Warwick Lane

Did not Holbrooks have a store in Warwick Lane just before the junction with Greyfriars Lane in the fifties? Regards.

I can remember going in their shop in Hertford St. It had been patched up after the blitz damage, and floor was like walking across a mini set of Alps. I seem to remember that they had a small shop front in Warwick Lane behind the chemist. But there wasn't much up Warwick Lane, shop-wise, the biggest building was the Methodist Central Hall. Holbrooks' shop must have been pretty much next door to the MC Hall.

The Holbrooks shop was next to the Central Hall, more or less where the car park is now. We bought a black pouffe from there in 1966, the first piece of new furniture after getting married. We still have it, though it is not currently in use. I remember it as an excellent shop but generally out of our price range. Like many people we set up home with cast off furniture from parents, even the second hand tv sat on the floor as we couldn't afford anything to put it on.

My memory as a nipper is that Holbrooks was just below Ford's Hospital. My Dad would drive to the sorting office every Friday evening, to make sure his pools coupon caught the post. (He never won, by the way. Interesting that he always said gambling was a mug's game, having seen his elder brother's in-laws get into real financial bother by being hooked on the gee-gees or the dogs. But then I guess Dad's losses were trivial in comparison.) I would usually accompany him, and could not understand what he found it so interesting staring into a shop window studying the merchandise. I was bored. The building was one of those single storey cheap corrugated iron/asbestos sheet rooved things erected quickly after WW2 bombing. Apart from being a suburb of Coventry, there was also a lady near my parents' shop who in former days had her own ladies' accordion band. Her stage name was Dorothy Holbrooks, because that's where she originally came from. Her son used to own a well-known car radio and entertainment shop in Coventry.

After the bombing and destruction of Christ Church in the April 1941 blitz, meetings were held in some 'Rooms' in Warwick Lane on the same side of the lane as the MCH if my memory serves me right. These rooms possibly belonged to the MCH. The actual church services were held in St Michael's Mission church, originally an old Baptist Church in Whitefriars Lane. (More details in the thread on Whitefriars Lane). The rooms and Mission were used by Christ Church until the new church was completed in Cheylesmore in 1956/57. I have only a very hazy memory of the rooms and Mission as I was only a child at the time.

To add to Rob's comment in "What happened on this day", some pictures of The Grapes as it was in 1937 and Warwick Lane 1938, and after it was partly demolished in the war to become the smallest pub. It must have been a bit cosy in there. Not sure about the name of the bridge though

Another article from the newspaper archive This Inn Moved With the Times. It is surprising how large is the number of unique features of the ancient city which have been destroyed or badly damaged by air raids on Coventry. One of the most interesting was the Grapes Inn at the bottom of Warwick Lane. You have heard of a travellers’ inn, but have you heard of a travelled inn? Well, the Grapes comes into that novel category. It was erected in Warwick Lane in 1643—but possessed the unusual characteristic of being an inn that had literally moved with the times. At one period it stood outside the city wall at a point conjectured to be on the site of the present Three Tuns. When civil war raged in England and Coventry was theatened by a second attack from King Charles the local citizens rooted up the Grapes and half-a-dozen similar timber-framed houses adjoining it and re-erected them just inside the city wall. On an exterior beam outside the building was a Sun insurance firemark—dated August 25, 1722, the oldest in Coventry. Upstairs there was a pane of glass on which in 1787 three men had inscribed their names with a diamond. The Grapes moved with the times for the last time in a recent series of raids on Coventry. It disappeared a result of a direct hit from an H.E. And 2 more pictures from the newspaper, 1941 and 1945. The small part of the pub was rescued after the bombing. The store room was converted into a tap room and a bar was contained in a brick annex. It was to have been demolished anyway before the war but was saved when war broke out.

It refers to Holbrooks store which was there - not to the Holbrooks district

Thanks MR

Fantastic rare images Anne - thanks for sharing

A slightly different shot of Anne's image from earlier here.

Here's a much better image of 'The Grapes' in its final tiny stage -

I've only just found this amazing image of The Grapes which Rob captured in the Library Pictures Collection - now that's what I call a 'snug'!