Pool Meadow and Fairfax Street (new and old)

Helen. I'm sincerely sorry. My wife says I'm a real pain in the butt. I have a lot of pain, but the doctors say 'keep taking the pills, you're good for another hundred years'. Seems more like hundred minutes. But I thought it was a yellow submarine. Where's the guy in the white coat?

Kaga, no worries. Nobody knows better than I how confusing the city is, with its almost constant demolition, waste ground phases and then rebuilding. Bits I've tried to work out have literally been removed between one visit and the next I fully appreciate that you're working from excellent memories and most of us are going on very different sources like maps and aerial photos. The modern city is even more confusing. Our differences are often caused by not talking about the exact same location. It didn't occur to either of us that there were two Fairfax Streets. I really think that you should look at the aerial photos of Coventry, they're very helpful to locate things. A scan round Google Maps and Street view can also help compare with some of the new features. Weirdly, I got the impression that the car was yellow too... very odd given that it's a black and white photo. Keep being a pain

Hi all What a fabulous delight, where we see the sweetness & caring overruling everything. Just being human. Thank you so much. Brill, brill & brill.

Someone named Michelle Goodlad has put this wonderful photo of Pool Meadow onto the Pinterest website. My guess is that it could be the mid 1960s, if the bottom left corner is showing part of the new, relocated Fairfax Street. It looks rather muddy, as has been described, but I could imagine that in the summer when the soil would be dried out, the place would look a lot tidier - especially if photographed from a great height. Does anyone know when the lovely Art School and Trinity Church School were demolished?

All the toys still in the pram here!

I agree Philip. Without Kaga pointing out the white lines we would never have delved so deeply. Others have put their pennyworth in from their own knowledge and I for one have learned a lot. Any day that passes when I don't learn something new is a day wasted. Thank you all.

I'd walked through the old Fairfax Street a couple of times. Then when I read Annewiggy's report (59) I thought, 'Oh poor sods, they wait twelve years after the bombing and then told we're going to knock your house down but don't blame us, go blame London'. They build a new Fairfax Street, but the old residents have long gone and they take another twelve years to build it. I said to D-Di as he stepped off the coach, 'Do yer want one of your ice-creams, to go with that paddling?'

Neil should be pleased, there were no double yellow lines in those days.

I agree with Rob's date of mid sixties. Every Coventry Corp bus is post 1958, not one GKV, FHP or KVC. All post RWKs. The white roofs were introduced post 1962.

That picture was in the CET 21st June 1966, taken from the roof of the Lanchester College hall of residence. Looks a typical June summer day, very wet! And Rob, the school of art was demolished in 1967. There is an article in a 1965 CET showing a model of the new bus station. There are no Telegraphs on line after 1979 and it still hasn't been built.

Double yellow lines and Pool Meadow cafe reminds me of a story told by a long departed friend who worked for the GPO back in the 1960's. He had been sent over to Coventry in his green GPO Land Rover to collect a trailer full of road signs and traffic cones which were needed for a job somewhere. Having collected the trailer he decided that he needed a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich at the Pool Meadow cafe, but having driven round for a bit could not find anywhere suitable to park. He pulled into the side of the road, on double yellow lines, surrounded the parked Land Rover and trailer with traffic cones, and went off for his tea. His reasoning was that if challenged he could say he was in the wrong spot and beat a hasty retreat but anyway he would not be there long enough for anyone from the council to come and ask him.

Yes Anne - see my clipping that has been moved to the Art School thread

Annewiggy, But look at your photo on 37 - no seat belts, no heating, no casual clothes, no trainers, no jeans, sit in deck chairs in shirt and braces, sticks of rock, no yellow lines, no Leofric, and we drove for hours there and back for a few hours sea view. By the sixties, yes, Precinct, Owens, Leofric, things changed very rapidly.

Kaga. A friend and I in 1958 booked a day trip on a coach from Pool Meadow to Brighton. It took ages to get there, what we bought from there was two massive pieces of Brighton Rock, they must have been 2.5 inches thick and 2 feet long. I have never seen any rock that big since, but then I haven't been to Brighton again either.

Britain from Above is by satellite, so to go back to the fifties they are guessing what it may have looked like from other photos. Bunty's may be correct.