Photo mystery - T W Liggins

Here is a photo taken of T.W. Liggins builder, don't know who is standing in the doorway nor where the photo could be taken from. If you look at the picture carefully, in the window of the shop you may notice what I think is St John's Church, the shape is uncanny and you can see the turrets on the top. To the left of the building there is a gap (could this be demolition or bomb damage)

I think it's much earlier than that? A "Thomas William Liggins" (builder) married Catherine Newbold on 8th August 1882 at Holy Trinity Church and from the way the person in the photo is dressed, the picture could well have been taken on that same day! From the slope of the ground I would say it was the east side of Hill Street, somewhere near the Newdigate Arms on the corner of Bond Street although documents of the time give his home address in 1891 as being in Queen Victoria Road.

How interesting, could give me some new leads, thanks for helping me out

Trade Directory for 1912-13 has T W Liggins & Co, Builders, at 102 Queen Victoria Road Agree it doesn't stack up with the photo and the sloping ground

The interest in this is great!! Does anybody think that the reflection in the window could be that of St John's Church?

If the picture was taken in Hill Street, yes.

How could he be in two places at once? Intriguing mysteries again!

That picture couldn't have been taken in Queen Victoria Road as the ground there was completely flat. Nor could it have been taken in nearby Holyhead Road as the ground there slopes the opposite way. There is no reason why Liggins couldn't have moved from Hill Street to Queen Victoria Road after that picture was taken.

I wondered for a while if the reflection in the shop window could have been the tower of Queen's Road Baptist Church, but the slope is wrong.

From the British Newspaper site in 1902 there was a deed if arrangement between Joseph Liggins and Thomas William Liggins of Queen Victoria Road and trading at Conduit Yard, Fleet Street, to trade as Liggins and Son Builders.

Hello, this is really great news. So I've had the picture all along, just didn't know it was of Conduit Yard I'm sure Herbert Chapman (my great grandfather) moved there after 1912, so Mr Liggins would have been in there for a few years. I'm sure the two of them would have known each other, and maybe Herbert bought the building from Mr Liggins around that time? Still I wonder what building is reflecting in the window? Thanks for all the hard work

Are we sure the church is not St John's? I worked at Beryl Houghton Photography when it was in Queen Victoria Road and there was a slope running down to the church. I've been trying to remember the number the photo shop was at, it was about 2/3rd of the way down. There was a definite slope as I walked up and down everyday to catch the no.13 (Broad Lane) or 8a (Tile Hill North) bus from outside the Co-op in Corporation Street.