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Dreamtime
Perth Western Australia |
106 of 1675
Wed 9th Nov 2011 5:11pm
What would we do without you Dutchman. I honestly don't think folk would find their way around Coventry if it wasn't for the pubs. They certainly prove to be a good guide.
Thanks for the pics., they give you a perspective of where you are, and all those breweries. Bass, Mitchell's & Butlers also Atkinsons and Phipps of Northampton, to name but a few. ![]() |
Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
K
Somewhere |
107 of 1675
Wed 9th Nov 2011 6:46pm
Hi dutchman
My memory is 1951/2, and your photo is clearly much later; I wonder if the name was transferred when the one I'm thinking of was bulldozed in the late 50s. I'll try to find a pic in one of my photos of old Coventry, but I can't remember one of that side of Spon St, only one taken further round the corner in Fleet St. I can't remember the Geo IV at all, nor indeed any black and white pub on that side of Fleet St; mind, as a child I wasn't too interested in pubs! (And I still don't frequent them now... ![]() ![]() |
Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
K
Somewhere |
108 of 1675
Wed 9th Nov 2011 9:17pm
Hi again dutchman
I've had a thought re the William IV.
What I remembered was specifically "King William IV", and I notice on your photo it's just "William IV". Intriguing, especially as the one in your photo isn't the one I remember....
Strange thing, though, memory, isn't it? |
Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
dutchman
Spon End |
109 of 1675
Thu 10th Nov 2011 1:55am
On 9th Nov 2011 9:17pm, KeithLeslie said:
I've had a thought re the William IV.
What I remembered was specifically "King William IV", and I notice on your photo it's just "William IV". Intriguing, especially as the one in your photo isn't the one I remember....
Hi again Keith ![]() ![]() |
Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
K
Somewhere |
110 of 1675
Thu 10th Nov 2011 11:11am
Hi dutchman ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
dutchman
Spon End |
111 of 1675
Thu 10th Nov 2011 2:18pm
On 10th Nov 2011 11:11am, KeithLeslie said:
I can remember what it looked like, maybe I got the location wrong and/or name. The description that I told you, did it ring any bells?
Afraid not Keith. I lived in Bond Street between 1959 and 1960 and often played in that area but have no memory of either Fleet Street or the short section of Spon Street between Fleet Street and the Holyhead Road.
I do remember visiting one of the pubs with my mother in 1959 in what I've learned since was Fleet Street. It was like crossing a ploughed field. The whole area was a quagmire due to reconstruction work. I wasn't allowed in the licensed area so all I remember of the pub was that it had a huge staircase in an entrance hall where I played with a toy helicopter. |
Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
heritage |
112 of 1675
Thu 10th Nov 2011 4:18pm
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dutchman
Spon End |
113 of 1675
Thu 10th Nov 2011 5:26pm
Is this perhaps the pub you were thinking of, the King's Head at the St Patrick's Road end of Little Park Street? Closed in 1959 and demolished to make way for the new road scheme. It was the only post-war pub in central Coventry with "King" in the name. This picture was probably taken in the 1930s so its appearance may changed a lot by the time you saw it.
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Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
K
Somewhere |
114 of 1675
Thu 10th Nov 2011 6:51pm
Hi dutchman ![]() |
Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
K
Somewhere |
115 of 1675
Thu 10th Nov 2011 7:13pm
Hi yet again dutchman
Can you remember Fleet St / Smithford St as far back as 1950? (I suppose I'm wondering how our ages compare..)
I can remember back to 1949 so far as the city is concerned, and a bit further in one or two flashes. I was 4 in '49, but could read and write at that age, and when my mother stopped to talk to friends, I'd amuse myself by reading out aloud the names over shops, notices in windows and so on. (Which was an effective way to learn more spelling etc - much to the annoyance and not a little jealousy of other kids when I started school!! ![]() ![]() |
Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
K
Somewhere |
116 of 1675
Thu 10th Nov 2011 7:57pm
I'll have to sketch it scan it and post it, and see if someone recognises it. 30 years ago, my wife worked in the City Architect's department, and would have had access to a lot of photo archives going back to Victorian times. What would help is a time machine, so she can go and have a look!! ![]() |
Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
dutchman
Spon End |
117 of 1675
Thu 10th Nov 2011 7:57pm
On 10th Nov 2011 6:51pm, KeithLeslie said:
Hi dutchman
This diagram from city planning records shows the George IV as the only building in Fleet Street set back from the road. Allwoods is three buildings to the left of it at No 19:
![]() ![]() On 10th Nov 2011 6:51pm, KeithLeslie said:
Maybe we'll never know... What we really need is an archive of all the pubs in Coventry in 1950, complete with photos and names!
John Ashby's "The Character of Coventry" is as close to that as we could wish for at present. It does not however include clubs which are often mistaken for pubs. |
Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
dutchman
Spon End |
118 of 1675
Thu 10th Nov 2011 8:15pm
On 10th Nov 2011 7:13pm, KeithLeslie said:
Hi yet again dutchman
Can you remember Fleet St / Smithford St as far back as 1950? (I suppose I'm wondering how our ages compare..)
Afraid not Keith. I was born in 1954 and didn't settle in England until around 1957 or 1958.
On 10th Nov 2011 7:13pm, KeithLeslie said:
As an aside, I often see "wartime" or early post war (e.g. the last series of Foyle's War) plays on TV, and annoy my wife with "It wasn't like that!" And especially when they have interior sets with nice flowery wallpaper, white paint; nice clean streets, shiny cars. Anything but! Distemper in quite dark colours; graining more often than paintwork, or else mid browns; litter and an oily black film everywhere when it rained, from the coal fires; and mostly tatty old bangers - dull paint and rusty, else polished so much that the black paint had rubbed through to the undercoat in places (usually the curve of the bonnet), not to mention bald tyres and tattered interiors. And all the things that were sold to make cars look a bit better! Remember "Nu-Again", the leather paint, for instance?
I too resent television's reinterpretation of modern history. Few ordinary people owned cars of any kind, it was mostly tradesmen and professionals. If they did own one it was likely to be a pre-war model which they patched-up themselves. A friend's father for example owned a Morris 8. That was followed by a Ford Popular which looked almost as old but wasn't. They most certainly couldn't afford a "new" car of any kind!
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Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
Adrian
UK |
119 of 1675
Thu 10th Nov 2011 8:56pm
Keith, I have been following this post with interest, as I asked about this pub some time back. Would this pub be roughly in line with TJ Hughes (google street map) only further back, as this is where i imagine the pub would be. The pub was similar to the the George, but larger I think.
They could have built the large tower at the bottom of the Precinct, on the site where it stood.
Dutchman has posted some excellent photos on here, so there is hope yet, this if one exists of this pub, he will find one.
I can remember the the old Rover works still being there while they was building the new circular market. Anthony Jacksons became Tescos, just behind the kiddies ride.
I also remember the Sherbourne being visible from the scrapyards in Moat St, the Butts area, and going under Queen Victoria Road. We climbed in once and walked behind the hoardings, through to the Rex market via some underground culverts, then onto Palmer Lane.
The Rex market was roughly where Smithford Way was built.
Someone mentioned Agers shoe shop. This was where my wife first started work in 1962. |
Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs | |
dutchman
Spon End |
120 of 1675
Thu 10th Nov 2011 9:36pm
Already have posted it in the other thread Adrian.
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Sport, Music and Leisure - Coventry Pubs |
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