Smithford Street (inc. Ram Bridge)

Would love to scan this if it is a negative.

I'll ask Cliff where he got it Ben (unless you're here Cliff?!)

Here is an excellent image posted on FB recently by a chap called Don Clarke and shared with his permission. It shows: My late mum on the left working at Woolworths in 1949. Woolworths had been decimated by the blitz. Reconstruction had not really got underway so there was a lot of outside sales. Just 5 years previously she had been in the WRNS & served food to the troops who left for the D-Day landings... it saddened her to recall for so many their last meal. It compares nicely with this one posted earlier in this thread by Osmiroid - You can see the same white 'banded' building across the road that had survived (not much else did! ) with the Hanson's sign on the side advertising their then location behind in West Orchard - they would have been right outside the also damaged City Arcade there.

Fantastic photos Neil. As a child I remember so well the wooden floorboards in Woolworths and the tiled entrance leading into - somewhere ? My grandmother often wore her fox fur on her days in the city. I was always mesmerized by its head hanging over her shoulder (ugly thing). I must show this one to my granddaughter, her name is Verity. Was the tiled entrance the City Arcade ?

Hi Dream - Yes the entrance to the Arcade is just to the left of the Verity's sign on Osmiroid's pic. You can see it here via Cov Digi - ### I've amended the original CD pic I posted as I've just realised that was the Arcade entrance from the Barracks Market end### You can see the damaged Arcade here looking through to Smithford Street. You can just see the 'Currys' sign over the road from Osmiroid's pic along with the 'Cycles' sign -

I have a vivid memory of being wheeled through the Old City Arcade from Smithford Street to the Barracks Market in my pushchair and looking up at the steel skeleton of the roof. This was the occasion that my mother bought the surplus barrage balloon material at a stall in the market I explained the use for in post 168 in the 'Coventry & Warwickshire in WWII' topic. It is one of my first memories and strangely I can recall it as though I have it on video. I also remember getting tearfully lost in the temporary Woolworths. I found a picture of the interior on the web that I downloaded but I have lost where I got it from so I won't repost it publicly. (Ah! I saved the meta description. It is from https://www.woolworthsmuseum.co.uk/xmasdecs.htm but the one I have has an inset of the outside view from Smithford Street in the top left corner. The one on the site seems to be of slightly poorer quality.)

A standard view looking east but don't think we've had this early 20th century shot before found by CliffB -

A very early version of 'photoshop'. Not uncommon on some of the early postcards, for there to be 'enhanced' sections. In this case the people on the right look distinctly fabricated. The shop windows on the left too. In other versions there's a man on the left who is equally fake.

https://www.woolworthsmuseum.co.uk/xmasdecs.htm Interesting to see the interior of the temporary wartime Woolworth store which was built next to the City Arcade. I wonder if it really was that dark inside!

Another nice Postcard view from CliffB - the column on the left edge with the Ball looks interesting..............

Thanks Neil How much more useful would that photo be if the canopy wasn't up? That area where the buildings turn towards the camera is poorly covered. The pillar was at the edge of the Great Meeting House

Great stuff Helen I did wonder what was set back but guessed it was a slightly more unusual aspect of what is a more normal Street view.

Darn it, that canopy is up in my photo, too!