|
Index...
|
lthough many of our city's buildings could be rebuilt, Coventry is a place with a very full history, and many of the buildings lost to the bombing were centuries old and absolutely irreplaceable. As I've lamented elsewhere in this website, many of our architectural gems disappeared long before the war. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the town planners of the day had no qualms in demolishing our proud city gates, when a simple re-routing of a street could have allowed them to be preserved. And only a few years before the war, Great and Little Butcher Row, Palmer Lane and parts of Cross Cheaping were demolished for the building of Trinity Street.
On the left is the empty shell of Christ Church in April 1941. For some time after the huge November raid of 1940 Coventry only suffered minor "nuisance" raids, but this relative lull came to an abrupt end with two very heavy attacks on the 8th and 10th April 1941. Although shorter in length, they were of similar magnitude to the raid of November the previous year. It was the second of these two raids that finally destroyed Christ Church, although Coventry's third spire remained standing.
451 more people were killed as a result of the April attacks, and these were buried at a third mass funeral alongside the previous victims at the London Road Cemetery.
However, there were still many buildings of merit remaining before the blitz, and to give the reader some idea of the damage done to our heritage, I'm going to include here the full list published on page 45 of "The City We Loved" in 1942.
| Whitefriars' Gateway in Court Yard of London Road Institution | Severe damage |
| St. John's Hospital (the Old Grammar School) | Fairly extensive damage to roof |
| Coventry Priory (Coventry Catheral Ruins) | Slight damage |
| St. Mary's Hall | Severe damage to roof and structure |
|
Portions of City Wall at or near: Lamb Street Well Street Upper Well Street Rood Lane College Square Chauntry Place London Road Brookville Terrace |
Slight damage Slight damage Slight damage Slight damage Slight damage Severe damage in centre of Lady Herbert's Garden Severe damage to Whitefriars' Gate (Not part of the city wall) Slight damage |
| Chapel of St. James, Spon End | Severe damage at rear |
| The Cathedral | Burnt out - Spire and walls remain |
| Christ Church (Greyfriars' Church) | Burnt out - Spire and walls remain |
| Kirby House, Little Park Street | Slight damage |
| Cheylesmore Manor House | Slight damage |
| The Charterhouse, London Road | Walls, roof and windows damaged |
| Bond's Hospital | Slight damage |
| Old Bablake School | Severe damage to one building, not extensive to remainder |
| St. John's Church, Bablake | Damage to windows and roof |
| Holy Trinity Church | Damage to windows and roof |
| Medieval Cellars, Jordan Well | Buildings above destroyed - cellar damaged |
| Medieval Building, Much Park Street | Parts of walls only remain |
| Ford's Hospital and Queen Anne House on adjoining site | Part destroyed - severe damage |
| 22 Bayley Lane | No serious damage |
| Priory Row, No. 11, and others | Burnt out - walls remain |
| Nos. 111, 112, 113 Gosford Street | Top storey of No. 111 destroyed, extensive damage to remainder |
| Nos. 7 and 10 Much Park Street | Slight damage to roof, etc. |
| Group of houses, Little Park Street, Nos. 84, 85, 86, 91 and Court 20 | Severe damage |
| Fennell's Music Shop, Spon Street | Slight damage |
| Palace Yard | Completely destroyed |
Website by Rob Orland © 2002 to 2024
