Exactly 70 years ago today...

These pictures have appeared elsewhere but without sufficient information to mean anything to someone looking at them today:


This view corresponds roughly to looking down the Lower Precinct today. The huge building on the right
is the pre-war Co-Op. The upper floors were removed after the Blitz but the ground floor continued in
retail use until work started on the Lower Precinct.


This view from the market clock tower looking west along West Orchard shows the same Co-Op
department store on the left this time from behind with the City Arms and Fleet Street just
beyond it. The exposed girders on the right belonged to an extension of the Iliffe building in
Corporation Street (now the Co-Op) which was never completed. The smoke and fog obscurring
most of the buildings in the distance was normal for the time of year.


This view looking east along West Orchard towards the pre-war Owen-Owen building shows the rear
of the Talbot Inn on the corner of Cross Cheaping still standing. It was soon replaced by a temporary
wooden building while the road behind it was lined with stalls to form West Orchard Fish Market.


This one was a nightmare to locate! This view approximates to one taken from the roof of the Skydome
looking north-west towards Spon Street. The road running across the picture in the foreground is Crow Lane
which is now the service road for the Odeon complex running alongside Ringway Rudge. The road
running off it in the background is Trafalgar Street which was completely submerged under the council
estate after 1967. The destroyed buildings on both sides of Crow Lane were part of the Rudge Works
which was taken over by GEC in 1940 immediately after the Blitz on their Whitefriars Lane works.


Possibly a view from Meadow Street with the light from the fires reflected from the fronts of the houses
in Trafalgar Street. This whole area was left derelict by the council for twenty seven years. All applications
to rebuild properties were rejected on the grounds that they did not fit with the council's future plans.

Thanks Dutchman.

That old Co-op building looked fairly decent.

This is the same Co-Op before the war, it lay roughly where the Co-Op in the lower Precinct lays today:


This is the view from Fleet Street looking towards Smithford Street:

The pub on the left is the original City Arms and the short
stretch of road between them is the entrance to West Orchard.
I suspect the pub was very popular with Co-Op employees at lunchtime

Great pictures Dutchy

Excellent set of pictures.

Very interesting Dutchy.

Daimler Works, Radford

Queen's Hotel, Hertford Street, 15th November 1940. The wreckage of the Telegraph building can be seen in the foreground:

The Coventry Evening Telegraph office in Hertford Street mentioned in the previous post, up until then known as the Midland Daily Telegraph. If I remember correctly the ground-floor and basement continued in use as the offices of the Coventry Standard for many years afterwards?

Pictures from eBay:



The Mattock & Spade public house in Jordan Well:




Hertford Street looking towards Broadgate:



Above and below: Cross Cheaping I think with the canopy of Owen Owen on the right?


Noel Fashions on the corner of Trinity Lane and Broadgate: