Jordan Well

Yep, Freeth Street survived right up until the building of the Polytechnic, circa 1963. I remember the closing down sale in the shops either side of it in Jordan Well.

Records of surrendered Coventry vehicle registrations are held in the archive dept of the Herbert art gallery, before its recent revamp it was called Nelson Mandela house, I've been in there many times doing research on behalf of the Riley Register

In Jordan Well there is what used to be "The Dive Bar" later "The Godiva Inn" I don't know what its called now. I think that the first development of this site was in 1963. I and others are trying to established what was on this site before its development. So far we have a swimming pool damaged in the blitz, water tanks, water pumps pumping water from springs, even a cess pit! According to one authority the name Jordan Well was made because there were wells there. Does anyone have any more information on this subject?

Hi, not entirely sure which building you're taking about but I believe that the current name is Rosie Malone's and sits on a plot that faces onto both Much Park Street and Jordan Well. It's not the site of the named well as far as I can tell, which was on that side of the road but was probably further east. All my earliest maps do not show that this was a pub although there were several further east including one next door but one. They did move about though. The aerial shots after the bombing show an L shaped bunker that might have been mistaken for a swimming pool but looks more like a basement. If there was a swimming baths there before or after the war I don't know about it. It looked like shops to me. There are no good pictures that I know of that show the buildings that previously stood there. Most artists seem to have completely missed it which suggests it was quite dull. There's a very grainy aerial shot of a tall, post medieval building there but that's all. Potentially, there was a handsome medieval building on the site but I have yet to place that building exactly so it may be further east. That picture shows a roadway to the right of the building with a hand pump by the side of it. The building looks like a named pub but since I can't read the writing on the picture, I still can't place it exactly. My gut instinct was that it was next door to where Rosie's is, which would put the water pump on a small road way between the two buildings. If that is indeed the case then the building on Rosie's plot was a very low building, possibly even single storey if another picture I have is credible. Yes, I know that this is called the High Street but I know for 98% sure it was Jordan Well. Others may be able to help you with names of shops or inhabitants. You have to zoom a long way in to see this - best aerial shot of corner of Jordan Well and Much Park Street.

Hi John, there are also lots of references to Jordan Well in other topics. Try entering it in the search box, top left of the page.

Incidentally, if you find any early images or descriptions about this area I'd love to see them because it's something of a black hole for information. One of the things I've discovered from my research is that most of the junctions of roads were widened/modified very early to ease traffic, which means that there are very few images of them before (too early) or after (because they were aesthetically displeasing). Another thing that seems to have happened quite often was the ends of streets were only two storey buildings, where the three storey ones were sprinkled more centrally between intersecting roads. This may have been because they were were harder to support as stand alone structures. As brick became the norm, the two storey buildings were removed and replaced with taller buildings. The closer to the city centre, often the sooner buildings were replaced, Much as tower blocks now encroach on cities. That's why Spon Street and Gosford Street survived almost intact until the war but Broadgate was very much modified by the Georgian era.

The basement of a bomb-damaged building on the corner was deliberately flooded and used as a so-called "static water tank" by the fire brigade. Fire engines could fill up there but I don't recall ever seeing one doing that. The well (singular) and later the street was named after Jordan Schepey who owned a tenement in the street.

Thank you Tony S, Helen F and Dutchman for all the information you gave on Jordan Well

Oddly enough this is the first time I've ever seen this view! I've yet to identify the large building to our right of the Dun Cow Inn. I've seen a suggestion it may have been a main post office* but at the time the picture was taken it was probably being used as an office block serving the factory area behind. *For most of the 20th Century Jordan Well Post Office was actually located in Gosford Street.

This Bunney painting is the best image of the Dun Cow and has the left most corner of the double building next door but one. There are similarities between the gabled building that is between the two and the William Henry Brook picture above. The Dun Cow probably had such an appearance originally and together they may have been the double gabled building to the left of the fancy building. Dr Troughton didn't draw the Dun Cow, or at least it's not in his collection but he drew the fancy one, writing that it was a copy of someone else's drawing (J A Repton RSA?) so it had been demolished some time after 1820 when Brook painted it. Any one of the buildings between the Dun Cow and Much Park Street look the right age to have been built after 1820.

Dun Cow photo

The end gable is part of the pub but the space below was used as a greengrocer/florist until it was bombed in 1940.

Thanks Dutchman, I suspected that was the case and it adds evidence to the possibility that the Dun Cow is the double gabled building in the Brooks picture because I believe the blue square is the type of sign that denoted a pub in that era. I just don't want them to be the same because then I've got less medieval building pictures to fill in the gap between there and Much Park Street. Another string to that possibility is that it would bring the hand pump in line with where I think Jordan's well was, albeit further off the road than the maps suggest. That's a good photo MR but the roof had been levelled off and it hides the fact that the two halves weren't originally one, although the differing upstairs windows hint at it. Jordan Well, very rare image

Was not sure where to put this one - another find from the True Coventarian Facebook page - But shows the view towards the Cathedral - the other way from the images on this thread. I think its post-war as St Michaels appears to be roofless and in ruins but happy to be corrected. Really interested me though as you can see the terrific buildings along Jordan/Well/Gosford Street and what was along New Street..............

1949 I think? You may have mistaken Freeth Street for New Street (New Street was further to the right and relatively undamaged).