Old House on Corner of Spon Street and Crow Lane

I know that there used to be an old house that fronted Spon Street at the corner of Crow Lane, and its gardens were gradually taken over by factories. I know that it was recessed from the road slightly. I know that it grew a much later extension partly over the front and down the Crow Lane side. You can partly see it in this great photo by Fourtoes. My theory is that it was Georgian and built for Sir Thomas Geary MP. It looks like it was still standing after the war but damaged. I don't expect anyone to remember it but can anyone remember talk of it by their much older colleagues when they were there?

I have not found any more photos but I did find a floor plan from when half the building was leased to A C Buckle and J Anslow in August 1949.

Hi Helen, is it possible that the house was older than Georgian or do you think it was rebuilt ? There is mention of a will on Google books. Thomas Geary's will 1674 left his house and backside !! in Spon Street to his son Thomas. He was Mayor in 1666.

Hi Anne It could be older, it could have been refurbished at any point, it could be a new build on an old plot. Very hard to tell. That it was set back from the street was unusual in the city. There was a bit of a building wave in the early 1700s. The Palladian styles in the 100 years preceding weren't massively different nationally but Coventry mostly missed out. Some of the medieval buildings got Georgian makeovers. By the time it was photographed, any distinguishing features of the property were gone. There is a reference in the archive about it being Georgian but that could be a guestimate. The Board of Health map seems to show a pillared portico at the back but it seems to have been removed by at least 1888 when the map shows it had been replaced by a bay window on one side. Also an odd extension had been added to the corner of Spon Street and Crow lane. I wonder if the corner had been damaged by an impact? Before it was sold to Rudge it was occupied by Alexander Rotherham. It steps back through Kevitt Rotherhams, Kevitts, Abell Kevitts and finally to Isaac Abell who seems to acquire part of it from Geary himself and part from his widow. If I ever build that time machine I'm going to demand that house numbering start much, much earlier and that parents wouldn't be able to give their child a first name that had been used for 100 years in their family. Finding your reference Anne, it does look like Geary's father. It tags him as a bellmonger but he was probably a fellmonger. Someone who deals with skins of animals. Subsequent owners of the house are also fellmongers and parchment makers, which gives a sinister twist to the water running through the plot. So the origins of the silk dye works might have been part of the skinning trade. The stream was called the Back Brook but I wonder if some of the time it was called the Black Brook?

You can just see the side extension on the left of this Crow Lane image.

Wot, no bikes ?

I can just about see 2 in the distance but it's ironic that there are so few given that they would have been making bikes all day. The serious answer would be because there were a lot of domestic properties very close by. By the time they'd got their cycle clips on, they could have already got home... or to one of the many pubs. Could they be charged with being drunk in charge of a two wheeler? The side of the Watchmaker's Arms is just on the right of the photo. At least 16 on Spon Street alone.

That CD image is a corker Helen! I hadn't realised it was Crow Lane. The only other ones I've seen of it are post-war with most of the building destroyed! This is about the best one I have although it's looking the other way towards Spon Street and you can't see the building in question - I think it's a scan from a book that was shared on FB some time ago (can't recall if already posted here but worth another share) -

This any good Helen?

Initially I dismissed that etching because it's looking the wrong way... but I think the rear of the property might be in the distance. Thanks Neil! And Damian who showed it to me the first time. It looked like there were too many windows but that's because I was forgetting about the bay window.

Another potentially Georgian house on Spon Street, set back from the road, with similar styling was Holyhead House. That was owned by the same family - the Kevitt Rotherhams for a while. Which would fit with them both being restyled or rebuilt at some point. Holyhead House may have been significantly redesigned because originally it wasn't flanked by the Holyhead Road, where in later years the front door faced. However it was not that unusual for the front door to be moved to the side. Presumably to open the door to guests away from the grubby street.