Council House

Don't know the griffon (?) holding a shield, but second one (TS) may be Thomas Sharpe, Coventry Historian, the third Leofric and Godiva.

A couple of images from the St Mary Street side of the Council House. "SOL" and "LUNA" (sun and moon), above a doorway, with lanterns An unidentified statue - it's an Earl of Chester, but who??

We're well familiar with the Council House side of St Mary Street but this is what the other side looked like for a while after the Half Moon Inn was demolished. This is Hammerton's in the 1880s before the company moved to Much Park Street. The buildings weren't new but were given a facelift after older buildings and a wall were demolished to widen the street. Wheeler's was at the Earl Street end and the building was renovated to look similar.

So is that 2-storey section on the end of the left of Wheeler's from the Hammerton's building, Helen?

No Neil, it was the other side of the courtyard on the right, but you can see how they were designed to match. They would have been built out of the same materials. If you look at the Fire Insurance map you can see the big building up against the ballroom of the Drapers Hall, complete with 3 wooden vents at the top. In Rob's drawing for the Council House you can see how Wheeler's originally looked. Jigsaw pieces still come in

The Duke of York declaring the Council House open, 11th June 1920.

Great picture, Neil. Here is the same room, September 2014, on a Heritage Open Day.

Hi, On the Council House building, right hand side where the end of the building runs along St Mary Street, there is a small stone fake 'balcony' with a lady inside it. The statue is straight up from the 'Earl Street' road sign, effectively sitting on the corner of the building, at the level of the top of the second floor windows. Anyone know who this statue represents? My 91 year old mother-in-law, who has lived in Coventry all her life, has always wondered.

MR, #77 Earl of Chester. Could it be Ranulf?

Sorry, Prof, I don't know

He was much involved in Coventry and had connections with the Castle.

Site of Coventry Castle. A castle existed in Coventry by the mid 12th century, and possibly earlier. In 1147, when Ranulf, 2nd Earl of Chester besieged the town, the King's men withdrew to the castle, and following the lifting of the siege, it is said that King Stephen destroyed the castle. However, it must have been repairable since it is mentioned, as a viable fortification, in 1182, 1200 and 1208. It is possible that the Red Ditch, a previously unexplained earthwork, may be the southern and western defence perimeter of the bailey. Excavations discovered late 12th century pottery in the primary fill of the ditch, but there is no conclusive proof that it was part of the bailey. (PastScape) Comments The builders of St Mary's Hall, utilised stone from the castle, and indeed Caesar's Tower at St Mary's Hall may be built directly on the foundations of former castle buildings. Earl Street, first mentioned in the late C12, later ran right through the site on an E-W axis. Houses soon appeared on the street, and sometime after 1250, the Earls of Chester moved their residence from the castle to Cheylesmore Manor allowing the castle to decay and let out as tenements. (PastScape-ref. VCH)

Apols if seen before but was a new one to me - one of the proposed designs -

It's an interesting concept, isn't it? having a row of shops underneath council offices. Obviously the City Fathers thought better of it and chose the design we see today. I know of only one other town/city where there are shops in such a place and that's Nottingham, the Council House there has a ground floor comprising a shopping arcade with the original name from 1920s of Exchange Arcade and it is still called that by many local people though it was renamed 'The Exchange' in 2005. Retail space was included in the design to fund the corporation's construction of the building which began in 1927 and it was officially opened by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII/ the Duke of Windsor) on 22 May 1929.