The first view shown here, from early 2006, is actually undeservedly flattering. As you can see in further modern views of Bishop Street on the next page, it's now a rather featureless non-entity of a place, with bland rectangular 'lego-block' buildings of no architectural merit.
A century ago, however, it was a street with a little character. (Probably several, in fact !) Its steady incline also posed a bit if a challenge to the early electric trams of the day - I wonder how many tired legs had to complete the journey after alighting an even more tired tram that had failed to climb to the street's northern extremity?
The rows of two and three storey terraced houses were also testimony to just how residential the centre of Coventry once was. The 'blank canvas' rebuild of the post-war years virtually put an end to people populating Coventry's city centre. Only with the projects of recent years have we seen an attempt to get people dwelling in the town centre again.
The small area of cobbles to the right, at the bottom of the photo, is the entrance to Silver Street; and so if the 1909 photographer was to have turned to his right, (and travel back another hundred years) he would've been greeted with a view of the old Grammar School similar to this one.