Owen Owen

The brickwork looks as if it might be the part of the outside wall of the 1937 Owen Owens in Trinity Street, running south to north.

The solid (hard and heavy) blue bricks are a damp course brick, from my memory they were completely solid. Coventry bricks (general use) had frogs, ive cleaned up thousands of them for my bricklayer father. They are far better than the new wire cut bricks, drop them and they break!

This shows the footprint of the store

Thank you for all your comments. I went back to have a closer look at the bricks, but the hole has now been filled in. I am personally convinced that it was part of Owen Owen as the location is right and I don't think anything previous to Owen Owen would have been that substantial (the wall is ~18" thick). Peter.

Peter B Yes, Peter, what other building could it have been? Had they have moved just a few inches south they would have found a time tin, this tin had many coins of 1950 era placed and buried in the foundations of the modern Owen Owen's.

Welcome 20-A Manor House. I love this button. I live in Virginia but when I go home I miss not seeing Owen Owens on Broadgate. We weren't well off but there was always enough to visit Santa. I used to love those kids Post Office sets and always wrote him a letter and put it in the real post box in our street. Merry Christmas to all and a Better New Year!

1947 advertisement

MR Was there an Owen Owen store in Coventry in 47?

Yes, see post 65 and subsequent discussion.

Hi all, Owen Owen were trading in Coventry in 1936. Originally a Liverpool founded business.

Looking at comparable aerial photos on Britain from Above, that Broadgate photo was taken around 1950.

Their premises totally blitzed, they continued trading in temporary huts until they moved into shared accommodation in between the Cathedral ruins & the Gulson library. They had several back & forward moves, occupying both sides of Trinity St, similar to Marks & Spencer. Both my mum & my aunt carried on trading in the temporary arrangements near to the library. In 1947, both my mum & aunt were offered temporary sites in White St, about the same time as Owen Owen moved into Trinity St, at one point occupying both sides simultaneously.

I've just looked closer at that advert, and it states the places for which it was advertising: "Three Spires Building", Trinity Street "Priory Gate Building", Trinity Street "Trinity House", Hales Street Self-Service Restaurant, 3-5 The Burges.

During the period of the blitz & for years following, traders were trading wherever they could, often in several sites or huts at the same time. Traders who couldn't trade went out of business, there was no generous package like today's business financial support. Rival trading gave way to co-operation between traders. Owen's shared the same cover as Burton's at one point. There was utter chaos with records, traders constantly moving one week to the next. That's how it was. I forgot to mention, Ager's also shared floor space with Owen Owen. They were blitzed out of no.6 Smithford St.