High Street

Does anyone know what connection a beehive has to do with this building? It's above a bank in the High Street as you go from Broadgate to the Council House.

Looks like above the Halifax BS? Google-Map'ed

Thanks NeilsYard, it is on the Halifax building. This artwork is only found on one corner of the buliding. It's hard to make out in this pic, but it shows a beehive. Just wonder what the connection is (if any).

Hi Baz, clever of you to spot that. I am curious too to know - why the beehive?

Thanks all, I think I've sorted it. Beehives are used to show a place of work (industry). They are not very common and only a few are noted on the internet. Type "beehive crest" into your search engine and see.

In this case it was the crest of original occupants Lloyds Bank before they adopted the Black Horse symbol.

And there's me thinking I had stumbled on a bit of history. Thanks Dutchman.

Now I know, thanks for that, most interesting.

Perhaps banks should now adopt fat cats as their symbols!

Or pigs with their snouts in the trough.

Just for my own curiosity I've decided to resurrect a subject we talked about some time ago as a side-effect of the Allwoods topic. The Allwoods, Atkins and Turton coffee shop at number 2 High Street eventually became Martins Bank (apostrophe left out to stay consistent with the bank's own spelling). However, there was some uncertainty about the age of the building, which was something I particularly wanted to find out. Two people - one member of this forum and a university researcher looking into our High Street - both independently found archival evidence that Martins Bank was built in 1937-38. However, I've now discovered two photographs that appear to indicate that the same building occupied by Allwoods et al became, with a frontage update, Martins Bank. The first photograph is a scan from David Fry and Albert Smith's "The Coventry We Lost", showing a 1913 photo. The building indicated, whilst still retaining the Allwoods shop frontage on the ground floor, looks remarkably like the Bank in Tony Swann's fine 1980s photograph below it. The third photo was probably taken a little earlier, around the turn of the century, and clearly shows the Atkins and Turton shop sign above the arches, which, I believe, were the same ones again revealed on conversion to the bank around 1937. So, it appears to me that it wasn't build new in 1937 - could it be that the archives simply record some building work being done before the bank conversion - or was an identical building put up in its place.... somehow I doubt that! Any thoughts anyone?

Looking closely at the windows in the first two photo's, the first floor windows in the older photo appear "taller" than the second floor windows - whereas in the 1980's photo, they are the same height. Also, the windows in the older photo appear to be much closer together. The second and third images certainly look like they could be the same building.

Not sure - but think the 3rd photo is totally amazing - feels weird to see such a familar scene as it was at that time!

They are great photos Rob. Hi there Anne Don't you just love to see how they used to display all their wares outside the shops in those days. Especially the ironmonger shops. Don't know how we would manage with an old tin bath today!! Back to the bank - from where I am sitting it looks like the original building lovingly restored to a bank. Just goes to show it can be done instead of pulling all the old solid buildings down (unless it has been bomb damaged of course).

Mmmm, I'd not noticed the differing window height before, that's a good point. However, I think overall there are probably too many similarities for it to actually be a different building - maybe the windows were reworked in some way between times? Chronologically, the first photo is later than the third one.