Hertford Street

Not a view I have seen before. Let's hope the new buildings are an improvement on what has just been demolished - which should not be difficult.

Goodness what changes! I can't quite grasp how big they are or how long it will take to complete, a couple of years maybe? I must say those blocks look overwhelmingly high. Have they demolished City Arcade as well?

Yes, the City Arcade is now gone. I think that almost everything they're planning to demolish is now also gone, except perhaps the Litten Tree Building (old Rover showroom, Intershop, etc.). Pulling that down will have to be done very carefully as it butts up to the Reform Club.

Hertford St from the 1962/3 Coventry Express review during a Carnival parade. Looked like The Peeping Tom Pub just before Bull Yard had only recently gone -

I'll never forget Benleys. It had the reputation of being the cheapest shop in Coventry. They used to advertise in the CET. One of their adverts was for a pair of rubber gloves, priced at 1d in your old money. They did not specify the quality. No doubt it was a loss-leader to get people into the store. I wonder if that was a real name, or a contrived name: Bentley (suggesting top quality), but without the letter t. It sounds almost the same. Unlike Fidelity products, which were pretentious, this shop was not pretentious. It was more a case of "no fur coat and no underwear"! At school, bearing in mind that kids can be cruel, it was a place of derision and laughter. A typical jibe was "hey Arbuthnot, I saw your dad at work last week - he sweeps up at Benleys!", said in a loud voice so that the rest of the class heard it. Does anyone else remember Benleys' sandwich board man? The poor old chap used to shuffle around the city centre advertising Benleys. Moneywise, I bet he was paid in a couple half-pints of mild per week. With H&S I don't suppose it would be allowed today. But we were happy and had a larf.

Before it became Benleys, I believe it was a big hardware and ironmongers. IIRC, the name was Foulkes, or very similar. If you look carefully at the photo, you can see the vestige of the original Foulkes sign above the Benleys sign.

Wasn't he known as 'Happy'?

Yes, Bohica, he always wandered around, stopped and said "Happy". On a serious note, I remember my Gran telling me he had been 'Shell-shocked' in WW1.

There is indeed a short thread about Happy here.