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Foleshill Road, COVENTRY, CV6 5JX

Construction of this building seems to have halted. Known as the Edgwick Family & Learning Centre, it was given planning permission in 2005 and work began on decontaminating the site, which had once been occupied by a battery factory. https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/six-months-left-finish-building-3023372 Building progress has been very slow, and when this photo was taken in July 2021 the work was far from complete.

She has opened her business in a front room of the otherwise empty pub, having moved there from smaller premises further up Foleshill Road. Her striped Barber Shop sign can be seen above the windows of her salon. The building is a prominent local landmark in Foleshill and dates from around 1900, though there has been a public house here since the 18th century. The General Wolfe pub closed in 2011; see Image

This building is a former public house standing at 551 Foleshill Road, at the corner with Station Road West. There has been a pub here since at least 1793. The present structure dates from around 1900 and exhibits an ornate Renaissance style executed in red brick and terracotta. It resembles Birmingham pubs more than Coventry ones, particularly those of James & Lister Lea, who may have designed it, though the architect is unknown. See the Heritage Gateway site, which quotes the City of Coventry Local List of Buildings and another City Council publication, A Survey of Public Art in Coventry, 1980, p.22 https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MCT317&resourceID=1029 . General Wolfe defeated the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City in 1759, which proved decisive in winning Canada for Britain. Both he and the French commander Montcalm died of wounds received in the fighting. The pub was known as a rock and roll venue. It closed in 2011 and the building has since been used as a restaurant. See also the Historic Coventry site of Rob Orland https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/cph/main/pub.php?pg=general_wolfe . At the time of writing and photographing the building was disused.

For more information see Image] and this article in the Coventry Telegraph https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/six-months-left-finish-building-3023372 , which dates from 2012 and states that the planning permission required completion of the building by the end of that year. This photo was taken over ten years later. The building fronts on to Foleshill Road; the side elevation on Blackwell Road is shown here.

The building stands at the corner of Foleshill Road and Holmsdale Road. It was built around 1931 to a design by W A Johnson, an in-house architect of the CWS (Co-operative Wholesale Society). Two storeys were intended originally, but it was built with three, which has evidently led to some cost-saving skimping on the details on the top floor https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MCT718&resourceID=1029 , but the parapet has attractive art deco flourishes nonetheless. The building was empty for some years and until fairly recently still bore a Co-operative Emporium sign on its Foleshill Road facade. Opus Foods moved in around 2011. Heart of England Co-op maintained a supermarket nearby until 2006, when competition from the Tesco hypermarket at the Arena site proved too much; the Co-op store continues to trade as a funeral director.

View from St Elizabeth's Road, Foleshill. The junction with Eld Road is just out of shot to the right.

The Bethel New Life Apostolic Church occupies a former Methodist church erected in 1880, which replaced one built by the Free Methodists in 1837 on Carpenter's Lane, the earlier name of Station Street West. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol8/pp382-396

Sri Guru Ravidass Temple, on Foleshill Road: http://www.ravidassji.org.uk/about.htm

The 2021 Diwali procession in Coventry makes its way up Foleshill Road. A participant carries a Freedom placard, referring to the liberation of Sita from captivity to the demon king Ravana, a story told in the great Hindu epic The Ramayana and remembered at Diwali, the festival of lights (for a brief introduction, see here https://asiasociety.org/education/ramayana ). Diwali signifies "peace and joy, the victory of good over evil, and light over darkness every day" according the Hindustan Times https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/festivals/diwali-2021-significance-history-date-time-puja-muhurat-and-all-you-need-to-know-101635849456204.html . It is celebrated on the 15th day of the Kartik month in the Hindu lunar calendar, which in 2021 fell on the 4th November. Sikhs, Jains and Ravidassias as well as Hindus mark Diwali, or Deepavali as it is also known. The Coventry procession took place in Foleshill three days later. There was a palpable sense of joy that the community could come together again in this way after the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic - another sense in which freedom was being celebrated. The event was named 'Abundance' and formed part of the 2021 UK City of Culture celebrations; it combined traditional and contemporary elements, with drummers, dancers, street-performers and lantern-bearers. In the background of this photo can be seen the illuminated umbrellas of Cirque Bijou.