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Avondale Road, COVENTRY, CV5 6DZ

Boston Lodge on Earlsdon Avenue South, in use as a polling station for the 2017 General Election. The polling station was in a single-storey building at the rear of the back garden. Boston Lodge was a home for blind people for many years. By 2017 it was lived in by property guardians, although the extension to the left with the low sweeping roof was still in use as a resource centre for blind and partially-sighted people, run by CRCB, the Coventry Resource Centre for the Blind. In 2018 CRCB bought the entire building. http://www.coventryblind.org.uk/news/its-official-crcb-has-bought-boston-lodge

Formerly the Earlsdon Methodist Sunday School, it was converted to a theatre in 1960 and has since staged over 350 productions.

The Criterion Theatre off Berkeley Road South has been a pillar of Earlsdon cultural life since 1960. https://www.criteriontheatre.co.uk/about/theatre It occupies what looks at first sight like a converted pair of suburban semi-detached houses. In fact, as the Earlsdon 2000 Heritage Trail plaque on the front explains, the building was a Methodist chapel and Sunday school, built in 1884. In 1923 worship moved to the new Methodist chapel at the top of Albany Road, by the clock roundabout, but the building continued to be used as a Sunday school until 1960.

The company puts on about seven shows a year and has won the Godiva Award for best theatre in the region several times.

Theatre in Berkeley Road South housed in a former Methodist chapel in Earsldon, built in 1884 (when the road was called Cromwell Street, the current name first being shown on the 1926 6 inch map). Following the opening of Earsldon Methodist Church in 1923 (see Image) it continued in use as a Sunday School, along with other community uses, until vacated in 1960 when it was taken over by the Criterion Theatre.

This pair of cottages on Berkeley Road South have the third floor 'top-shop' windows, typical of weavers premises, to allow maximum light for working at looms. It looks like the windows have been modernised. Dating from the 1850s they represent the last gasps of the weaving trade before its collapse and replacement by the watchmaking industry which was to be based in Earlsdon and Chapelfields as it developed. The cottages are noted in the 'Earlsdon Heritage Trail' documented in 2000 by Mary Montes.

Pair of semi-detached cottages built for silk ribbon weavers in the 1850s, with prominent upper floor windows allowing for plenty of light into the "top shops". Originally the road was called Cromwell Street, the current name first being shown on the 1926 6 inch map.

Mid 19th Century housing. The nearest three houses, nos 83 - 87, have name plaques Oakville, Rosedale, and May Cottage respectively. For closer view of nos 89 - 91, the pair beyond, see Image Originally the road was called Cromwell Street, the current name first being shown on the 1926 6 inch map.