Alpha House, Barras Green

Thanks to "Dougie". I read about the Jack Block Flats that were another first for Coventry. From an article by Paul Maddocks. The worlds first building using the "Jack Block" system was Alpha House (17 storeys) in Barras Heath in 1963. "The inventor Jansz Joost Werner, from Hague in the Netherlands, came up with a new novel way of building fast and cheap tower blocks of flats he came to Coventry. Working with Richard Costain of Costain Construction Ltd., his idea was to build the roof and top floor first at ground level on a large number of jacks. It is then jacked up and another floor is built underneath it. What is now a two story block is jacked up another level and the third floor and walls built underneath".

From Alpha House in 1988 I took this photo of Coventry Street: