New Buildings

It does look good mcsporran but I can relate to how hard it is. Not only have you to work out dimensions of buildings, especially at the back, which you can't necessarily see but you have to work out the height of the land and how it can vary over even a short distance. Then there is the software, that is getting better month on month but just as you get used to it, they upgrade and you sometimes have to relearn it.

One thing I really have noted over years looking at Old-Cov imagery compared to today is how much noticeable the lie of the land was back then compared to now. Photo's such as of Smithford Street, Burges/Cross Cheaping and Hertford Street really show how much of a gradient there was up towards Broadgate where you really do not notice nowadays.

One I took last year of the narrow end, looks like a Hollywood set.

I agree Neil. Some of it is because the city has been flattened by layer after layer of rebuilding but I think that the other part is due to the height and footprint of modern buildings. To take in the historic views, the camera could be more level, whereas to capture Coventry's modern buildings the camera must point upwards and use wide angle lenses. When judging distances we have a feel for the size of buildings. Consider the modern Bishop Street, it's not very long but look instead at the images of it, it looks a long walk. Especially as pollution meant that the distant buildings vanish into the haze. We are fooled by how far our relatively clean air lets us see.

Photograph taken on 31st December 1987. OddSock

Ahhh yes - straight off the No.23 into The Alhambra then out and into the back of The Sword!

As part of my lock-down activities I've been looking through some family history and came across this photo of New Buildings that I think was taken in the 1920's. My mother, Jean Gilbert, was born here in 1928 - my grandfather, Albert Ballance, had the shop marked on the picture. I was told that he & my grandmother made ice-cream & sold it to the theatre-goers at the Coventry Theatre. They moved from there in 1929 and bought a newsagent shop on the corner of Dane Road and Shakespeare Street in Stoke where they stayed until retirement in the 1960's. I grew up there and have many fond memories of my 1950's childhood spent around that area. Post copied from topic Albert T Ballance on 10th Feb 2021 9:21 am

Great pics, Steve

Almost certainly this isn't Bishop Street but it seems to be that sort of area and no, I have no idea what is going on.

Fishy Moore's in New Buildings can be seen below the cathedral spire, and the bus shelters in Trinity Street on the rhs of the photo

Ben. Most of what you see in the background is New Buildings and the bit to the right would be Hales Street? It might be a charity event for the hospital?

Yes, the low brick wall surrounding the flower bed, and the street sign, give it away as being taken from the central reservation at the bottom of Trinity Street, opposite the Hippodrome.... Close-up....

Thanks all - I'm wondering Helen if it is theatre performance promotion - but your charity fundraiser sounds plausible too.

Looking through my Theatre Archive, I wonder if it could be "The Pajama Game, 6th May until Sat 25th May 1957 - American Musical, direct from the London Coliseum."?