Swanswell public houses

Old Coventry never looked 'dismal' to me, Dreamtime

OK, then let me put it this way, do you think it looked more beautiful then, then being when Coventry had its own character with all its old back streets and identities with its history, rather than the modernisation it is undergoing today? All the name changes with the old public houses which still remain are losing their authenticity and will most likely change again in a few more years down the track. I remember a few vividly as they were but as they are now they are just buildings where you can get a drink. Cheers Dutchman!

Of course!

I agree with Dutchman. I love cities, but I don't like Coventry city centre much. The old photos, such as the one above, may be of fairly routine streets, but they were streets that were connected to the rest of the city, they had frontages and pedestrians and formed part of the city's urban grid. Now it's all gone. Coventry has, in the centre, a terrible landscape of open spaces, car parks, and places that were once proper streets and routes into the city centre are now dead places or just taken up with the ring road's junctions - which is a terrible road and so poorly planned. There are no streets to set up businesses, because all the traffic is on the ring road and there is no way to get passing trade, and the cityscape is so dreary. Of course, because they cut up this city, the streets around the ring road have all become economically dead. This is not what cities are supposed to be like. Totally, utterly ruined by the planners and engineers of the post war years. Coventry's a sort of 'non entity' of a city. And I have lived in other cities, and find them far more interesting, busier places when they have 'streets'. Maybe one day we'll have someone in charge in the city with the guts to reverse it.

Hi Dutchman and Flapdoodle, Hope you have a sunny morning today. I am glad we are on the same wavelength regarding redevelopment. It is a shame the youngsters will only remember it as it is today, but they will not know any better now. The old 'landmarks' - to some the local pubs have mostly disappeared now. The Swanswell must have been given that name for a reason!

Some chance of that! It's a corruption of "Swines Well" Dreamtime, a hollow supposedly gauged in the ground when a Saxon noble fought a giant boar and which later filled up with water. It's nonsense of course, in reality being one of the pools left over when the original Bablake which covered most of central Coventry, gradually silted up.

Thank you for that Dutchman, I love these little snippets of information.

During the late 1930's my parents occupied the second shop after the street junction in the picture. It was then a cooked meats shop and they sold pork and faggot batches mainly. This was before the presence of rats I must stress. I can just remember playing in the yard that you can see beyond the shop. When the air raids were on I remember being in bed in the cellar and the plaster falling from the ceiling. I was told that we left that shop when the shop next door had a delayed action bomb fall through the roof into the cellar, an eiderdown wrapped around it. The occupant of that shop was also the landlord of my parents shop and we had to move so that he could move in. Under the circumstances I don't imagine that was much of a disappointment to my family.

Hello everyone. What a terrific site this is. I've found it really informative and used it a lot over the last few years. I'm interested in finding out what the area around the Swanswell was like 1800 to 1830, particularly if there were any pubs out that way. I was wondering if the Swanswell Tavern was around then. I suspect not. The map of 1807 shows it as mainly fields but there is a large house marked beside the lake and a smaller one down the road nearer to the town. By the 1850s the map on this website shows that Swanswell Street had been built. So what I am trying to find out is when was Swanswell Street built and, if it was built after 1830, was there a pub there previous to this. Does anyone know anything about this or where I can find out? Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

Hello Jude and welcome to the forum Records show that both the Swanswell Tavern (White Street) and the Swanswell Inn (Swanswell Street) had already opened by 1835. There's no record of any earlier pubs on the same sites.

Hello Jude and welcome to our Forum I've moved your post to this thread which I think will give you some of the information you are looking for, and maybe elicit further replies from our members Good to have you on board

I have just found an old photograph of the Swanswell Tavern. Swanswell Tavern

Well done Foxcote lovely photo doesn't it look lovely there and peaceful

Hi Dutchman, Thank you for your response regarding when the Swanswell Tavern was built. I tried to post earlier but I think I must have done something wrong because it didn't appear on the forum. I've been in touch with a department of the city council who said they don't have any maps of Coventry for this time but think it may have been built from 1828 onwards when the area began to be developed. Well, that'll have to do I guess. Fingers crossed I post this right. Jude

How did I miss that one Foxcote, It is great, looks like a set from a movie. Come on find us some more !!!!