Earl Street (inc. Palace Yard)

In the mid 70's there were various heaps of rubble in what was then waste ground at the back of Blackhorse Road in Exhall. I particularly remember seeing a big cube of red sandstone which could only have come from a large building. In later years the land was landscaped and a 9 hole golf course was built and now new houses have sprung up in a road called Stockley Rd.

Mick. Rubble has been discussed before under the topic "Bombing aftermath" but here is another article I found from March 1943

Many will be familiar with this picture from Rob's page on the King's visit after the bombing but from the larger image being offered on Ebay it's possible to work out that the street was Earl Street with the remains of the Palace Yard behind the tall guy with the bowler hat. The give away is the Palladian window (three panels with an arched window in the middle), of which there were only a few in the city. Earl Street on Ebay

Great spot Helen You can see it matches the windows on this blow-up (apologies for the inappropriate use!) view on the left. That Street level pic of the frontage is out there somewhere..........!

That's a picture I'd love to see in sharp focus. A picture of the front of the Palace Yard may turn up but the Georgian front seemed to offend photographers. It may be tucked in a collection where nobody can work out what it is.

We've seen it before but on the topic - so atmospheric colourised -

A crop from a postcard showing the same stretch. The red arrow showing where the Palace Yard fitted in.

The present version is very drab in comparison, the whole view is so very different now.

I'm sure you've already seen it Helen but that rare shot of Earl St North side is now on CD -

Nice update Neil. The section that is still missing runs from 5-10, plus the front of 3 and 4.

CliffB has found this one - its a 'normal' view of the Palace Yard however I don't think its one we've had here before. Looking through the archway I'm not sure the Council House has been built so it predates that and the yard looks in reasonably good condition -

They took quite a while to buy and demolish the buildings to be ready for the Council House. What you can see through the gateway is a little site building put up where the Cross Keys used to stand and you can see Court 2 peeking over the top. The Cross Keys was demolished in 1897. Court 2 lasted until about 1908. The Council House wasn't started until 1913. You can see the raw end of Court 2 and the site building in Prof's picture below.

Ah, we've had that photo on here for quite a while! I can see that CliffB didn't copy mine, though, as his is slightly less cropped on the left, showing a tad more of the window.