Conduit Yard

Ooh this is interesting, your knowledge is amazing, Dutchman! What is nice is all the help I get through this forum. You must be obsessed as much as me about your city. I have a map from 1937ish that shows you the entrance to Conduit Yard off Fleet Street. Which side of the pavement would it have been, the left (close to the benches and flower beds) or to the right closest to the concrete building of C&A? On a map that I have after WWII you can see part of Conduit Yard has disappeared. This was to do with the bomb that was dropped through Herbert Chapman's workshop, I think

It was a long yard and didn't follow the line of the street which is there now. The entrance would have been to the the left, near the benches and the workshops to the right, nearer the C&A building.

Ah, we seem to be getting closer to the area!! I always wished that the area of Herbert's workshop was not built on by that HOOJ monstrosity of a shopping centre. At least I can go and stand in the local area to where he would of been all those years ago!

On my 1851 OS map of Coventry, the entrance to Conduit Yard is shown running south from Fleet Street about midway between Birmingham New Road (later Holyhead Road) and Hill Street. It was almost opposite the west end of Bablake Church (St John's).

Which is where the benches and flower beds mentioned above are located! I won't split hairs with you whether the entrance was in Spon Street, Fleet Street, or between the two as there is disagreement even among published references but the shops on the right are and always have been in Spon Street.

I am just having a look at the National Archives on the web and i came across a page talking about Fleet Street 1889. It seems to be about a small piece of land in Fleet Street with a 1000-year lease. It says about Conduit Yard being No. 10? I am curious to know what "the cabin" was whether is was just a out house for the blacksmith's shop or something else? T.E. Brown and W. Yates conveyed to Jane Hitchins (of Coventry, spinster) numbers 1, 2 and 3, Court No. 5, Fleet St., and 10, Conduit Yard (a blacksmith's shop) with the lean-to called "the cabin", the stable, privy and piggeries, and the right of passage over

Conduit Yard was a separate postal address to Fleet Street so it refers to address No10 in Conduit Yard. Just to confuse matters, 1a Spon Street was on the corner of Conduit Yard and often mistaken for No10.

Ah right well that's something to consider! Thanks very much

Whilst researching something else I came across this item Heritage Statement It's all interesting stuff, but on page 8 is an 1851 map which shows Conduit Yard

In my earliest posts I remembered a pub there, which some said wasn't there; however the upper floors of those houses look very, very familiar - exactly like the pub that I remember there, but with the ground floor modified; the bay windows had been removed and small windows fitted - three to match upstairs - and two very plain modern doors painted black, each up two small steps. I know the building on the corner wasn't there - I can't remember what was - and I reckon that the first two houses of the row had been knocked into one to form the building that I recall from when I was very small. The front had been screeded and painted cream, a bit like the house further along - probably to disguise the alterations. All the windows had been fitted with 1930s style metal frames. I think the entrance to Conduit Yard had been blocked too, with whatever was between the end of the row and Allwood's A & T's shop by then. And the pavement line was further out into the road. I spoke to an old friend who still lives in Coventry about it, and she thought it might have been called the Smithfield something.

Great find Midland Red, on page 6 of your heritage link, there is mention of no9 Holyhead Road, Erringtons, the factory Keith was looking for in an earlier post.

The Smithfield was in Hales Street. The building on the corner in the old photograph was a temperance hotel/coffee tavern and never sold alcohol.

That was what I thought, but didn't like to say it to my friend. The Temperance Hotel had long gone by 1950, I'm certain of that. Incredible to find a photo of that bit - no-one seemed to like it enough to waste film on it! The pub that I remember was scruffy and very downmarket, which could be why no-one took any photos of it. It really was a grotty place. May have been temporary premises to replace the Plough, something like that, or just a cheap way of creating another one. That's exactly how I remember the first and second floors, though, and it was about two houses wide. We may yet find out more! This is what I remember it looking like: I think you'll agree that it's very close to the appearance of the houses! I only wish that I could remember its name - maybe the name of the terrace?

There was once a pub called 'The Duke of Cumberland' at 21 Fleet Street just three doors from the entrance to Conduit Yard but it closed in 1898.

Thanks. It's strange - my teenage memories are much less accurate and detailed than my much earlier ones! Must have been all the other distractions, if you know what I mean, nudge, nudge