Derby Lane, Pepper Lane and the Cathedral Quarter

Love this pic of a cracking Jaguar Mk.7 (so presuming this is late 50s/early 60s - but what was that building in the background to the right at the time - presumably on Pepper Lane? You can see it here west of the Golden Cross (so why did it go?) - Post copied from topic Broadgate on 29th Mar 2024 8:30 am

That hideous Cathedral Lanes development? Unfortunately I can only just have fuzzy memories of the garden where the Lady Godiva was on show though.

Neil, this may well be something to do with it. In 1967 Pepper Lane was to be widened to provide a service road to the back of Anslows in High Street. This was to involve demolition of a temporary shop at 2 Pepper Lane and a storage to the back if the Golden Cross. Prior to that there seems to be just a few businesses in Pepper Lane and the Toby's Head which was destroyed in 1940, I don't know which side that was on. So I think Cathedral Lanes can't be blamed for it ! Looking at Google maps there just seems to be a service area.

Thanks Anne - on the 1950 map it shows as 26 Bayley Lane but I can't see reference to it in the equivalent directories. On that CD image you can see evidence of a wooden frame/beams so looked like an older building than I first thought.

I think I must be looking at the wrong building Neil, is it the one to the right of the Golden Cross or on the left towards St Mary's Hall ?

This is the one I was referring to Anne -

So wouldn't that be here where the service area is to the right of the Golden Cross.

I think this picture of Rob's shows the buildings that would have been in that gap. Pepper Lane

Well you learn something new every day. I've assumed that when it wasn't called Gaol Lane, Pepper Lane always ran from Cuckoo Lane to the High Street but checking Goad Maps, for a short period it only ran between the High Street and Derby Lane. So from post 1850 but pre 1897 to at least 1953 the building was on Bayley Lane 26 - 28. Occupied over the period from before to after the war by solicitors Mander, Hadley and Co. I also think that it was older than it looked. The beam in the end wall of the roof was quite common and I haven't entirely decided if it was a feature of a brick clad timber building or just a way of doing the roof. I sway towards it being a timber building, probably a jettied one.

A nice clear shot from Britain from Above. The single story building on the right of it might be the temporary buildings. Yes Helen the street names and numbers are very difficult to follow. I have tried to do it on Ancestry censuses but they are different each time.so I will leave that to you experts. Comparing this picture with the one of Rob's it could well be the older buildings were given a new facade. It is the same number of floors.

The front changed a few times. The earliest images I've got of it, show three dormer windows at the front and an even a small window looking over the roof of the Golden Cross. Indicating loft rooms. The street level had two squared window bays like the Golden Cross. A very narrow pavement sometimes indicates that the front has been built outward under the first floor overhang. Initially it was due to fold down sales tables (that doubled as shutters, replaced by bay windows or by lean to shop fronts and finally bricked up to take ownership of an extra foot or two of land. When an upper jettied level was trimmed back, it would often leave a bigger gap between the top of the upper windows and the roof.