New Buildings

Not a very good photo I'm afraid.....

Was there an "Exchange & Mart" next to the Alhambra when I was a kid? I used to look in there with wonderment at all of the bargains & also at the airguns in the window John

Yes you're right John. I remember selling my Mamod steam engine to E&M for 10/-. When I got home and told my dad, he gave me a thick ear 'cos he'd bought it for my birthday two months before and it cost him £1/19/6d. I saw it in the window of E&M next day for £1!

Yes I used to check out the bargains in E&M, and The Alhambra was first stop from catching the bus into Pool Meadow on a Saturday Night for us. That whole area behind which has now been opened up behind New Buildings (where Nando's is now etc.) was completely hidden / cut-off in the 70's/80's

Thanks for that Neil. Whenever I went onto town in my youth (which was most Saturday mornings) I would always pop into E&M to have a browse. Never bought anything (always seemed overpriced for what they sold) but it was great to look!

Before and after!

Yes Tony - I still feel guilt over that unwanted family Christmas present Microscope I sold in E&M! That route was my walk into town after coming in from Pool Meadow on a Saturday night. First stop The Alahambra. I also recall spending my early misspent teens running up and down what was a fairly complex set of covered corridors to get up to the view on top of that car park at the bottom!

Some New Buildings photo's that have been uploaded onto my facebook page Memories Of Coventry The Exchange & Mart in New Buildings in the 1980s 1990 - The photo was taken before the area was redeveloped to create Priory Place. The pub on the left called the Alhambra was sadly demolished during the Priory Place redevelopment - many people had fought to keep it open. Copyright John Brightley

Just to follow the other images in this one - a view looking the other way

Where did this street go before they built that car park at the bottom (now gone)?

Hi Flapdoodle It ran into the site of the original Fishy Moores, then out by the traffic island near to the old fire station. Maps I have the fondest of memories both of Fishy Moores & lunches served on the first floor of the Silver Sword.

Way back, the road split into two. One side going right/east (from the picture above) towards the bottom of Hill Top and the other curving left/north towards the fire station. Originally that area had the river running through it and had a mill on the east side of the road and the mill pond to the west. In the picture below, the mill is on the far left and the road curves up towards the right up the hill towards the Alhambra/Meriden Tavern. The pool either silted up or was filled in and later became a market and is now roughly the Millennium clock area.

This is a view of Fishy Moore's with the Alhambra pub to the right of it. Sainsbury's later occupied the waste ground between New Buildings and Trinity Street: And this is a view of where New Buildings exited into Hales Street. The sawmill/Magnet cafe is to the right of the fire station and Fishy Moore's is now on the extreme right almost out-of-picture:

As mentioned earlier in thread - during the '70's and '80's that car park meant the road disappeared under a gloomy tunnel before coming out to the side of the DeVere at the bottom of Hill Top. It really was dismal and I recall seeing many a strange activity under there after hours (!) The old Blue Coat School was completely hidden during that era. A friend of my sisters had a hairdressers at the top of New Buildings and would cut my hair for cheap. It was only when they excavated the original cathedral ruins behind there that all was revealed to anyone of that era.