Swan Street

Thank you, Helen. I can get a sense of what the street was like from that picture. Looks like there were indeed topshops - I think it's the first floor of the damaged buildings that is the focus of the picture. Do you agree?

Argon, I haven't seen a list of casualties for Swan Street but my gran's five brothers were all in the army during WWI. Only 3 of them still lived in Swan Street at the time they enlisted, the other 2 being married. All of them survived the war but the oldest brother suffered from shell shock at Arras and spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital. I know Waterstones once had a book of WWI servicemen from Coventry and it had pictures of all five of my great-uncles. I'm still kicking myself for not buying it!

Yes Primrose, the door on the left is the first floor (UK convention) with rubble from the top floor and first floor collapsed into the ground floor. There were a lot of early homes built to that and similar designs in the early 1800s. According to maps that area was still unbuilt in 1807 but was there by 1840. I can't date the areas exactly but I think the area was developed much closer to 1807 than 1840.

Just found this image on the Coventry Digital site. My great-grandmother lived at number 18 and emerged from the air raid shelter to find her house gone. Of course, it's difficult to tell which houses these are in the photograph.

Hi Primrose. My guess is that the right hand side is the north end of the street and the camera is looking west. The 1937 map puts number 18 the 6th building from the one on the right with the big diagonal hole. So unfortunately 18 is hidden by the remains of the building and its chimney in the foreground. Though you can work out what it looked like from its neighbours. You can't see the ground floor but that can probably be worked out too. The doorway would have been on the left as you looked at the front and next to that was a communal passageway out to the back. In 1906 that passageway was opposite the Hope and Anchor on Tower Street. Looking at the chimneys I believe that the chimney was to the right of the building, shared with the middle house. It would have had 6 chimney pots, one for each level and the two homes. PS, when you find the picture you want, press the button on the right of the photo marked 'Embed' a new screen will appear with a load of jibberish. Press the 'Copy Embed code' button and then come back here to insert the code. Click where you want it and either use the right mouse button and select Paste or press Ctrl and V at the same time on your keyboard. Preview to test.

Thank you, Helen, and thanks also for the tip about posting a picture