3D models of Coventry

Hi Pete. There are only two images of the front of the Palace Yard that I know of and one is a Bunney watercolour I can't post in full but I think I can get away with describing it to you and use some bits of it. The other is a part of a view from the church. It's quite rough but it gives you an idea of the layout. The building was recessed from both sides. On both sides of the building there were two Georgian windows. On the right was a little single rail fence forming a triangle with the wall of the building next door and this might have had a twin on the left hand side. On the right hand side there was some kind of sign between the lower window and the central passageway. In the middle was the passage. Above that it had a big fancy, arched window with little pillars. The sign over the gate way read 'THE DOHERTY MOTOR COMPONENTS' and what looks like it might be 'CO'. In the passageway there looks like at least one wicket gate (ie big solid wooden gate with a little door set in it.) There may have been another gate (without the door) on the other side or maybe just one big one. Further back there might have been a door into the right hand side. On the right hand side there is what looks like a stripy cat but is probably a bollard. Notice the cream fake pediment at the top of the building that was to hide the original, medieval roof. On the left side of the passage way was a door into the front. Above the lower Georgian window next to the door is an arched sign the right hand side reads 'PORTER STO' and what looks like 'RES' Incidentally, I don't know if you've updated your Little Park Street view but I'm not sure you've got the buildings between the Bird in the Hand and the George & Dragon. Check out the Herbert Cox watercolours - Herbert Cox Paintings and this image from Anne The Bird in the Hand is the one on the hard right and the George and Dragon is just beyond the gap in the pavement. The Britain from Above shows the gabled building before it was demolished. And lastly, can you give me some clues how you worked out what was there before the council house? I've got some of the west end and I know that the buildings went from 3 storey to 2 but it's still sketchy. Yes, I know about the 2 Troughtons looking south west.

A fantastic collection Helen, I love watercolours and a delight to see how the old times really were. Thank you for sharing with us

I have looked through the newspaper archive for any clues. All I have come up with, if it is of any use, when the Palace Yard was up for sale in 1866 it had a frontage of 48 feet 5 inches.

Thanks for the resources they are really useful. Knowing the exact height is also useful because I can use that as a marker, usually I have to use neighbouring reference points as a guid, which is OK but not great. Helen, I must admit I had to use a bit of artistic licence with the buildings prior to the council house. The first 3/4 buildings are fairly accurate based on a couple of photos but the rest were made up, using the aerial photographs I was able to get approximate heights. I'm visiting the archives soon so will make an effort to see if there are any more plans/photos. If you send me a message via my website with your email address I'll share what I have.

There is an illustrated book, The Doherty Motor Components Ltd, which unfortunately seems to be available only in a library in Australia. It may have a picture of the Earl Street premises or it may be full of pictures of the Company's radiators.

I think Anne's useful contribution might be the width rather than the height? The top of the cream pediment was just in line with the eaves of the building to the right. I'll email you.

Not sure if its been mentioned recently but looks like the latest updates to Google Maps mean most of Cov city centre is now in 3D!

My thanks Neil, I will now go in and have a 'butchers'! Not looked in for ages. All have a delightful day, even though it's Monday

Special thanks go to Pete "Coventry Rebuilt" for providing us with an experimental snippet of 3D magic. He's discovered that it's possible to embed a rotating 3D model into a PDF file, and it is provided here.... Boots in 3D on PDF It is very dependent on which kind of operating system, browser and computer platform you have, so it will work for some and, unfortunately, not for others. It runs from "Flash", so the ubiquitous PDF reader, Adobe Acrobat is required, meaning that many Apple users could be excluded, unless a downloadable app is installed. If you are able to open it in Adobe, you'll need to "Enable 3D Content" in the pop-up toolbar, then click "Allow" in the options. Then click the question mark below the Coventry Rebuilt logo to make a model of Boots appear. If it does, then you should be able to rotate it by clicking and dragging the image, and zoom by using the mouse wheel, if you have one. Pete acknowledges that a certain amount of witchcraft is involved, so I must've used the right spell, because amazingly I managed to get it to work using Adobe Acrobat!

It works for me no problem just followed your instructions, But don't know what it is

Looking good. I haven't even thought about anything but stills from mine. I don't even know how to do a movie. I like the way it combines the source material with the model. Bits of it kept vanishing but that was down to the low quality laptop I'm on this minute.

Using Windows 7 and Firefox 52 it gives the error message "Cannot extract font ArialMT" but clicking OK it still works. Without a mouse wheel you can still zoom in or out, just hold the shift key down while dragging up or down.

I like that, thank you. It worked for me with the same set up as mcsporran.

Looks great - Well done Pete .

Thanks for that NY. I had a good play today.