Broadgate

The changes prior to 1800 were very slow but Coventry was changing rapidly even before you were born Kaga. One by one properties were being emptied of people and the land sold for factories. At first it would have been hard to see because the gardens at the back were filled up first. The richest plots were some of the first to go because there were less people to uproot. What had been fields on the city's edges became modern housing estates. The views of the city were vanishing even then. Many of the finest images of the city were preserved by those who were alarmed by the rate at which the city was being demolished. Some of the poorest parts of the city lasted the longest, Broadgate having been remodelled several times because the owners could keep up with fashion. Parts of the High Street still survive because they were newer than much of the rest of the city. Less to burn, and worth preserving while older buildings were condemned.

Helen F. Hi. Yes, I'm aware of all that, but to me, in 1936 the new Trinity Street trebled the width of Cross Cheaping, and changed the shape completely. The blitz trebled the width of Broadgate, but cut the churchyard by half, so running about in those streets made one huge difference. For me, life, and the city, had a different shape. It had followed the constant pattern, of old things had passed and new things had come.

I think this view post blitz is of a different perspective from others. I wonder what the building centre photo with tall chimneys is that appears next to Holy Trinity, but I think it must be on the RH side of Cuckoo Lane?

A scene once familiar to many!

Just rediscovered these photos of a painting of Princess Elizabeth opening the New Broadgate 1948 (photos taken at a reception at the Council House, Jan 2008).

Prof, That photo had to be taken on the Friday afternoon, because a delayed bomb went off across the road in Burton's as they were about to clear this site in the morning, they had just received a message the King would arrive early Saturday. That's a very clear shot of the bomb crater as they were still damping down what was left of the two corner buildings between Broadgate and Martins Bank. The fire brigade scraped round that corner to get into High Street, as Little and Much Park Streets were still burning furiously on the Friday.

After the IRA bomb exploded.

Hi all Who has stolen the "Bong"? I was waiting for a friend in Broadgate today, where at noon, I saw "Lady Godiva" & "Peeping Tom" appear, but there was no sound or chime. Am I missing something?

Prof, Once again I butt in - my apologies - but the photo above reminds me that we once had a view of Hertford Street but not anymore. The clock you mention also is a poor imitation of the one that stood in the Mayor's Parlour. The old Mayor's Parlour stood opposite Cross Cheaping, an ancient building of three storeys, with a room in the roof. In front on the ground floor were six stone pillars supporting a balcony and iron railing, the upper floor projected and overhung the wall of the storey below. The roof was lineable with the street, and out of it sprang a wooden gabled projection in which there was a clock. Two wooden figures then attached to the mechanism by means of iron rods, moved backwards and forwards and struck the halves and quarters. The figures represented the city crier and beadle, and were painted with red and green coats in allusion to the heraldic colours of the ground of the city arms. Pigeons swooped through the archways then, and I feel I am unravelling time as it swoops through my mind.

There is a good illustration of the Mayor's Parlour with the clock as described by Kaga in Frederick Smith's "Nine Hundred Years of Municipal Life." Smith was for many years Town Clerk of Coventry, I have a picture taken with scan from the book but it will not upload for some unknown reason.

Is it this one Prof? (Found in "Rob's pics", blue button above.)

Yes that's the one, you can see the clockwork in the roof, but they just came out and back in, not round like today's.

Yes Annewiggy/Kaga. I don't know why I could not upload the picture, but perhaps because it was a scan!