IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Thimbler Road, COVENTRY, CV4 8FL

These houses were built in 1940-41 to designs by the City Architect's Department under the newly appointed Donald Gibson. They are contemporary, therefore, with the large air raids on Coventry and Gibson's first plans for a modern shopping precinct to be built as part of the reconstruction of the destroyed city centre. These houses are in a modernist style, too, with flat roofs and plain brick walls, although most have since been rendered and the windows replaced. They were among the first council houses to be built in Canley, which was to become a large housing estate on the western edge of the city. Other houses built by the city in this area at the same time had more conventional pitched-roof designs. See Coventry: The making of a modern city by Jeremy Gould & Caroline Gould, p82, at the Historic England site https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/coventry-making-of-modern-city-1939-73/ . Similar houses on the opposite side of Sheriff Avenue can be seen at Image

Houses on Sheriff Avenue, built 1940-41 to a design by city architect Donald Gibson.

The Second World War led to large-scale destruction in Coventry, but also to large-scale migration of workers to the city and its engineering industries that were essential to the war effort. To address the housing shortage, the city council experimented with designing prefabricated metal-framed houses that could be built quickly using components mass-produced in the same factories. These houses were never put into production, however, as central government offered Coventry two thousand prefabricated houses instead. These were made by the British Iron & Steel Federation (BISF) and were called 'Type A' houses. They too used a prefabricated steel-framed system, to which panels of corrugated steel were attached, forming the outer walls of the upper storey. The design was by the architect Frederick Gibberd and the engineer Donovan Lee. Owing to labour shortages, Coventry never built most of these houses, but over two hundred were erected in Canley in the late 1940s and most are still in use. Often the steel walls have been covered with insulating cladding, but the two in the foreground of this photo still display the panels of corrugated steel, although the original windows and doors have been replaced. For more information see Coventry: The making of a modern city, 1939-73, by Jeremy Gould and Caroline Gould, pp83-84, available at the Historic England site https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/coventry-making-of-modern-city-1939-73/ . Connoisseurs of BISF houses will find many examples on Geograph: see for example Image], Image] and Image

At the junction with Sheriff Avenue. The semis alongside the dual carriageway were originally council housing.

These houses were originally built as council houses. Many of them have been sold off to private residents. The road is just off Charter Avenue on the south side of Canley.

Shops and Canley Cummunity Centre.

New housing occupies the eastern end of the former recreation ground, with the western end retained as a playground and small green space.

Student residence on the Westwood Campus of the University of Warwick. Was formerly part of Coventry College of Education before incorporation into the University in 1978.

Student residence on the Westwood Campus of the University of Warwick. Was formerly halls for Coventry College of Education before incorporation into the University in 1978.