London Road

Interesting that even in those days, the infrastructure needed to expand, presumably because the population was growing - or maybe just the advance of technology. You can clearly see that the original telephone poles had a mere 6 arms, each with 4 insulators. Then, expander brackets have been added at the ends of those wooden arms, and presumably later, another 3 arms, each with 8 insulators, have been added lower down. Thus, the number of telephone lines has been trebled from the original capacity.

On the right of the David Fry photo below you can see the Salutation Inn You have to keep your eyes open to spot early images of the city. Note below an earlier version of the Salutation Inn and the London Road toll bar. The building is probably the same but it had a face lift. I'm not sure of the date of the cartoon but it was probably before White Friars Street was built in the early 1800s. The inn was built just outside the city ditch

The Salutation was my Great Great Grandfathers first (we think) Pub as Landlord - 1841 - 1844 George Yardley

The cartoon should refer to some political event I'm guessing. The papers in the guy's pocket are bills from the Half Moon Inn, Salutation £100, Craven Arms £500, Red Horse £50, Rose Inn. The total £1500, which is a whopping bill.

Loads more David Fry and Albert Smith scanned images on Coventry Digital. This top one is of London Road looking north towards the previous view above. The right hand side roughly matches the second photo below in view but decades earlier.

Wow, even with many of the buildings in the foreground still in existence, it's still difficult to reconcile the lovely old views above with what we now see on Google Street View!

Including this iconic little building that pinpoints the older photo exactly. I also note that the steps in the second photo are still there but the roadway is even higher than ever. Odd building on London Road

Oh my word, I'd not noticed that before. Yes, a very unique little building - which stands out like a sore thumb nowadays!

Wow, the daisy chain of photos through the ages got bigger. Well spotted Neil!

Talking of playbills, as today, there were places around the city that got plastered with adverts and posters. Favoured sites were entries to the city. One such place was just round the corner from the photo above. While trying to locate the kid's sketch of a timber barn from the 1860s I noticed the odd feature on the brick building next door and realised that they were supposed to advertising posters. That rang a bell. While the barn had long gone, the brick building survived much longer. Opposite the Plough, the barn possibly served those who arrived after the city gates were closed, storing their coaches and resting their animals while they got some refreshment at the inn, though there were stables behind the inn too. The outer wall of the gate tower probably served as the noticeboard before it was demolished, as the Swanswell tower did so for many years.