Top Shops and the Watchmakers

The nineteenth century saw a growing population of ribbon weavers and others and the land between the Butts and Spon Street built up in the 1820's and 1830's as well as the Hillfields district to the north-east of the city accommodated watchmakers and weavers.

The rows of weavers' houses with their large top shop windows were one of the most characteristic features of the Coventry scene prior to the drastic clearances after the second World War. These ribbon weavers worked at home and owned their own looms. Typical houses of this type in Holyhead Road close to the Spon Street Townscape Scheme are still in good condition. The group an a whole form a triangle of 19th century properties but a number of them are considered in too advanced a state of disrepair to be considered for retention.

The suburb of Chapel Fields consisted of watchmakers houses. Most of the masters houses faced Allesley Old Road. These were middle class terraced dwellings with bay windows, three bedrooms on the first floor and servants rooms in the attics. The workshops were in two storied wings built out into the back gardens increasing in length as trade prospered. Duke Street, Lord Street and Mount Street contained smaller watchmakers houses, each having a front and back room on the ground floor and two bedrooms. It was two storied at the front but a shallower roof pitch gave room for an extra storey at the rear.

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Information supplied by Coventry Central Library (April 1985)

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