Broad Street

Hi, can anyone help me, I am trying to get some photos of Broad Street in Coventry, just off the Foleshill Road, before the war and after, and any of Broad Street school in 1953-54 as I have tried for a long time and got nowhere. It is not for me, it is for my mum as when she lived there with her mum she was bombed out. Hope you can help in any way you can. Thanks, Phil

I went to Broad Street School around that time, most of the school is still there, if you go down Morey Street you can drive round the back. Sorry I have no photos of the original view from the front, I bet someone has out there...

Welcome to the forum, "covmanuk" - I'm sure someone will come up with help in your quest for information

Thanks for that, fingers crossed

I know somewhat of a delay after the original request but, thanks to Tony Lay - 1913 Broad Street

Oh, feelings for me after so many years. This was the first street I cycled/walked down with my father that had been hit severely during the blitz. After asking if we could help we rode into the centre of the city. It left a striking impression on me that has never left - broken bodies, broken homes, but worse was to come when we reached the centre - the city was an eerie place, not only a visual catastrophe but almost silent. Gone had the medley of clanging trams, blaring horns, and shouting newspaper sellers, now I could hear each individual army lorry, each shovel - each sound rose and remained alone. The absence of the noise of the city I was used to was as unsettling as the sight of the bombed jagged buildings and broken masonry, the city almost a whisper.

My great uncle Bertram Clark and his family lived at 98 Broad Street from at least the early 1920s, perhaps earlier. He died in 1944. I'm grateful to see this picture as I had no idea what it looked like. In the 1990s. I wrote a letter to the Coventry Herald asking if anyone had memories of my family there and I had several replies from people who were children or young adults at the time. One resident told me that the houses were late 18th or early 19th century terraced cottages, originally one up and one down and of poor quality.

Hello & welcome.

Hi MoiraClarkHistory1921, welcome to the forum Broad Street was built over a period of time. 98 was one of the much earlier properties. I believe that the photo looks from the Foleshill Road end and shows mostly the newer buildings. 98 was about halfway between the Baptist church and Broad Street Jetty, on the south side of the road (right of the photo, distant). It was the 4th and 5th building from the Jetty corner. about here.

Hello, My memory of Broad St, (formally Brick Kiln Lane) was it was the last home of DeDi, ice cream. Right next to Broad St Baptist. Pam & I had our total immersion baptism at Broad St Baptist, one Sunday evening back in 1980. They didn't have an organist & with most of my chapel congregation in celebrating with us, as well as Broad St, I only had a few minutes to dry & get dressed, to climb back onto a beautiful pipe organ, to play "Thine be the Glory". At that time, my chapel didn't have a baptistry. It does now!

Thank you, my great uncle was the proprietor of a fish and chip shop at 98 Broad Street.