet, only a note that gave the name and address of the owner. When the machine returned he walked over to the owner of the wallet. 'You you dropped this', holding the wallet out. 'Thanks' the owner said, a little flushed, and walked a little away from the others. 'May I ask about the lady?' 'She was my wife'. The man paused. 'We had only been married just over twelve months when she died.' His voice dropped to a whisper. The fireman nodded. 'I also knew her, when she was eighteen, I was madly in love with her, but her father found out I was Jewish, forbid her to see me. It was a painful experience'. They locked eyes, then clasped hands with a grip that they alone could understand.

Post copied from topic Pool Meadow on 13th Oct 2018 2:37 pm

NeilsYard. Over the top of the fire station you can see the training tower, this was about fifty feet high? I was taken there once when I was in the Armstrong Siddeley fire brigade for sheet jumping - we climbed about ten/twelve feet high then jumped out of the window. You had to rely on the men below to catch you in the sheet (or mat); you had to look straight in front of you, not look down. Once you did that correctly then you moved higher to twenty feet and jumped, it meant little to me (after my Para training) but there were several men found it a bit scary. But it reminded me that Coventry had the two towers not far apart.

Thanks to Paul Michael Kennelly - Rosemary you might like this one as I'm sure that's a police box.

I find this topic very interesting as my father-in-law was with the CFB during the WWII - Robert Shepherd or Bob Shepherd. Sadly I was never to know him as he passed away a few years later from a heart attack. If he was anything like his son then he was a lovely man. Thanks for the latest old pics. Neil.

Thanks Neil, yes I'm sure it is a police box, although it had disappeared by the time I joined. There was a proper one built into the building at the bottom of Trinity Street below Sainsburys. Near the box in your picture were some public toilets at the side of the Fire Station.

Correct, coventry49 - it was a police box and there were public toilets to the right of the box - I passed them regularly several times a week to and from Trinity Hall, early 1960s

Here is a photo of the firemen's cottages. I always knew of them from boyhood. Sadly they were demolished. Why? Did they have no bathrooms? Solid redbrick dwellings, could have made homes for someone, and it gave atmosphere in Chauntry Place, with the Lady Herberts Garden in front. Might have made additional almshouses!

Not demolished, Prof!