Kings Head Hotel, Broadgate

Hi Neil. Peter may have used it but it originally came from the Pictures of Coventry. Even though I've been through every single image, I still surprise myself what was in there.

Wonder where they got it from? Its clearly not a photograph but must have been taken from one unless its all poetic license? You know I especially love the Kings Head/Vicar Lane area!

A lot of places had advertising post cards and it looks like a photocard that has been coloured in the printing process. There are a few touched up photocards where you can find the original. I prefer the original photos because they show real details. Some of the panoramic shots will have the factory chimneys edited out. Some are enhanced to return the details obscured by the smog. It's not always obvious until you zoom in.

You know we have to find the original now, don't you Helen! There is too much detail in that for there not to be one. I'll buy you another bacon batch if you get it!

LOL. Bribery. I reckon that I've got a better chance of finding an image of Silver Street to earn that butty. There may be a straight photo image out there but I'd doubt it. I'm guessing that any original would have been with the printers. The hotel wouldn't have needed both the touched up version and the original as they'd be handing out the 'better' version. It's not like some of the other semi painted cards where the printer could sell both styles. Nobody but the hotel would have wanted this view and not even then if it had been changed after the photo was taken.

Helen would it have been somewhere at the back of the hotel - entrance off the right from Smithford St as per this one?

Yes, the archway is to the right on Smithford Street. The courtyard was in the middle. I'm not sure when the modernisation happened in relation to the courtyard photo. I don't know how much was a complete rebuild or facelift of the old hotel, though it looks like a total rebuild. If the courtyard was double ended, the lounge in your photo could have been at the other end. I don't think it could have been any of the walls visible in this photo or the doorway would have stepped out into thin air.

There is a good article in The Midland Daily Telegraph, October 1935, called 'Reconstructing a hotel, steam cleaning the Kings Head'. There is a good description of the renovation and structural changes. One passage says "At the rear of the hotel the old garage has been completely demolished and its place has been taken by a modern two storey garage with a turntable on each floor". The article is a bit difficult to copy and a bit long to retype but I could try if you are interested. There are also other articles about the movements of Peeping Tom. There was a three day sale in March 1935 of the fixtures and fittings of the hotel. In August of that year the balcony was removed.

Great info Anne thanks - snippets like that would be lost to us forever if it wasn't for you digging them out

I was wondering when you were going to ask Annewiggy to look at the old Telegraphs, it's always best to get back in the days you want. In the thirties, if people wanted to criticise or know things, there was only the ET to turn to, there were no phones, we hadn't even come to terms with the phone box and only news bulletins on old wireless. Neil, try to go all day just speaking to people and cycling, not glancing at telly or phone - bacon butty says you wont make four hours. There was also a lot of modelling going, on there was a number of magazines and ways to construct models. I'm almost sure I had kit model of The Kings Head and all the rooms and dimensions. I don't believe the front facade was altered in 1936 or any time. The Corn Exchange was demolished and houses and stables had been built in the past, so the remains of them were cleared, the whole thing lost its appeal when the ground floor turned to shops. Even with reading old newspapers you still miss what the real life was about, you met someone you had not met for a week, but the conversation was as if it had never stopped - at school football meets, you just started punching the remaining rounds, or take a toffee as though a week had not passed, a completely different ball game from today

Any idea why they allowed the shops in to the ground floor, Kaga? Presumably easy money for them.

Neil, I'm guessing, but it was rumoured they had been losing money for some time. Once again we have to go back, I believe it was built just before the trams and better roads, a time when farmers and traders travelled by horse, therefore staying overnight, business and life was changing fast. The Kings Head was one of the first to feel the change. The way I saw it.

A report of the planning in January 1935 says that 'although there will be no interference with the main facade of the building it is proposed to increase the number of shops on the Hertford Street and Smithford Street frontages'. The plans were submitted by 'Mr G W Moore, Messrs Band Hatton & Co, a director of Coventry Freehold Investments who acquired the Kings Head about 10 years ago, now let to Trust Houses Ltd'. I wonder if this became Trust House Forte?

Kings Head in its deco period - yes or no?!!?! I know the links reference Leicester but they all appear in a generic search on Stilltime for Coventry under Buildings?!? There are others too, or have I just got my hopes up too much! I know we have mentioned that the hotel was owned by LMS at one point. Link 1 Link 2

I don't recognise any of it but it was a big hotel.