
NeilsYard Coventry All posts by this member | 61 of 83 Fri 6th Sep 2019 10:03am Member: Joined Aug 2010 Total posts:2813 Pretty sure we have seen this one before but added due to its clarity - mods move if desired. However I think this shows the backs of properties on Fleet Street looking over to the clearance for Corporation Street in 1926.
I have an idea the photographer may have been standing on the roof of a building, possibly in Conduit Yard?
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Kaga simpson Peacehaven, East Sussex All posts by this member | 62 of 83 Sat 21st Sep 2019 5:04pm Member: Joined Sep 2014 Total posts:3515 Helen F,
Your post 59, on the right, the large house you see before the Precinct, this side of the recess you can just see a little building, this was the Casino Cafe, a temp building. Like all the other buildings it had a limited time, but it did open till 9pm, and was a great meeting place for young people to meet on that side of town. |
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Kaga simpson Peacehaven, East Sussex All posts by this member | 63 of 83 Sun 22nd Sep 2019 11:02am Member: Joined Sep 2014 Total posts:3515 On the second morning after the Blitz (Sat) I stood at the top of Smithford Street up to my knees in rubble. Looking down the street there were twisted iron girders across the street, one had torn a house in half. Two decades after, I often wondered, was the Casino Cafe the house that had been torn in two?
After the rescuers came the army to sift and sort out the rubble and clear it. Of course, being a child there was a lot I didn't understand, but the soldiers unearthed a few bits of pages of singed material that had funny writing on it, and some kind of inlaid badge. My dad didn't know. I asked someone, it had been something called a visitors book of the King's Head. I threw it on the ground and a soldier shovelled it into the lorry with the rubble. |
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NeilsYard Coventry All posts by this member | 64 of 83 Thu 16th Jan 2020 4:56pm Member: Joined Aug 2010 Total posts:2813 A similar shot probably taken at the same time of post#53 at the junction where Fleet Street met Smithford Street - just looking slightly further west at bomb damage -
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3Spires SW Leicestershire All posts by this member | 65 of 83 Thu 16th Jan 2020 5:38pm Member: Joined Apr 2018 Total posts:88 Great photo.
The advertising board below H Bass's offers "Palmistry and Clairvoyance"!
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Helen F | 66 of 83 Mon 3rd Feb 2020 2:53pm |
NeilsYard Coventry All posts by this member | 67 of 83 Mon 18th Jan 2021 10:03am Member: Joined Aug 2010 Total posts:2813 I know Rob has already seen this but how about this for a strange one. John Miles posted this one on FB recently. We think it’s a fake/mock-up comparison despite the Telegraph not actually declaring it as so - it’s noticeable by the railings on show on the right upper compared to other images already out there where those railings are not there yet but the whole area which is/was to become the Lower Precinct has already been cleared. What I am really interested in though is the origin, and as it seems to be a cut down photo, the full image of the older buildings shown on the left. Despite the paper alluding they are the rears of buildings on Smithford Street, most here probably already know that not much beyond where the ramp was built at Ram bridge it became Fleet Street after the West Orchard junction. So are they actually Fleet Street rears? Side by Side map comparison says they should be if the location is correct.
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Kaga simpson Peacehaven, East Sussex All posts by this member | 68 of 83 Mon 18th Jan 2021 10:38am Member: Joined Sep 2014 Total posts:3515 NeilsYard.
Well as far as I know Fleet Street and Smithford Street were all one, same as High Street and Earl Street. In fact weren't they all one in coaching days? They were widened in about 1828 when Broadgate became widened and before the bank was there. They had the right of way, not Hertford Street. |
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Helen F Warrington All posts by this member | 69 of 83 Mon 18th Jan 2021 10:54am Moderator: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:2457 I think that it might be a genuine photo Neil. The bit on the left, I think is the back of the south side of Fleet Street, opposite the City Arms. Note the pole.
BFA link
The different alignments of the Precinct and Smithford/Fleet Street account for the odd conjunction. We do know that they completed the south side first. |
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Kaga simpson Peacehaven, East Sussex All posts by this member | 70 of 83 Mon 18th Jan 2021 11:07am Member: Joined Sep 2014 Total posts:3515 Helen.
Fleet Street, the west side of the Precinct wasn't completed for five/six years after the east side, maybe more, for I left in 1961. |
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Helen F Warrington All posts by this member | 71 of 83 Mon 18th Jan 2021 11:12am Moderator: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:2457 Yes Kaga, that would tie in with this picture from 1953 as they were working towards the west end.
BFA looking east
You can see how the Precinct will miss the old line of Fleet Street. |
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NeilsYard Coventry All posts by this member | 72 of 83 Mon 18th Jan 2021 11:22am Member: Joined Aug 2010 Total posts:2813 The thing is this one is dated 1958 as well? Note the upper fancy railings have not been built but any old buildings in the way of lower precinct have already been cleared?
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Helen F Warrington All posts by this member | 73 of 83 Mon 18th Jan 2021 11:25am Moderator: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:2457 The photo above might be January, where the other is September. The old buildings were off to the right. |
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Helen F Warrington All posts by this member | 74 of 83 Mon 18th Jan 2021 11:33am Moderator: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:2457 We know from this picture that they were building the cafe while those buildings still stood.
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moriarty allesley park coventry All posts by this member | 75 of 83 Mon 18th Jan 2021 12:49pm Member: Joined Oct 2017 Total posts:54 I'm with NY on this one, immediately I saw the FB photo it looked like a mock-up!
Such a straight line dividing the two sides no boarding to shield the shoppers. Later on they always put up shuttering. However the only other things I could see was the upper railings to the left-hand side have been scratched or whitened out.
And the photographer is standing really far back in post 72, you would think he would have interference with the older buildings in the way! |
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