Bombing aftermath

Yes, I realise that Helen. It looks rather central to me but can't put my finger on it.

I wonder if the bus stop sign offers a clue. I don't know much about bus stops, but I think the one in the picture might be one on a works route (perhaps 'Route A'). Does this help?

I don't think that it's an inner Coventry street, it isn't as old as those. It could be one of the outer areas like Chapelfields or Foleshill or as far as Nuneaton. There's even a possibility it's not Coventry at all. A lot of images are erroneously tagged. Pinterest drives me mad with the number of photos of Stourbridge linked with Coventry.

But it does look like a Coventry bus stop

I agree, MR. It has to be Coventry in this case surely? I think the houses look pre WWI.

Looking for something else again I came across this picture of the Rex Cinema in the Coventry Telegraph dated 31st August 1940

Hi Helen, Just been looking on Coventry Digital, having searched 'Holbrook Lane', and this very photograph is listed there as "Photograph of bomb damage to property in Holbrook Lane"... featuring 'Rider's, High Class Confectioners'. Perhaps you're right, even if the buildings do look wrong??

Yes, I agree.

It looks highly possible that Holbrook Lane could be the location but I haven't got enough data close to the right date to pinpoint it. There are confectioners but the names and locations aren't quite right. For what it's worth, this is my best guess. Number 114 or 120 depending which way that terrace is numbered. The houses are older than most and that fits the map, where the area was mostly fields. It's very near the exit to the Dunlop Works, which makes it a logical place for bus stops. The numbering shown in 1950 is hard to connect to the properties in 1937. Thanks OddSock

Hi Helen, You know, now that you suggest that location, and looking at the photograph, I do believe you may have nailed it! In the late seventies/early eighties, that stretch did consist of a variety of different house styles (suggesting some original properties had been demolished and later rebuilt upon?), which did look out of character to me at that age. Failing memory aside, I do see a similarity between those properties in the photograph, and those I remember walking past as I headed towards St Paul's burial ground. Equally, and this may be completely irrelevant and 'more of the time', those railings on the right-hand side look absolutely identical to those used at Holbrooks Infant & Junior School, which would have been a few hundred yards away (without researching further, I wouldn't be sure on timelines!). The problem is, that particular stretch of road has seen significant change and very little of what even I remember remains, let alone what came before that - and it's probably not an area that many would consider worthy of photographic recording?

Hi Oddsock, the more I look at it the better it fits but I'd have never worked it out without the street name . It took me ages as it was. It became obvious when I dialled back to 1889 as there were so few buildings back then and the photo was clearly older building stock than the bulk that remains on land that was fields in 1889. I initially tried to fit the photo to the southern most building of that old stretch because there was a later confectioners at 108 but not called Ryders. The Dunlop Works explains why the area was bombed and why the road doesn't seem to feature in other photography. Might photography of the bomb damaged works have been embargoed during the war but bombed out houses and shops were ok? Or were photos of the works just stored elsewhere?

Old cellars on Broadgate revealed. Thanks to the London Transport site and Adrian James on FB.

Pre war Britain From Above view The cellars look like they belong to the two newish buildings just to the north of the market entrance (where Cross Cheaping officially starts). They also seem to have put in a wall to replace the flimsy fence You can see the cellars along that stretch quite well in the later aerial view.

That first one's a cracker, Helen, with the short-lived Prudential frame going up

Neil's picture must be 40/41 with the WVS van.