Coventry Pubs

Hi. I think i can speak for everyone on here, and that is we all like to see old photographs of our city, and we look forward to seeing any that you have. p.s welcome to our forum.

Having been a publican for some 16 years (now retired from the trade) I do love my ales and have "discovered" a gem of a pub in our city. The Gatehouse at the top of Hill Street is a real pub, with some superb local ales and a friendly atmosphere. The landlord is a rugby fan so that helps in my eyes. Very reasonable prices as well, and proper pub food. Very highly recommended, but don't all rush at once because it is a one room pub and unless the weather is good and you can sit in the garden, it gets rather busy.

The licensee of The Gatehouse Tavern is also a speedway fan as he was a second-halfer at Brandon many years ago! Televised speedway is always shown in the house

Wow MR, that makes it even better. I didn't know he was a speedway fan as I usually can only get in there on a Thursday, when my Rugby Club have their meetings. Here's me trying to be clever and recommend a pub but it seems to be popular already.

One thing that really annoys me is that looking at Google Street View the plot of land where the White Lion stood on the Walsgrave Road is still vacant scrub land and if you compare it to the photo I posted above the pub/building really could have stayed as it was not in the way of the redeveloped road layout for Sky Blue Way?!

Hi Neil, Bearing in mind that the Google street views are as old as. We paved our front garden three years ago and it still shows 'lawn' even to this day. Also when I go to our old house in the UK it still has the same car parked out there as a couple of years ago. I do know the point you are making though. You will all have to become teetotal soon. It looks as if being a landlord will be a dying profession soon.

Hi DT - I have not driven down there for a while but I'm sure it's still not built on. Week off next week - I'll make a special trip! I've always thought being a landlord would be hard work but you're right there's too many pubs going to the wall. I'll try to support a few more!!

That is true of a lot of buildings that were supposedly demolished to make way for new roads. I remember seeing the Mermaid Inn in Gosford Street still standing after the Ring Road flyover was constructed alongside it (although not for long). Also I am not convinced Fennell's in Spon Street needed to be demolished since a British Legion club was built shortly afterwards on virtually the same site.

I went to this place a few times to get some autographs and I always knew it as "THE JAILHOUSE" !!!

Photo of the Navigation Inn, Stoney Stanton Road (for Dreamtime).

You are a little gem, Morgana, thank you.

You're welcome Dreamtime I noticed your comment on a thread about not being able to find one the other day.

Mmmm... interesting - that Real Ale Rambles website linked above has 3 photos on the page that have also been used on our own forum ! I don't recall them asking any of us for permission, especially as one of the photos is definitely one of Dreamtime's personal photos. (And if you right-click on that photo and look at "Properties", you'll see it's still labelled as if it's been uploaded by our Adrian!)

I would like to say, I have never uploaded that picture to Real Ale Rambles. I have no idea how they got it, although it is freely available on the web, it is none of my doing.