White Lion, Smithford Street

More on the White Lion. My maternal grandfather Herbert Kendall, a Grantham man, a toolmaker who came to Coventry in 1905 where there were better job prospects, and worked initially at the Ordnance Works, but in later years at the Alvis until his death in 1948. He was concerned for workers' rights in the days before Unions proper. Member of Finance Committee, Coventry Insurance Committee 1912-13, 1921-22 (representing insured persons). Also Coventry Engineering Joint Committee 1915. (Hon Secretary) The Volunteer Munitions Workers' Bureau 1914. The Insurance Committee met at the White Lion and Herbert was Secretary.

So apparently the Council have been digging up the paving in Upper Precinct and have found this! They say they are attempting to salvage in one piece - hopefully for the Herbert. Hopefully one or two of you may remember stepping over it for a

You can almost picture it in the doorway here!

Isn't it odd somehow that the mosaic was so close to the surface? I bet the bricks to the left are even older.

The White Lion was a 3 storey building just prior to 1920, with no obvious features other than the Georgian/Victorian styling. In 1920 the building was in the process of being demolished and I can't tell if it was entirely removed or just top sliced. The latter I suspect. The two storey in Neil's picture was almost as tall as the 3 storeys next door. The replacement roof and third storey were fairly grand with a steep pitched roof and very large gable onto the street. It was at this point it gained the mock Tudor styling, including the bay windows. In the war, the 3rd floor/roof must have been severely damaged and turned into a flat roof leaving the building with only 2 storeys, which it ironically probably had when it was really Tudor. There were a lot more 2 storey buildings than you'd think, even that close to the city centre. Did the mosaic belong to the Georgian/Victorian styling or the Mock Tudor?

Helen I think it looks more like a deco font so suspect it was the Mock Tudor period. I'm going to try to get down there by the weekend to get some more images of it for the forum including aspects of the full location so we can compare. I've seen Councillor comments that they may try to pull it up if they can intact - hopefully for The Herbert - or even to include it as part of the current floor plan although given how much lower it is I doubt that. Again it will all be down to any cost involved but trust I'll be doing my best to get it saved!

This is the building before it was modified. There is a bit of Art Deco about it but it was being modified in the 20s, so yes, the mosaic is most likely to belong to the mock Tudor look. It also fits with ye olde pub look.

The building next door was the post office. The lion was a bright blue, above the door entrance and the windows were sash around 1850ish, but it went under many colours, as it was thought a great joke for youths to repaint the lion at night.

To me, the mosaic was part of the pavement and entrance, 1939. The pub was badly hit in the blitz, they cleared the unsafe bits, dropping part of the upper facia down in front of the entrance and placed a chicken wire fence in front of that. Used the rear entrance until 54/55 time when the Leofric opened. Have no idea what that pipe is, or when placed, but above street level of the 30s era.

The mosaic is shaped on the left hand side of the picture as if it fitted in a curve, I would think this would have fitted into the curve under the bay window.

Well spotted Anne. That pegs it firmly to the last incarnation of the White Lion. I've laid Rob's 1950 fire insurance map outline over the 1897 British Library version. It's clear that they're very different buildings. The bricks in the photo would be the road surface through the archway to the back?

And the green area on the right shows the Drinkwater Arcade (in another topic). I've seen some statement on this with the City Arcade (opposite side of Smithford St) being referred to as 'The Drinkwater Arcade' quite erroneously. This places it clearly on the RH side of the street from Broadgate!

I think these confusions arise because things move. Originally the Corn Exchange was on Hertford Street but it was later turned into the Empire Theatre. By 1950 the Corn Exchange is between the White Lion and the Drinkwater Arcade. At that time the City Arcade was opposite the Corn Exchange and between Woolworth's Bazaar and Garden Row. The moral of this story is - we should check the maps more often. Especially the ones Rob kindly gets for us.

So sometime in the 19th century the White Lion moved up a few buildings to Market Street, and the curved mosaic was not in front of the window, but in front of the cobbled yard of Market Street. And the street level was almost two feet below the Precinct level.

No, I'm confusing you Kaga, sorry. The picture is of two maps, different dates but the same plot. The left side is 1897 and the right side 1950. While the plot outline didn't change much, the arrangement of buildings did. In 1897, the front and right hand side was the hotel. The middle was a courtyard. The left and back parts were stabling, coach house and other utilities. In about 1920 they modified the front range (or built it from scratch) and at that point made the mosaic around the curved bay window. At some point they completely rebuilt the back and side ranges that you see in 1950, covering over the passageway and courtyard in the middle at the same time. After 1950 they demolished the White lion and the mosaic was buried so that they had a level (and higher) surface to lay modern block paving. There may have been paving slabs some point before hand.