IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
George Elliot Road, COVENTRY, CV1 4HU

Bird Grove is the house where Mary Ann Evans, the future George Eliot, lived with her father Robert Evans from 1841 until his death in 1849, and where she nursed him through his final illness. These Coventry years were formative for Eliot. She lost the evangelical Christian faith of her youth and this brought her into severe conflict with her father (see Image]). Friendship with freethinking liberals and social reformers in the city such as the Brays and the Hennells opened new intellectual avenues for her Image The house has been in a poor state for many years and is listed as 'at risk' by the Coventry Society, which in 2017 published a plea for its preservation https://www.coventrysociety.org.uk/buildings-at-risk/bird-grove-house/ . The accompanying illustration shows a pair of houses, of which only one, the Eliot house, survives. It was used as an evangelical church and later as a Bangladeshi cultural and educational centre, but by 2017 it was vacant. In 2022 it looked shabby and overgrown, but new signs had appeared outside, one for an Arabic school, another in English and Bengali, depicting George Eliot and her association with the building, alongside photos and descriptions of two great Bengali poets and social reformers: Rabrindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazul Islam, who is revered as the national poet of Bangladesh.

George Eliot Road, Foleshill, looking towards the 'George Eliot', a nursery, and to Bird Grove, the second white house, beyond it. Bird Grove in the 1840s was the home of young Mary Ann Evans, the future George Eliot. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-42818813

Historic house on George Eliot Road, Foleshill, Coventry. Mary Ann Evans, the future George Eliot, lived here in the 1840s with her father, until his death in 1849. Her father was hoping to find her a suitable husband in Coventry, the daughter was immersing herself in learning and in the freethinking intellectual life that was found at the salon of Charles and Cara Bray, who lived nearby. The area would not have been densely built up at that time, and the house today appears much altered, compared to an illustration from the period. It was used for some years as an education centre by the Bangladeshi community, but by 2019 it was disused and boarded up. https://news.coventrysociety.org.uk/2019/05/07/george-eliot-bi-centenary-but-not-in-coventry/

Ordnance Survey cut mark benchmark described on the Bench Mark Database at www.bench-marks.org.uk/bm112014

There is an OS benchmark Image on the brick wall near the right hand edge of the image

The building started life as the Redesdale Cinema in 1933, continued as the Roxy from 1934 until reverting to Redesdale in 1954. It closed as a cinema in 1956 and housed various clubs until closure in 1978, after which it was purchased by a Sikh group and was converted to the current temple.

The Nanaksar Gurdwara Gursikh Temple faces onto Foleshill Road. The building, with its distinctive art deco facade, opened in 1933 as the Redesdale cinema. From 1956 to 1977 it was an Irish club. https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/lifestyle/nostalgia/coventry-nostalgia-old-coventry-cinemas-13027295 The building was extended in 2014; the extension can be seen under construction in this photo.

Nanaksar Gurdwara Sikh Temple, on Foleshill Road. Community facilities are being built to the left.