IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Pennington Way, COVENTRY, CV6 5TJ

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

The Faizan-e-Islam mosque occupies the premises of the former Foleshill Liberal Club, which opened in 1891. https://forebears.io/england/warwickshire/foleshill#sid17390 At this time the Liberals were stronger than the Conservatives in Coventry, but they declined in the 1920s with the rise of the Labour Party. https://liberalhistory.org.uk/resources/coventry-history-centre/ The club closed in 2010. https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/foleshill-liberal-club-goes-liquidation-3056714

Durbar Avenue Evangelical Church (affiliated to the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches) is situated in the southern area of Holbrooks, Coventry.

The former Railway Hotel in Foleshill, Coventry, is seen here from the nearby road bridge that links Lockhurst Lane and Holbrook Lane and carries them over the Coventry-Nuneaton railway. Built to serve Foleshill station, it must have lost its purpose with the station's closure in 1965, but it found a new lease of life in the 1970s as a venue for the Indian and Caribbean communities. Annette Hay recalls in the Coventry Telegraph how, "In the 1970s one half [The Railway Pub] was owned by an Indian man, called Mr Nijjar but known as Deete, and the other half was used by the West Indians, and in the middle floor was a massive dance floor. In the West Indian side they'd be playing snooker and cards. I learnt to play snooker there, sometimes people would bring in their families, for many years many of the West Indian community would use that facility." This reflects, says Hay, a time when racism was much more explicit in Coventry and the club offered a safe space. The West Indian, now Caribbean, club moved in 1983 to premises in Spon Street (Hay is quoted here https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/extraordinary-history-coventrys-west-indian-19050407 ). When photographed in 2021 the building was disused.

These two structures are the only obvious survivors of Lockhurst Lane buildings earlier than the late 19th century, and have been much extended with commercial frontages. Lockhurst Lane formed part of the parish of Foleshill and was a centre of the ribbon-weaving industry; one of the earliest co-operative societies was founded here in 1832. https://heartofengland.coop/society/roots/

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 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.

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.

Taken from the railway during authorised access as part of an inspection of the structure.