IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Windsor Street, COVENTRY, CV1 3EQ

One of a number of similarly-styled tower blocks dotted about the northern fringes of Coventry, standing like sentries as if to provide early warning of incursions by Nuneaton or Hinckley. They are distinguished by projecting white concrete bands and closely resemble designs by City Architect, Arthur Ling. Built by him or his successor, Terence Gregory, in the early-mid 1960s.

A 17-storey block containing 130 dwellings completed in 1967.

The Old Windmill in Spon Street, Coventry can trace its history back to around 1580. Mentioned in Hewitt 1756, it was said to have been erected around the trunk of a tree and is one of the oldest taverns in Coventry. The uneven exterior walls are wattle and daub and until recent years little was done to change its character. During the 1980s there was some modernisation and the central paved courtyard was roofed over and a wall removed.

Meadow House residential tower block dominates Spon Street and was built in 1966 alongside the ring road that sliced through Spon Street at much the same time. The exterior was refurbished in a light blue ca. 2013. Other buildings visible are (on the left) part of the former Rotherhams offices, some of which date from the 18th century and a 1990s entertainment complex built on the site of the former Rudge (later GEC) factory. On the right are timber framed buildings dating from the 15th century. Meadow House in 2011: Image]

Taken in 1972, when the area had been recently re-landscaped. The footbridge is a former canal bridge, removed here from near Sowe Common during the building of the M6. Beyond is the Ringway Rudge section of the inner ring road and the furthest building on the left was the GEC factory, previously Rudge-Whitworth and now demolished. The spire is that of Greyfriars/Christ Church, one of Coventry's three spires.

These houses are close to the centre of Coventry. Coventry's ring road passes just to the right, out of sight in the image.

A concrete walkway connects the upper rows of two-storey maisonettes in the four storey blocks of Milestone House, Kerry's House & Trafalgar House in Spon End, Coventry. The maisonettes were built in the 1960s by the City Architect's Department under Arthur Ling as part of a programme of slum clearance; see Image] for further information. The maisonettes are themselves now to be demolished and replaced in a programme beginning in 2023, as reported by the Coventry Society https://news.coventrysociety.org.uk/2022/05/16/redevelopment-of-spon-end/ . Many are now empty and boarded up, though others are still lived-in. For the unhappy history of 'streets in the sky' see the Urban Idiot writing for the Academy of Urbanism https://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/streets-in-the-sky-the-urban-idiot/ . Spon End is at least on a smaller scale than the vast blocks of Park Hill in Sheffield and Hulme in Manchester.

Spon End was an early suburb of Coventry that developed along the road to Birmingham beyond the Spon Gate on the western side of the city. It became a quarter of tanners and dyers, who used the waters of the River Sherbourne; by the 19th century watchmaking had also become important. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spon_Street Spon End became known as a slum; in the 1952 Development Plan for Coventry, the city's chief architect Donald Gibson wrote that it had “some of the worst housing conditions in the city… [with] the worst possible lightning [sic] and ventilation… Sanitary facilities are highly unsatisfactory.” https://sponend.wordpress.com/2018/08/06/buildings/ The planners' response was to compulsorily purchase and demolish most of the existing housing and replace it with a mixture of two-storey houses and low-rise and high-rise flats and maisonettes. Gibson's successor Arthur Ling modified the plan in 1957, favouring more high-rise housing. The Wimpey construction company completed the development in eight years in the 1960s, using the 'no-fines' construction method. These maisonettes are typical of the development. They have flat roofs, walkways connecting blocks at second floor level, and exterior walls of very plain unadorned concrete incised with vertical lines.

Looking towards Meadow House.

This iron footbridge contrasts with the postwar buildings which surround it. The bridge, which dates from the 1830s, originally spanned the Oxford Canal. It was moved to its current location over the River Sherbourne in around 1969 or 1970. It is designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.