Coventry Sports Centre / The Elephant

Before my mother died we used to sit and have many a discussion on 'Old Coventry', one point nobody could answer was what was on the old site where the 'elephant' is now, on the corner of Fairfax and Cox Street.On the corner of Priory St and Fairfax St I am informed that there was a saddlery, so I'll throw it out there!!

Hardly anything as the area was badly bombed during the war. The last original building was Evans the pawnbrokers and for a short period only in the 1950s there was a temporary Christian bookshop to the left of it. Fairfax Street as we know it did not exist back them. There are maps and pictures of the area in the Priory Street Baths thread.

Listed Status bid turned down

The main concern about the demolition of the Sports Centre is that, once it is gone, there will probably be nothing built to replace it. I used the place regularly when I played various sports and it was getting a bit tatty two decades ago so I dread to think what it's like now. They were very poor at maintaining the building and its equipment even then. It should not go until there are adequate replacement facilities for sport.

They may be demolishing the elephant on the side, but the rest of the building will remain, until the council has let it run down so far it becomes a danger and they knock it down. A policy currently being followed with the old nurses home next to Cov & Warwick hospital. I await the unexplained fire.

Doesn't Coventry have good provision for sport? AT7 and Excell have excellent facilities, as does Alan Higgs (AT7 has a new swimming pool). There are also plenty of 'private' places like The Village in Canley and a large city centre gym (plus a new one starting up) and other health centres around the city's suburbs. They are replacing it, I believe. I quite like the swimming pool building, especially the side with the glass. I'd like to see that re-used.

As this is the Historic Forum I know we all hanker for the Coventry buildings of old but as modern things go. I actually like the Elephant for its unusual design style and architecture. I'm surprised that it isn't listed when the Baths are. The problem with it is - like with most other central buildings - it's strangled by the ring road so the full effect cannot be seen.

The "Elephant" is home to Coventry Indoor Bowling Club, with a decent six-rink carpet - but the facilities are poor, and it always seems a long trek into the building to get to the green It is quite telling that, over the years, the vast majority of locally-based bowlers chose to play their indoor games at Rugby Thornfield, or even Avon Valley (Lighthorne Heath), and the Coventry club was rarely able to field a really competitive team in National Competitions

I only went in the place once, took the kids to watch the champion BMX rider put on an exhibition.

I can recall around 35 years ago when we used the sports centre up to 4 times a week for badminton and squash and the amount of times we arrived to play only to be told that we couldn't play as the whole place had been block booked by Lanchester Polytechnic as it was known in those days we used to sneak up to the viewing gallery only to find that only a couple of courts were in use it got very annoying and we gave up using the place in the end there was also a favourite excuse that a tile was loose in the main hall or they'd had a flood this also happened on a regular basis with all this going on out of 4 bookings you were lucky to play twice a week which makes me wonder how much this place has lost over the years pandering to the wishes of the uni instead of letting the people it was actually built for use it.