Stoneleigh Terrace

What a pretty city Coventry could have been.

New one circulating on FB currently - In colour it makes it even more staggering they decided these should go.

Recently dawned on me that the image in my post No.48 of Lansdowne Place (the name to the terrace as it faced Warwick Road) - looks similar in style to the row of houses that still lie on Coundon Road by Bablake - link

Utilising Britain from Above, quite a clear 1953 image of the rear of the terrace, gardens and surroundings.

NeilsYard, your post 61. There was an hotel / guesthouse in the middle of that row, about where the guy is at the side of that van. I stayed there a couple of nights, my room looked straight down the park. A friend was going to take me to the races, he joined me at the breakfast table, had a cup of tea out of my pot, then told the owner I was a big gambler. The owner then put all sorts of percentages on my 'bill', including the cup of tea my friend drank. I think I posted this on some other thread. But yes they were very large rooms with high ceilings. This was 54/55 time. One minute from the station.

The Towers, Warwick Rd and Stoneleigh Terrace. During WW2 my grandmother had to work or take in lodgers, she was a filing clerk at The Towers.

The Towers being part of Stoneleigh Terrace were all part of James Murray's work as has been mentioned on the thread on here. I have always found the Towers part of particular interest though as it bears a resemblance to one of my favourite 'lost' buildings that were not actually in Coventry. Harrington House was a gothic mansion in Leamington and designed by EW Pugin - who Murray was partnered to for a period. They must have taken inspiration from each other (as this was way before The Adams Family! ) Believe it or not this was pulled down in 1967 to build the Royal Spa Centre

It was Cheylesmore Green, had a large rookery where the terrace now stands. It had 2 or 3 pools of water, the one nearest the rookery was a drinking pool for horses, the one nearer where Hertford Street now stands was the ducking pond. More recently, 1940/50s, the terrace had the nearest hotel to the station and was exactly as Matchle55 described it. I stayed there a couple of nights early 50's - being near the station it was expensive, but worth it. My room looked straight down the green, a few years earlier for any soldier staying there and looking down the green it must have felt like, 'I'm home'. In the late 1790s, two sides of the green were enclosed by railings - before the terrace was built there were low wooden railings where it stood later. In the terrace lived a councillor who opposed every railing until one day a cricket ball came through his window - he never opposed railings again. In the field at the corner of the green where Butts Lane joined Warwick Road was a large pond, where boys dragged for crowger carp for bait. The piece of land was sold, but a large tree stood on the land that he was not told about till after the sale. The owner wanted £5 for the tree, he would not pay, but after long litigation it became his. The large tree got hit by lightning, killing one of the two men sheltering under it. Later it was cut down when they built Eaton Road.

Just realised this Stilltime collection image is looking past Stoneleigh Terrace on the right with Eaton Road in the background. It's similar to my post #61 above but closer in.

An early view of Stoneleigh Terrace

I think that was one of the FourToes wet plate negatives shared to us a while ago we posted on here. It's from when the terrace was first built IIRC.

I used to have a picture like that, can't remember precisely though.

Yes it was one of Tony Richards' wet plate negatives from his great site which we helped to identify along with some amazingly early Spon St ones. It's been on here before as mentioned but worth another share.