Kings Head Hotel, Broadgate

There's nothing like actual memories. Thanks MR

MR. When? Do you mean in the 20's, was it even Burtons? Golf shop maybe in the 30's, top floor. But there was a billiards table in the vaults Neil spoke of sometime ago, lower down Smithford Street, but I'm going on memory.

Helen With an hotel that size it would have to have been both sides of Vicar Lane, they would have a large 'dumb waiter', the storage needed would have been enormous - laundry rooms, linen and curtain room, a score of replacement beds, chairs etc., curtains, crockery, even notepaper and ink. You would need a score of sacks of potatoes daily, veg, etc. and then look at those chimneys - think of the fuel they would need to have in store, it would have been a nightmare to run. With those old Victorian hotels most had a huge games room in the basement, dance lessons etc, you can never finish writing a book about the antics in an hotel. I doubt very much that Burtons across the road had a billiards table during the Kings Head's lifetime. Before 1930 billiards was not in fashion, most pubs had bagatelle, with a bagatelle league. Burtons shop was in Broadgate, a second entrance in Smithford Street led into the coffee shop, and stairs to the top floor golf shop, or that's how I remember. Just a point of interest - Buckingham Palace had two men fully employed just changing light bulbs. They had an accident with a chandelier in the 1950's - remember Del Boy?

Kaga, my knowledge is limited to photographs and detailed maps and the maps dry up in the 1890s. Later maps are quite rough. In the 1890s the hotel didn't cover more than half the block. I don't know the date of the Vicar Lane photos other than they were not much before 1913 at the earliest and before the war at the latest. The other side of the bridge on Vicar Lane was some distance from the hotel. The buildings between the hotel and Vicar Lane, on the street front in 1890 included 5 shops and a pub. The first of which was/became Charles Ager.

The sign on the bridge states 18 tables - must have been quite a billiard hall!

Helen, so that makes your photo in the 1920's which is what I thought, but are you saying the Kings Head as a pub didn't exist in the twenties. The first post in this topic clearly shows the building stops at Vicar Lane. Neil, yes 18 tables, hardly think they had billiards before WWI. Yes, 18 tables would have been the largest in town, an attraction for an exhibition of the world champion.

The Kings Head Tap (a pub/booze wholesaler) on Vicar Lane didn't have a sign by then - but that's not the same building as the Kings Head Hotel. Although the pub backed onto the hotel at a right angle. The 'Tap' name may have indicated ownership by the Kings Head Hotelel or may have been a bit of a joke - suggesting it tapped into the hotel's supplies or was the hotel's supplier. The rebuilt hotel was stepped back from the original street line of Smithford Street but Vicar Lane was further west by another 6 buildings and in images, you can see the street step out. There is no photo I've seen of the start of Vicar Lane but there is a Bunny painting and a Troughton sketch. It would have been easy to miss the entrance in your day as it was a very narrow road.

A taproom is where beer can be bought without being a resident or having a meal. I thing that some taprooms used to sell beer to take out if you brought your own jug though I may be mistaken about that.

That makes sense argon.

This one has just surfaced on FB - it's the same photo that Anne found within the ad for the hotel earlier in this thread however with detail and I have enlarged. It also tells us it was the first floor lounge so you can spot the window from external shots. As an Art Deco fan, I love it!

Shows what we lost Neil as a result of Operation Moonlight Sonata! Would love to be in that room.

Examining that photo further I actually think it must have been at the side along Smithford Street and not the curved window that overlooked Broadgate. Although it looks the same window curvature the framing appears differently. But what really made the difference for me was that staircase in the background. I'm sure I have seen a shot somewhere of the burnt out shell and the stairways are visible at the rear of the hotel.

Wild stab in the dark - given the door on the right, I'm guessing that the window looks into the courtyard. First floor, left hand side of the arch.

I've seen that before Helen but cannot recall where - was it one of Peter James Knights stills from Coventry Rebuilt?