Smithford Street (inc. Ram Bridge)

They were in the process of knocking the previous version down. The previous front of the Leopard was nondescript too. The mock Tudor was probably just a fake front. If you turn to Chapter XI of your Mary Dormer Harris book - Story of Coventry, there is a picture of Smithford Street looking east. On the left, the Leopard is the building next to the two storey jettied building. It's got a row too many windows but it gives you an idea how it looked.

Another view

The bombed out site of that M&S Store we've mentioned before is marked here - note the sign.

A nice picture of the Post Office and previous White Lion. Styling on the pub suggests it was built in the 1820s although it could easily be a remodelled older building. Not indicated as a timber building on the Fire Insurance maps but the layout shows a coach way up the middle, suggesting an old footprint. Before the Post Office was built, the conduit for the street would have stood just to the right of the Post Office door location. Post copied from topic White Lion pub, Smithford Street on 1st Feb 2022 11:44 am

Below is the same post office but earlier. Note the more regular styling, a must for true Georgian although the off centre main door would have irked a purist. First glance (blue dotted line) suggests the the post office was made up of 2 three window houses like the White Lion, but the map isn't as clear cut. The crosses indicate where doors were in the picture or are indicated on the 1850 map. There is a suggestion that the left two blocks (yellow dotted line) were the first post office and the right hand side looks like it might not have been originally part of it. So it could have been 3 two window houses (red dotted lines) or 1 four window block and another two window building was added on the right. Note the Dalek shaped post box to the left of the main door and the large lamp over the main door. The green dotted line is the probable position of the conduit in 1749. Note also the greater number of steps. There is a lot of evidence that street levels rose over the years.

There seems to be continuing plans for alterations to the Post Office, Helen. There were plans passed in 1868 and 1878 but no detail as to if they were carried out. In 1891 among other things the principal alteration was the removal of the front central staircase and throwing the room thus gained to the right and left hand sides hitherto used as postal and parcels departments respectively into one open public hall or office. A horseshoe counter will be provided and generally the improvement will be considerable. It obviously was still not big enough as it closed in 1902 when the new post office in Hertford Street opened and the building was put up for sale.

Bit more useless information. In Poole's history of Coventry, in 1846 the town council made terms for the lease of a large and commodious house opposite the barracks for use as the Post Office which has undergone the requisite alterations and fittings up for the purpose. James Hewitt who became the Lord Chancellor of Ireland was born in the house in 1715. His father Alderman William Hewitt was a Mercer. Is it also correct, Helen, that it was the site of the Black Bull?

All useful stuff, Anne, thanks. The barracks was built on the site of the Black Bull and much earlier records talk of the post office area being the site of executions but it's not clear if that was in the street or open ground. The 1749 map shows the conduit. The 1850 map doesn't show the words across all three plots but that's not conclusive of anything. If there were departments to the left and right of the doorway, then by 1868 the 3 blocks were all one. The rear of the post office had gardens that were later filled in with buildings and they were all connected to a large entrance way on West Orchard with 5 stables and a very large coach house. These stables acted as the western boundary of the market hall when they built it.

The Burtons building disappears -

1974??????

Yes they've got that and many of the others added wrong. On that note I've been liaising with The Herbert and they have recently applied for a National Heritage Lottery Fund Grant for 'Digital Volunteers.' If approved myself and hopefully our Chairman will be making regular visits and have access to the Collections to assist in identifying and updating the Archives site! Hopefully it will allow us to unearth a lot more treasures so watch this space!

I think it should be 1947!

Martin Wykes on FB recently shared what I think is a drawing of Smithford Street dated 1909. Interested me though as it's an unusual aspect. I think the view must have been near to where the entrance to Vicar Lane would've been. That's the jettied building which later became the Dorothy Cafe in the centre and the carved lion.

Great new angle on those buildings, Neil The lion was much travelled and repainted. According to Thomas Walker Whitley in Humorous Reminiscences of Coventry Life, Coventry Coaching, etc, he tells the tale of the lion, starting above the archway of the White Lion. There is some conflict in the story because a sign of some sort was still at the White Lion in 1865 for the politician Charles Griffin to be obscured by it during his attempt to address a crowd. At some point it was sold and appears over a gateway of the Red Lion on Warwick Lane as captured in a picture Neil posted. In 1862 the book reports the red lion was painted white by unknown young men of humorous disposition and the following year 1863 two or three volunteer firemen were spotted with a ladder and black paint. In 1874 the photo above on the left was taken and the Red Lion Inn was finally demolished in 1879 Before 1888 the lion ends up on Lion House (number 72 Smithford Street) above a licensed property - A Sumner & Co, a wholesale wine and spirits merchant. First it was painted gold and then light blue by 1888. It's pictured on the building in the photo above on the right. Given the conflict of dates, was it the same beastie? I'm not sure the two pictures show the same animal although they are from different sides and very rough photos. Potentially the Red Lion had two carvings (one on Hertford Street).

In 1939 a Mr George Sidwell wrote in the CET the story of the effigy and goes on to say that when the premises were taken down the figure was offered for sale and placed on view in a storeroom in New Buildings. Mr Sidwell had a commission to purchase the lion but owing to its sorry state - part of a hind leg had become detached in the moving and several pieces of wood had rotted or fallen away and strips of iron had been used for repair - nothing was done in the matter, otherwise it would have been with the carved wooden boy (a tobacco sign) in the entrance to a Coventry residence.