Lower Precinct Circular Cafe

No it never did.

I don't remember it ever being called that, when was it known as "The Circ"?

So? Actually, an ex-employee of the "Circ" has regular used that epithet on the HCF I don't remember it ever being referred to as anything else

I knew it as the 'mushroom'.

I too knew it as 'The Circ'. Could only ever afford a coffee with some whippy stuff on the top and that had to last a couple of hours!

Photo of Circular Cafe not quite built (and other photos of Coventry).

There's been quite a bit of discussion previously about the "Circ" being a Wimpy in its early days. I have always remembered it being a Wimpy in the early 1960s. This photo, published on 17 May 1963, confirms my recollections and contradicts others.

Each time I look at that photo, I am amused at the coffee froth on that dear older lady's lip in the foreground, she looks as if she is really enjoying it. Some could argue she is showing off her new dentures. I hope she had a good day.

Here's an image of the Peeping Tom on a sunny April day in 1962.

Does anyone know who actually designed the Round Cafe and the reasons why? It's just so architecturally different to anything else in Coventry and elsewhere at the time.

Neil, from a site called Geograph.org.uk 1. Lady Godiva Cafe The original name of the circular cafe in the Lower Precinct. Architect: Coventry City Architect's Dept. Builder: W H Jones & Son Ltd. Date: 1957-8. (Source: 'Coventry New Architecture' G Lewison, R Billingham 1969)

Thanks Anne Interesting it was an 'in-house' design. It was just so radically different at the time. I can imagine it must have seemed space-aged in the '50's! Especially after what was there before.

I have looked through the newspaper archive and I thought this picture was interesting of the laying of the concrete floor. Looking at the index in "Coventry Collections" of articles in the Herbert it does list several pictures in their collection.

There's been a long running joke/leg-pull on FB about the whole cafe spinning like some kind of UFO! I do recall a 'line' inside on the inner edge to the centre but it's been that long it's hard to separate fact from fiction as to what actually may have moved!

A couple more from the newspaper archive. The interior one was taken on the day it opened.