Cov Uni pictures made available

[rebbonk]

I've just had notification that Cov University have made several sets of pictures from the past available.

link here

https://coventry.digital/

[dutchman]

There's only one picture there of real interest to me, but it is a humdinger:


(click to enlarge)

I lived right in the centre of that area for seven years. You can see just how much of it was knocked down to accommodate the Uni. It's the first picture I've ever seen to show the GEC works between Gosford Street and Whitefriars Lane. It appears to have been abandoned immediately after the Blitz or possibly even just before. The chimneys behind it belong to the hospital and not to the factory. The industrial-looking buildings behind the Gaumont cinema in Whitefriars Street were the temporary home of Marks & Spencer before the new store was built in the Precinct.

I hope they release more pictures as high quality as this and of such historical importance.

[dutchman]

This is not as you might think the Gaumont. It is actually the Coliseum dance hall and restaurant complex. A row of ancient buildings to the right of the picture was knocked down in 1931 to accommodate the extension which became the Gaumont. The Whitefriars Street frontage was badly damaged during the war and only partially restored afterwards.

[dutchman]

Although it's available elsewhere, this picture of Cox Street is about twice the quality of any previous scan. The pub on the corner of New Street in the centre of the picture was known as The Livery Stables. Notice the medieval buildings on the left of the picture at the top of Cox Street just before the crossroads.

[rebbonk]

This is not as you might think the Gaumont. It is actually the Colloseum dance hall and restaurant complex. A row of ancient buildings to the right of the picture was knocked down in 1931 to accommodate the extension which became the Gaumont. The Whitefriars Street frontage was badly damaged during the war and only partially restored afterwards.

From memory, you can still see the outline of the old name on the building.

[dutchman]

It's the first picture I've ever seen to show the GEC works between Gosford Street and Whitefriars Lane. It appears to have been abandoned immediately after the Blitz or possibly even just before.

I've since discovered the GEC building was indeed abandoned early in 1940 after after an enemy bomb landed squarely in the middle of the concrete loading ramp to the vehicle reception area making the whole plant largely unuseable. A short time after that it was totally devastated in an air raid.