Queen Victoria Road (inc Drill Hall)

These days a building like that would be ripe for conversion into restaurant units or shop units - many cities have restored old buildings like this and brought them back into use. All we do in Coventry is demolish everything and then wonder why the city has a reputation for being so ugly.

So very well said Flapdoodle. It would appear that the saying of a town planner should be "Yesterday I couldn't spell town planner. Today I are one!" Could be said about the city councillors as well

There used to be two pairs of large semi-detached properties at this point, separated from where Percy Blamire's Queens Road Garage stood by Hertford Place The houses were South Gate, Croft Gate, Roselands and Louieville - the latter was closest to Queen Victoria Road, and was for many years the solicitors offices of Skillington and Brown. Roselands and Louieville had very long front gardens and driveways - all the properties were lost to the Inner Ring Road

The flats were designed by architects Alan Johnson Associates and built for Chase Homes about 10-15 years ago. If anyone needs to know the exact details I'm sure they can be found on the planning section of the city council website. Alan Johnson Associates were based in the old Victorian building on the site and to make way for the development they moved to new offices on Coventry Business Park, Canley. The company is now known as AJA Architects LLP (http://www.aja-architects.com/) Midland Red is slightly incorrect in that only one of the pairs of large houses were actually demolished for the ring road construction - the other pair were the AJA offices.

Thanks for the info jvb

This shows the Drill Hall and the fine row of houses on Queen Victoria Road that has been discussed before. Taken from a Facebook page and obviously scanned in from a book so rights to the owners. My mum and dad used to park on that scrubland under the advertising hoardings when we went into town.

... and don't the "advertising hoardings" look better than the view we have today?

I was born in 1969 and I do have a passing interest in modern design and architecture, but even I think that does look - especially when you look at what was previously there, in that spot - awful

Was the building on the right C&A ?

No it was Tesco. C&A is out-of-sight in the distance just beyond the white multi-storey car park.

Prior to Tesco it was 'Victor Value', and prior to that I think it was one of John Bloom's Washing Machine Stores

With the 10 pin bowling alley above it?

Yes - there is a separate thread

I remember the Drill Hall well, my father had to manage the bar and staff one evening in the 60's for an Army 'do'. It was three deep at the bar that night and I was a 'washer upper' and I didn't break a thing. ! Yes, that was it in Queen Victoria Road.

Hi all. Now wasn't the Drill Hall an army building, I'm pretty sure that's were I signed up and had my medical, way back in 1944.