Queen Victoria Road (inc Drill Hall)

Afraid not Helen, I don't think the outfit would suit me and I am too much of a coward. Don't even know why I went but I did see Mick McManus and Jackie Pallo.

I used to go to the Drill Hall on Saturday nights to watch the wrestlers. Some of the wrestlers were Les Kellett, Kiwi Kingston, Mick McManus, Sky Hi Lee and Khan (cannot remember his first name), they were very skilled and great entertainers.

Never watched it live, only on tv. Les Kellett was an out-and-out star entertainer

I remember watching Mick McManus, Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks on World of Sport (with Dickie Davies)! Was part of our Saturday afternoon ritual.

Another corker from Nicola Young on FB courtesy of the M.Toms collection. Nicola was not sure on the location but I think I've cracked it as a post-war view from the junction with Spon Street and the very bottom end of Holyhead Road (pre Ring Road) looking south along Queen Victoria Road. Cornercrofts is the giveaway - the square tower was part of their works. You can see/match the view with this BFA image

I think the property with the 'Grand Gala' poster on is the one of the very left of The Plough here - If you zoom in on the image the Ad on the corner is from Potteries Plant Hire Co - My guessing is they did the clearance work. They were based in Torrington Avenue.

Another two images have cropped up on FB dated 1985 of the section of housing at the northern end heading towards Holyhead Road/Spon Street.

I'd have passed this way quite regularly throughout the 80s when I worked at the Spon Street GEC (often to or from visiting Electronic Services in the Arcade, a fab shop!). One of my regrets is that I never took a camera around with me back then, but I suppose in my late teens / early 20s the last thought on my mind would have been thinking about the present in terms of tomorrow's history! One of my memories of that street, though, was an old tramp who used to sit about halfway along, and shouted abuse at everyone passing by while waving his stick at them! I guess it made him happy.... it certainly made us smile!

Would I be right in thinking this has been taken from Queen Victoria Road looking west? That 'tower' that was part of the GEC - poking over the top of the rest of the building (Any idea what was in there Rob?) was on the west side so this must be looking from the town centre outwards -

All I recall is that the main section of that strange tower was the inter-floor stairwell - but what was in the protruding top section, goodness knows! (Edit: This conversation has been continued in the GEC Telecommunications, Spon Street topic. )

Great shot of the Drill Hall and QV road - I have a memory that in the very last days of the Hall the wooden doors were painted a shade of pink for some reason so thinking this is mid-70s......... It ties up with the image I posted of it on post#114 -

That was me Rob, me Mum didn't have much money so she'd send me out looking like a tramp and I weren't allowed back home until I managed to beg 2 and a tanner.

I remember the Drill Hall like it were yesterday. It was on my walk from school to get the number 18 bus home. Often, like Rob, I'd detour over the road to pay a visit to the wonderful Barton Bros' shop (aka Electronic Services). Not only did they sell components, they had a Taylor valve tester. I remember, as a junior school kid, taking a red metallized Mullard EBC33 valve to be tested, and the brother with glasses (whose son went to our school) explaining to me that an EBC33 was a double-diode-triode. Of course, I hadn't got a clue what he meant. Long before I was born, or even conceived, my Dad was in the CLB (Church Lads Brigade) as a drummer when a teenager. A very important job in any band, as ancient wisdom will attest:

Are you sure it was you? I remember Happy who used to cause mayhem with his Sally Army uniform and white gloves, directing, nay, misdirecting the traffic in town until the police moved him on. He used to sit on the road-name sign at the junction of Foleshill Rd and Harnall Lane. He also used to wave his stick whilst hurling verbal abuse. One afternoon, I had to stop 'cos the lights were on red, and he hurled racist abuse at my apprentice who was in the passenger seat. Let's just say that my apprentices' parents came from overseas in the 50s, and the sons were all part of a famous boxing family in Coventry. PS Positively Pottering, sounds like we had a similar upbringing. We were poor. Some kids were dragged up in poor areas, whereas we were drugged up. My mum's sister had married a rich husband, and lived in the posh Styvechale area. They had coffee mornings, Where we lived, every day it was a meths morning.