Smithford Street (inc. Ram Bridge)

That would be handy Anne! I'll bet they could tell a few tales! I did notice that Dutchman but the image I posted the 'pole seems a bit thicker and certainly has a different structure on the top in that image? There are other images on Britain from Above with the Union Jack flying so definitely a pole but it looks different to the mystery 'thing!' The plot thickens. Anne, did you find anything in relation to King Georges' Jubilee?

I didn't no sorry Neil. I looked in the newspaper archive but unfortunately they don't cover 1935

Both images are from the same year and probably also from the same flight so I suspect the structure is part of the roof behind the flagpole.

The picture NeilsYard just posted in the Burges/Cross Cheaping thread has given me a clue to what the mysterious pole/crane might be. It may be a temporary support for the tram wires while rebuilding work was in progress. The tram wires were normally supported by cross wires attached to the sides of buildings but this wouldn't be possible if the frontage on one side of the street was being rebuilt as many of them were during that period.

Is this image not worthy of giving us a possible clue as to what the pole is?

Not really - the "elephant on the pole" is a post-war feature, and if the pre-war Smithford Street item had been a permanent one, I'm sure we'd have seen other images of it

It's my opinion that its a street light, as I explained on the Burges cross cheaping thread.

Although that style of lamp standard was used in Smithford Street Norm, all the photographic evidence suggests they were much shorter than seen in that picture.

Agreed - it's too thick seen from the distance it is in the postcard to have been a light. Also as Cliff mentions - the spot where today's 'Elephant-on-the-pole' is located would have been underneath the buildings located in pre-war Smithford Street.

If this pole was in position in 1935, anyone who may remember what it was would be in their nineties now. Does anyone know of people that age who may remember it? Worth trying.

I would ask around here at Willowbrook as we have quite a number in their 90s. The problem is that they would believe it to be anything I suggested - even a lollipop stick if I told them so.

I think NormK may well have a point. It is possible that this is an arc street light, which although a product of the late Victorian era could have survived into the thirties. These lamps were placed individually in strategic positions, not in lines and due to their very harsh, bright light were typically sited on the top of poles at least twenty feet high.

Pixrobin, hold on there with your lollypop stick. No, to me I think NormK has it right, a lamp, not many kids in the thirties would have looked that high, and a lamp was just one of those things you take no notice of, and I believe the street narrowed near the bottom so would need a lamp high to spread more light. I must have walked by that pole many times in the thirties and not important enough to stay in my mind. Nah, what it was, you stood under it and said 'Beam up Scotty'

Love the theories I know it looks like a lamp but it was very short lived if it was. It just doesn't appear in any of the photos both at street level or aerial. There are no lamps of that height I've seen in the images of the city. There aren't even any poles that might have once held a lamp. It might have been a temporary light for something, it might have been something for a parade or Christmas. I'm afraid it's going to remain a mystery.

I agree Helen, I have looked through all my books and the only thing you can see on other pictures are flag poles which are a lot thinner. I keep thinking about Father Ted "Small and far away", what we are looking at is quite thick and twice as tall as some of the buildings. Sadly the newspapers give no clues as the Coventry paper jumps to 1939 so a bit late.