White Lion, Smithford Street

NeilsYard, I find your interesting photo confusing, I thought all those old buildings had been removed before the Leofric building was started, is there any way anyone can date the picture?

1954, Kaga - the White Lion was the last building in Smithford Street to be demolished

Yes MR, the White Lion was end on to Broadgate, but by 1953 two-thirds of the Precinct on that side had been boarded up, but if you walked round to the Burges you could see it was still open for business. There was a long gap between the pub and the gents outfitters and there were still small mounds of rubble with a large patch cleared farther in. I believe the small rubble was there on purpose to stop the cars parking and blocking the view of the pub. On that side you see more clearly the scars of the bombing. But . . oh inside, it had been all very plush, on the Precinct side against the wall there were a red soft-cushioned bench - look across the room and you were looking down the Burges, the bar was the Broadgate end, its back to Broadgate. On the right of the bar was a corridor down to the toilets, can't remember the colour of the carpet. But to me it looked as if it had been refurbished in the thirties, but was showing wear and tear and its life was about to end. The whole place had been real plush and was still the dearest pub in town. There were old tankards on the shelves, a huge pair of bellows, long handled tongs, pictures, relics, all that went back to an older Coventry. but I loved it and used it often in the early fifties. As a boy I had known the cobbled streets and the horsedrawn cabs, so it was not hard for me to imagine further back in time - Hansom cabs drawing up outside, ladies in long beautiful dresses, men with side-burns, fob watches, long pipes etc. But I loved it and used it often in the early fifties.

Neil Y Your picture of Smithford Street 1953, how can it be? Everything between the White Lion and the Burges was clear in 1953 and so was the south side of the White Lion, the Precinct was in progress, everything between the west side of the White Lion was clear for M&S.

I think Neil's picture is probably very accurate, surprisingly, Kaga. The photo below, taken from the other direction, shows that the Precinct was indeed in progress, but the White Lion still stood bravely and was one of the last things to be removed as all was built around it.

Once again reference to the Coventry Telegraph. The White Lion was to close on 29th January 1955 and demolition to begin on 1st February. The White Lion bar was to be opened in the Hotel Leofric before the main hotel building which was due to open on 28th April 1955. It also says that the White Lion's licence was understood to be transferred to a new house off Corporation Street

Thanks Rob, Anne, It's hard now to put the buildings in date order, but hey, Rob, I was actually drinking in the White Lion around the time of your picture, and I believe the front you can see was fenced off and you entered at the rear, from just above the Burges. As you can see it did have a view down the Burges. You have the building built and occupied so later than Neil's, but I'm really amazed, I can't remember that building. I remember it was all piles of rubble and a car park. Even so in Neil's picture I thought the south side had been cleared long before 53. I hope I didn't offend Neil, just trying to get dates right. Amazes me we have so many photo's without dates - that makes things awkward when places change so often, and, God, the old place has changed so much from my days. That's the beauty of this forum, along with the chat. I owe you one.

All change! - great view including remains along West Orchard.

Neil, 1951 thereabouts, and straight out of the history books, look how frail the White Lion pub looks at the top of the Precinct, standing among the debris, but it was warm and comfortable inside. The White Lion had stood on that same spot since around 1730. You buy a drink, you take a breath, and let Coventry history seep into you.

Whole books may be written about the redevelopment of the City of Coventry, but for those people who had lived through the whole of those six years of war, despite the hardships, it had been real and a normal life. Therefore peacetime presented a prospect of the great unknown, and redevelopment even more so. But the White Lion had been a 'Witness to War' and the casualty that created. For two hundred years or more, the White Lion had been a lively ale house for Coventry people, yet here it stands, around ten years later (Neil's photo), to me the real 'Spirit of Coventry' - a distant voice from the past, amid the skeletons of the past, ghostly against the sky. Its facade standing loose, its front door unable to be used, damaged and war torn, but still able to offer warmth, comfort and hope to anyone who entered. Can you imagine the feeling, the uplift it gave to wartime people.

Kaga, where's the 'White Lion' in the photo?

Looks to me to be in centre of the photo. Look for the City Arcade in Smithford Street, then come forward and though not clear that would be the position I think. It was one of the last survivors before the Precinct was completed.

Wearethemods, Next to Broadgate House, that small oblong white building with the black roof and four windows facing you, that's all that remained from the original pub. Half the Leofric took its place later, from that building right down past West Orchard is a car park in the picture (see Rob's photo 271 on Smithford St for a clearer picture). Four roads used to converge at the National bank, with a policeman controlling traffic, but look what's happened with redevelopment - a concrete bridge turned Hertford St non existent. Just a black hole to lead to it, then Owen Owen - in the process of being built across Cross Cheaping and the Burges, cutting both of from Broadgate. Even the Precinct had no imagination. The island had no fountain or drinking water. Ten b . . . . years we waited - for this!

The White Lion At the White Lion Inn in the year 1734, the landlady, Susan Wall, was murdered. The figure of the White Lion was over the front door. It is thought the body was white but the mane and the paws were brightly coloured, but for some reason the effigy was sold to the innkeeper of the Red Lion in Hertford Street and painted red. Sometime later during the night, some youths painted it white - its original colour - thought to be a capital joke. But the inn in Hertford Street was demolished and the lion was sold back to its former home in Smithford Street. There it served as a gold lion, then a light blue lion, and in the early 1850s it returned to its original white. A Charles Griffin contested the city in the year 1865, he made the White Lion his headquarters. He made a speech from the front window, but the figure of the lion, over the front door, was in the way, so he was asked to move to the next room, where he chanced to espy the post-mistress next door smiling down on him from a window two storeys above, whereupon he raised his hat to the lady, to the great amusement of the crowd.