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Newdegate Street, NUNEATON, CV11 4ER

The photo was taken on a Saturday with the market set up in the streets. On the right of the view can be seen the stall of W. Rickard and Son, the last of the traditional nurserymen to sell their own home grown produce at Nuneaton market. The sign in the foreground advertises Haswell's whose shop is just to the left of the photographer. In the background, in front of the ornate Midland Bank, can be seen one of the large lorries of meat traders D&R Meats who are based at Arley. The Midland Bank (now HSBC) is grade II listed and was built in 1898. The architect was H.Goddard of Leicester. The listing describes the building as being in a "Baroque/Wrenaissance style".

Shoppers mill around a part of Nuneaton's thriving market which takes place on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the streets of the town centre. This view is looking into Newdegate Street.

A town centre statue of Nuneaton's most famous former resident.

The statue, by John Letts, was erected in 1986 by the George Eliot Fellowship. Eliot was born Mary Ann Evans on the Arbury estate and grew up at Griff, both places on the outskirts of Nuneaton. https://pssauk.org/women/page/4/#may-donoghue The statue was knocked off its plinth in 2004 by a brewer's lorry and subsequently reinstalled. https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/local-news/eliot-statue-toppled-3140556

George Eliot, whose real name was Mary Ann Evans, is one of England's best known novelists and undoubtedly Nuneaton's most famous daughter. She was born on the Arbury Hall Estate in 1819 where her father was the manager for the Newdegate family. In later years she lived in London but most of her work was set in the Midlands. Her statue by John Letts, in the centre of Nuneaton, was unveiled in 1986. The statue was the subject of a curious national news story in 2020 when a group of men surrounded it apparently to protect it against a Black Lives Matter protest taking place nearby. This was in the aftermath of the toppling of the Colston statue in Bristol and various threats to other statues depicting men with links to slavery. In fact, Evans was a supporter of the anti-slavery movement and there is no evidence that her statue in Nuneaton was ever in any danger.

There is an OS benchmark Image at the middle of bridge parapet just above the pavement. I've been asked by John Brightley to add that William White was the real name of the comedian Larry Grayson, who grew up in Nuneaton

Facing the Market Place, but actually with an address of 35 Newdegate Street, this building was constructed in 1909 as the Union of London and Smiths Bank. It is Grade II listed and the listing includes the shop around the corner to the right the address of which is No.31 Bridge Street. The architects were the celebrated Birmingham firm of Bateman and Bateman. The listing describes the design as "Late C17 English Rennaissance style", and is so good it has convinced a number of people over the years that it is much older than it actually is. The building to the left is the Newdegate Square entrance to Debenhams department store and the wording on the carved pediment above the entrance reminds us that it was formerly J.C.Smiths independent department store until it was taken over by Debenhams in approximately 1970.