Other places in "Now & Then"... Search this site:

Arts School, Ford Street Bishop Street Bishop Street Post Office Blue Coat School & Ruins Broadgate from Holy Trinity Church Broadgate Special Page Burges from Bishop Street Burges from Cross Cheaping Butcher Row, Great Butcher Row, Little Cheylesmore Manor House Coat of Arms Bridge Cook Street gate Council House Cox Street Far Gosford Street Fleet Street Ford's Hospital Golden Cross & Pepper Lane Greyfriars Lane The Grove Guildhall & 22 Bayley Lane Hales Street Herbert Art Gallery & Museum Hertford Street Hertford Street from Broadgate High Street from Broadgate High Street from Earl Street Hill Street, Bablake & Bond's Hippodrome, old Humber Motor Works Ironmonger Row Jordan Well & Earl Street Jordan Well & Gosford Street Kenilworth Road Mill Dam & Whittle Arch Much Park Street Naul's Mill Park Old Grammar School Old Rope Walk Palace Yard Pool Meadow Precinct & Old Coventry Aerial View Precinct, upper Precinct, west view Priory Row Priory Street, lower end Priory Street, upper end Queen Victoria Road Flood of 1900 Railway Station, Eaton Road Railway Station - the Platform Smithford Way Spon End Arches Spon Street Flood of 1900 St. John's Church, Fleet Street St. Michael's Avenue St. Michael's Ruins St. Michael's Spire from Pepper Lane Stoke Green & Pool Swanswell Gate Swanswell Pool Swimming Baths, Priory Street Trinity Church Trinity Lane & the Free Library Trinity Lane from Priory Row Trinity Street & Hales Street War Memorial Park Warwick Row to Hertford St & Warwick Lane Well Street from Hales Street West Orchard Wheatley Street Schools

Warwick Row to Hertford Street & Warwick Lane. Camera No. 21

At the time I took this photo in September 2007, Coventry had recently become a regional winner in the Britain in Bloom competition. Although the photo below it was taken exactly 50 years earlier, it seems like nothing much has changed since the post-war years in Warwick Row, and even the Reform Club with its porch pillars still stands. The biggest difference between the 1957 and the later scene would be felt by drivers, who, a few years after this picture was taken would not have been able to continue from Warwick Row into Hertford Street, but have to take a sharp right turn into New Union Street.

Crossing the road and moving up a few yards now allows us a view up the forked junction of Hertford Street and Warwick Lane. The basic layout is similar, but the view today somehow looks much more cluttered compared with the clear lines of the same roads back in 1905. Much of Hertford Street survived the war, but during post-war development the buildings at this bottom end of the street were demolished to create the Bull Yard.
Built in 1812/13, Hertford Street was an early form of 'bypass', allegedly built after the Prince Regent complained in 1807 of difficulty using Warwick Lane and Greyfriars Lane as the main route into the city. The land given up to build the street belonged to the Marquis of Hertford (also Lord of Cheylesmore and owner of Cheylesmore Park), after whom the street was named.

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