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White Lion, Smithford Street

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Kaga simpson
Peacehaven, East Sussex
1 of 110  Mon 6th Nov 2017 10:13am  

On 11th Mar 2017 6:06pm, NeilsYard said:
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?
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Midland Red

2 of 110  Mon 6th Nov 2017 5:38pm  

1954, Kaga - the White Lion was the last building in Smithford Street to be demolished Thumbs up
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Kaga simpson
Peacehaven, East Sussex
Thread starter
3 of 110  Wed 8th Nov 2017 11:16am  

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.
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Prof
Gloucester
4 of 110  Wed 21st Nov 2018 10:30am  

Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Kaga simpson
Peacehaven, East Sussex
Thread starter
5 of 110  Sat 5th Jan 2019 11:26am  

On 7th Nov 2018 11:49am, NeilsYard said: Thanks to The Coventrian FB page - Nancy Upshall (b.1927) 'Smithford Street, Coventry, 1953'.
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.
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Rob Orland
Historic Coventry
6 of 110  Sat 5th Jan 2019 10:16pm  

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.
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Annewiggy
Tamworth
7 of 110  Sun 6th Jan 2019 10:33am  

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
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Kaga simpson
Peacehaven, East Sussex
Thread starter
8 of 110  Sun 6th Jan 2019 11:11am  

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. Cheers
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
NeilsYard
Coventry
9 of 110  Tue 26th Feb 2019 11:45am  

All change! - great view including remains along West Orchard.
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Kaga simpson
Peacehaven, East Sussex
Thread starter
10 of 110  Tue 21st May 2019 5:41pm  

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.
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Kaga simpson
Peacehaven, East Sussex
Thread starter
11 of 110  Thu 23rd May 2019 4:33pm  

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.
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Wearethemods
Aberdeenshire
12 of 110  Thu 23rd May 2019 6:48pm  

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

Question

Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Prof
Gloucester
13 of 110  Thu 23rd May 2019 8:27pm  

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.
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Kaga simpson
Peacehaven, East Sussex
Thread starter
14 of 110  Fri 24th May 2019 9:22am  

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!
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street
Kaga simpson
Peacehaven, East Sussex
Thread starter
15 of 110  Fri 24th May 2019 3:11pm  

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.
Buildings - White Lion, Smithford Street

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