Record and music shops in the city (Click to see this topic in full)
You've just described Ralph to a tee Slim, he was the delivery driver. My late Mum worked for Fennells for decades.

Record and music shops in the city (Click to see this topic in full)
When I was 14, and in the radio club at school, our old black and white Alba television, which also included a vhf/fm radio tuned to the 3 BBC stations, went dead. I knew nothing about televisions, only radio, amplifiers, electrics etc., so Fennells were called out to repair it. A stocky man came out, and after fiddling for a while said he'd have to take the set back into the workshop for repair. Two weeks went buy, then Fennell's van pulled up. It was in the summer holidays, and I though great, we're getting our one and only tv back. Short stocky bloke, fag in mouth, got out tv from the back of the van and carried it up to the house. He said that it was BER (beyond economic repair), not worth bothering with, scrap etc. My dad said he recognized the man from years before as "the mad drummer". Dad said he was well known, because he had a cleft palate, and used to drum in a local band, and went berserk, bashing hell out of the drum kit, which was what he was famous for, hence the nickname. Anyway, my father being an engineer, albeit a mechanical designer with a rudimentary knowledge of electrics, made sure I did not electrocute myself when, later that evening, we set about repairing the tv ourselves. After a while, I found a 5W 2k2 wirewound resistor open-circuit. So the next morning, I got the bus to town and went to Electronic Services (remember them?) to get a replacement resistor. After my dad had finished work, the resistor was soldered in, and the tv sprang back into life. That fired up my enthusiasm for doing repairs, especially where the professionals had failed. Another bonus was that repairing tvs was lucrative, especially when colour came out, which attracted a premium price. I later learned that the resistor fed the screen grid of the PL81 line output valve. Hence no pic if faulty. Our old Alba soldiered on for a few more years before giving up the ghost. I then determined that the LOPT had failed, which was a terminal case for an ancient television with a low emission tube.

City centre shopping precincts (Click to see this topic in full)
In the round cafe photo, which was 1963 and obviously taken before the erection of C&A/Mercia House and the demolition of the pub etc. in the distance, the Lower Precinct had Fennells, etc. and Gibberds with the Pancake Parlour virtually above on the l/h side but nearer the upper Co-op entrance. Which side is the H&M store now at?

Spon Street (Click to see this topic in full)

Record and music shops in the city (Click to see this topic in full)
J Fennells started life as a piano retailer in Spon Street (on the left hand side going away from the city almost opposite the GEC about where the ring road is) and moved to 78 Lower Precinct when the said ring road was under construction. In time a branch was opened in Willenhall Precinct followed by another in Earlsdon Street with a workshop for repairing tvs and radios on the corner of Broad Street and Foleshill Road.

Record and music shops in the city (Click to see this topic in full)

Record and music shops in the city (Click to see this topic in full)
Again, looking through the newspapers, Fennells had a closing down sale in July 1978, and later Forum HiFi are advertising at that address, also a health club which must have been upstairs.

Record and music shops in the city (Click to see this topic in full)
I wonder if Spinadisc got the Fennells location? I can remember Spinadisc but not Fennells.

Record and music shops in the city (Click to see this topic in full)
Just caught up with the other replies, Kaga The 1927 Telephone Directory also lists them at 158 Spon Street

Record and music shops in the city (Click to see this topic in full)
Thank you, Heathite, Hanson's, of course, slip of memory - wonder where Fennells shop was, nearer 1920 when mother bought her piano.

Record and music shops in the city (Click to see this topic in full)
Prof, Wasn't Fennells piano shop next door to the Empire Cinema before the Blitz?

Record and music shops in the city (Click to see this topic in full)
Prof Yes, piano's, and most families had one. We bought ours from Fennells, it had a label inside the lid of the piano stool, along with all the sheet music. When you had about twenty relatives sitting round singing on a cold winters night it brought the family together like the tele can never do.

Record and music shops in the city (Click to see this topic in full)
Fennells. Didn't they sell pianos?

Broadgate (Click to see this topic in full)
Yes Rob, I thought it was the angle. Martin's Bank was on the corner of Pepper Lane, and I believe there was a little alley way between the cafe and the National Bank. Hertford Street was built in 1812 from a little cart-track, wide I think because of water courses - there had been two ponds in Greyfriars Green and a moat round Cheylesmore Manor fed by springs. The overflow under the two park streets into the Sherbourne at Gosford Street. The National was built in 1928. I have no idea about the bank under Broadgate House? Remind me someone, please. The ironic thing about the photo in post 650 was that a bomb hit the road just yards from the pillars and everyone joked that if it had hit the bank money would have flowed through the windows - five years on and I witnessed such a scene, money blown through Barclays Bank windows. You won't see Fennells advertised today, but it was a leading shop in Cov. in those days.

Record and music shops in the city (Click to see this topic in full)
^^^Interesting^^^ I thought Fennells had a branch in Willenhall precinct as well but it's not mentioned in the advert?