Warwick Row and Greyfriars Green

Our son bought a 1977 book "The Rover Story" in a National Trust Book Shop last week. Lots of pictures, but I thought this view of the Rover Garage interesting. I don't think I have seen it before and most pictures are looking up the hill towards Broadgate. It is a 1920's picture and the car parked outside is a "Clegg-ype" Rover 14hp model.

Superb yet again Anne - as you say not many of that direction nor of the building that close in its Rover guise. I have this one (possibly owned/shown on here before) looking the other 'usual' way.

Here's my 2004 photo for comparison

Osmiroid, The Geisha in the fifties was well known to be a little upper-class, you didn't get lorry drivers or brickies in there, some people knew it as 'the little finger cafe'. For some reason during the war a lot of ministries, council, used the lower half of Hertford Street, I think you went to a shop there if you lost your ration book, think there was a register there for blood donations or injury questions, ARP questions and information, that sort of thing. Post copied from topic Restaurants, Cafes, Coffee Bars on 23rd Jun 2018 9:33 pm

Kaga. Re the lost ration book or to register if you were a visitor and needed a temporary one, it was at the former Liberal Club I think, and was next to Lee Beesley's electrical shop in Warwick Row, Greyfriars Green area.

Hi Prof, wasn't the Liberal Club in Union St.? I seem to remember that the top floor become the venue for a nightclub called The Elite. This would have been in the late fifties early sixties.

Yes it was, jonboy. Could Prof mean what is now The Litten Tree?

Sorry jonboy and Midland Red, I should have known the Liberal Club was Union Street, and I did wonder. I think now it may have been the Reform Club on Warwick Row. Not the Litten Tree but the building next to it with the pillars.

Prof, thanks for all you replies. It was all one street to us right down to the station, war time, it seemed very important that when you left Broadgate you were on your way to the station and you did not know if you would ever walk it again. If I seem to keep harping on about wartime, my excuse is that, from a child in 1935, everyone was talking of the Spanish Civil War - if there would be a war with Germany then it happened and went on to 1948 for me. So, for a big chunk of my young life I knew nothing else, my school life and youth was drastically affected.

Here's another further back:

What a beautiful picture. I wonder what time of day it was taken as there's not a soul in sight, although a horse has recently passed through! Christchurch spire is actually quite exquisite. I can see why the city adopted the 3 spires as its emblem, all 3 clearly visible entering Coventry from this direction.

Yes, isn't it? I remember Christ Church spire like that with its Bath stone cladding. It looks like 'Nant Glyn' on the left with the ivy, where George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) was educated by the Misses Franklin sisters.

I'd guestimate it was close to midday or slightly earlier. Warwick Road coming in from the right, runs NNWish. There's a bit of a shadow on the fence running NW which would put the sun towards the south but quite high in the sky.

Sorry, Prof, but it's not Nant Glyn, which is at the other end of Greyfriars Green Here it is in 2010 adjacent to the Starley statue These would be the buildings in your photo (no.10 used to be Flinn's jewellers) taken in 2017 A similar view to yours, Prof, from 2013

Thanks Midland Red, I should have noticed the railings on the RH side as the clue! So it is Flinn's where we bought the engagement and wedding rings in the late 50's.