Warwick Row to Hertford Street & Warwick Lane. Camera No. 21

At the time I took this photo in September 2007, Coventry had recently become a regional winner in the Britain in Bloom competition. Although the photo below it was taken exactly 50 years earlier, it seems like nothing much has changed since the post-war years in Warwick Row, and even the Reform Club with its porch pillars still stands. The biggest difference between the 1957 and the later scene would be felt by drivers, who, a few years after this picture was taken would not have been able to continue from Warwick Row into Hertford Street, but have to take a sharp right turn into New Union Street.

Crossing the road and moving up a few yards now allows us a view up the forked junction of Hertford Street and Warwick Lane. The basic layout is similar, but the view today somehow looks much more cluttered compared with the clear lines of the same roads back in 1905.

Much of Hertford Street survived the war, but during post-war development the buildings at this bottom end of the street were demolished to create the Bull Yard.
Built in 1812/13, Hertford Street was an early form of 'bypass', allegedly built after the Prince Regent complained in 1807 of difficulty using Warwick Lane and Greyfriars Lane as the main route into the city. The land given up to build the street belonged to the Marquis of Hertford (also Lord of Cheylesmore and owner of Cheylesmore Park), after whom the street was named.