Public Buildings
ST. MARY'S HALL.
St. Mary's Hall in Bayley
Lane stands on the same site as the first hall built for
the Guild of St. Mary soon after its foundation in
1340. (fn. 49) The present complex of buildings, mostly of
late-14th and 15th-century date, extends southwards
towards Earl Street, enclosing a small rectangular
courtyard. The hall and its undercroft occupy the
west side of the courtyard, the north gable-end of the
hall facing Bayley Lane. The rest of the street
frontage consists of a two-storied stone gatehouse,
while the east and south sides of the courtyard are
bounded by timber-framed buildings. Further south
stands the stone-built kitchen, originally rising
through three stories to an open roof. To the west
of the kitchen and partly incorporated in it is a
largely timber-framed structure adjoining the south
end of the hall. At the extreme south-west corner of
the site, communicating with this building, is the
three-storied stone tower known as Caesar's Tower.
It is thought that stones from the ruins of the
12th-century castle of the earls of Chester may have
been used for the building of the south wall of the
kitchen and of Caesar's Tower in the middle of the
14th century. It is even possible that the tower's
foundations were those of a structure belonging to
the castle itself. Caesar's Tower, which appears at
one time to have been embattled and perhaps
contained an additional story, was destroyed by
bombing during the Second World War but has
since been rebuilt. The vaulted chamber on the first
floor was known as the Treasury in 1441 when it
housed, among other valuables, an iron-bound chest
for the city muniments.
It has been suggested that the kitchen may
represent the remains of the first St. Mary's Hall,
in existence by 1342. Some of its features, however,
are more likely to have belonged to an original
kitchen, perhaps serving an earlier hall on the site
of the present one. There are four hearths in arched
recesses incorporated in the south and east walls,
the flues being carried up between the windows. The
remaining pointed windows in the same walls are of
one and two lights, the latter having cusped heads.
The east end of the north wall consists of an arcade
of two bays with a central octagonal pier; the respond
of the eastern arch is formed by a heavy stone corbel,
carved with an angel holding a shield. The kitchen
roof, which once had a central louvre, retains tiebeams with small curved braces resting on carved
head-stops; it is apparently of later date than the
main structure. The roof and other ancient features
have recently been concealed by the insertion of a
new ceiling and modern fittings. The timber-framed
structure at the south end of the hall occupies the
upper part of the west end of the kitchen. The
kitchen, however, extends beneath it on the ground
floor and from here a staircase leads upwards to a
central doorway in the south wall of the hall while
two openings lead downwards to the undercroft.
Further west is a much smaller ground floor kitchen,
perhaps the room called the 'jelly-house' in 1581; in
its south wall a doorway communicates with
Caesar's Tower.
The hall itself is known to have been rebuilt after
the Guild of St. Mary was absorbed by the more
powerful Trinity Guild. One version of the city
annals records that it was erected in 1394 and finished
in 1414. (fn. 50) Dugdale considered, from the evidence
of window glass which has now disappeared, that the
date of completion was slightly later. (fn. 51) The style
of the present building, with its low-pitched roof
and Perpendicular windows, is certainly well
advanced for the early years of the 15th century.
The sophisticated character of the work, however,
may be partly explained by the suggestion that
masons and carpenters employed on the rebuilding
of St. Michael's Church (fn. 52) were transferred to St.
Mary's Hall at this period. The hall is about 76 ft.
long by 30 ft. wide. It consists of five bays and has
three large traceried windows in each side wall. The
most southerly bay has an entrance doorway at its
east end and presumably contained the medieval
screens passage with a gallery, perhaps wider than
the present one, above it. A stone screen was
introduced here in 1571 but later removed. (fn. 53) Below
the gallery are three pointed doorways while above
it the wall is timber-framed and contains a modern
copy of a late medieval wooden window. The bay
at the north or upper end of the hall was occupied
by a raised dais, obliterated when the whole floor
was boarded over in 1755. On the west side of the
bay is a rebuilt oriel window with a blocked window
to the north of it. A passage in the thickness of the
wall leads northwards from the oriel to a blocked
external doorway; a now demolished timber-framed
structure beyond the passage was once known as the
'warden's buttery' or pantry. (fn. 54) The floor of the oriel
is set with medieval tiles, survivors of those which
originally paved the hall itself, and the window
retains some ancient glass. On the opposite side of
the former dais is an archway, enlarged in 1825, (fn. 55)
leading to the Mayoress's Parlour. The upper part
of the north wall of the hall is occupied by a
nine-light Perpendicular window of later character
than the side windows; it still contains much of its
original late-15th-century glass. (fn. 56) Below the window,
and evidently designed for this position, is the
notable tapestry which is one of Coventry's chief
treasures. The inclusion among its figures of a king
and queen in the costume of c. 1500 suggests that
the tapestry may have been woven to commemorate
the admission of Henry VII and his wife to the
Trinity Guild in that year. (fn. 57) The figure of Justice
in the central upper panel is thought to have been
inserted in the 17th century, perhaps replacing a
representation of the Deity which was then unacceptable. The elaborate roof of the hall is divided
into panels by moulded ribs with carved heraldic
bosses at their intersections. The tie-beam trusses,
each with a carved angel at its apex, have cusped
panel infilling. The small curved braces below the
tie-beams rest on stone shafts which are carried
down between the windows to end in carved headstops on a moulded string-course at sill level.
The timber-framed building to the south of the
hall probably formed part of the reconstruction
scheme carried out in the late 14th and early 15th
centuries. It is roofed at right angles to the hall and
shares a common wall with it. On both floors doorways communicate with the upper rooms of Caesar's
Tower. It may have been this whole structure which
was called the Council House in 1441 and which,
after a fire in 1614, needed new roof tiles. There are
two rooms at hall level, the staircase from the
kitchen rising between them. Rooms in this position
at the lower end of the hall were most probably built
as a pantry and buttery, but from an early date the
more easterly was used for council meetings and it
is now known as the Old Council Chamber; its
decorations and fittings were renewed in 1930, mostly
as copies of earlier ones. (fn. 58) The room contains an
elaborately carved guild chair, thought to date from
c. 1450 and originally to have been a double chair on
which the mayor and the master of the Trinity
Guild could sit side by side. To the west of the
staircase is the so-called Prince's Chamber, formerly
the Small Council Chamber, which has Jacobean
fittings brought from elsewhere late in the 19th
century. The top floor of the building is occupied
by the Armoury, approached by a stone newel stair
said to have been newly built in 1639. The open roof
has moulded timbers and two tie-beam trusses with
small curved braces and carved corbel heads. There
is evidence that the most westerly of the three bays
was once a separate room with an early fireplace at
its south end. The Armoury has two doorways
leading to the hall gallery in its north wall; in the
opposite or south wall are the remains of two long
mullioned windows, one inside the other, enclosing
a narrow passage.
Externally the side walls of the hall have projecting
buttresses between the windows and there are
diagonal buttresses at the two southern angles. The
vaulted undercroft is five bays long, divided in the
centre by octagonal piers. The chamfered vaultingribs spring from the piers and wall-shafts without
intervening capitals. The walls contain rectangular
recesses probably for use as cupboards. The most
northerly bay is divided from the others by a stone
wall and this smaller crypt has a doorway and a
range of five windows facing Bayley Lane. Above
these the street frontage, of which the masonry is
much weathered except where re-facing has taken
place, is dominated by the great nine-light window
of the hall. Its jambs and mullions are carried down
to frame a row of nine canopied niches corresponding to the area occupied internally by the tapestry.
It has been suggested that this window was an
insertion of the late 15th century, but there is
considerable structural evidence that the whole
north wall of the hall was rebuilt at this period.
It is not clear how many of the ancillary buildings
were included in the reconstruction of c. 1400 but it
is probable that alterations and additions were being
made to them throughout the 15th century. The
gatehouse range, which appears to be roughly contemporary with the hall itself, contains on the ground
floor a stone-vaulted passage leading from Bayley
Lane to the courtyard. The elaborate vault springs
from moulded angle shafts and has a central carved
boss representing the Coronation of the Virgin.
The outer arch preserves its ancient doors and the
inner arch rests on carved stone corbels, much
weathered. The ground-floor room to the east of the
passage was leased to the mercers' company in
1590 for use as a hall and in the late 17th century
it became their chapel. The arms of the company
were painted on the east wall in 1590 and the small
doorway from the street was blocked soon afterwards. The upper floor of the gatehouse consists
of a single room, the Mayoress's Parlour, which is
entered by a 19th-century archway in the east wall
of the hall. The room was thoroughly restored in
1834-5 when the Gothic fireplace was introduced,
the ceiling was embellished, and a large traceried
window was inserted facing the courtyard; this
window replaced a Venetian one dating from 1785.
In 1854 two medieval windows in the north wall
were opened up. (fn. 59)
The timber-framed range on the east side of the
courtyard is of two stories and probably dates from
the later 15th century. The ground floor was originally an open cloister but the whole building was
much altered when the extensions to St. Mary's
Hall were erected to the east of it in 1863. (fn. 60) The
former cloister contains a medieval oak stair which,
by way of a first-floor gallery on the south side of
the courtyard, provides the principal access to the
great hall. The room above the cloister, also much
altered, was leased to the drapers' company in 1558.
Its windows, a long row of lights divided by mullions,
were said in 1719 to contain fine 15th-century glass.
The range to the south, although of the same height
as the east range, has three stories, the uppermost
being jettied towards the courtyard. The stone-built
ground floor contains a passage leading to the
kitchen with a small room beside it. The timber
gallery on the first floor has a doorway at its west end
giving access to the former screens passage of the
hall. The framing of the wall towards the courtyard
consists of a continuous row of square-headed lights,
originally unglazed, and these are continued for a
short distance along the east range above the stair.
The room above, known as the 'Ante-room', has the
additional width provided by its jettied floor and a
partly open roof of arch-braced collar-beam construction. A window with cusped heads to its pointed
lights extends the whole width of the courtyard wall,
the mullions being carried down externally to form
panels with similar heads between the sill and the
coved jetty.
Restoration and refitting of St. Mary's Hall has
taken place at several periods. A particularly drastic
renovation was put in hand in 1824 when great pains
were taken to restore the medieval character of the
building and to 'remove some incongruities . . .
introduced at various times in violation of good
taste and propriety'; (fn. 61) the architect was Stedman
Whitwell. At this period the ancient glass in the
east windows was taken out and replaced by so-called
copies; that in the west windows had been removed
c. 1780. (fn. 62) Decayed panelling, dating from 1580,
which had borne inscriptions in Latin and English
composed by Philemon Holland (fn. 63) was also removed.
In 1863 a large extension, containing a new police
court, ancillary rooms, and public offices, was erected
immediately east of the medieval buildings. The
designer was James Murray and the style of the
exterior, which was faced with red sandstone, was
said to be 'similar to that of the ancient structure'
and to have 'great diversity of outline'. (fn. 64) The
Muniment Room, a single-storied building with
stone Gothic vaulting, was added to the east of the
medieval kitchen in 1894. Between the two world
wars a considerable amount of re-glazing, refitting,
and restoration took place. After the Second World
War Caesar's Tower which had been largely
destroyed was rebuilt. The hall roof was completely
reconstructed in 1953, much of the original timber
being re-used. The carved ornaments from the roof,
together with the tapestry and the surviving
medieval glass, had been stored for safety during
hostilities and these were replaced in position. The
most important structural work was the insertion of
a floor in the upper part of the kitchen and a new
bridge to form a connecting link between St. Mary's
Hall and the Council House in Earl Street.
COVENTRY CROSS.
A cross was set up at the
south end of Cross Cheaping about 1422, (fn. 65) but this
is unlikely to have been the first one on the site.
It stood on pillars, the number of which is variously
given as four and eight. (fn. 66) This cross was replaced
after 1541 by the magnificent structure for which
Sir William Holles left £200 in that year, (fn. 67) and
which survived until 1771. A contract for its erection
was drawn up between representatives of the city on
the one hand and Thomas Phillips, freemason, and
John Pettit of Wellingborough (Northants.) on the
other. (fn. 68) This specified that the stone for the cross
itself was to come from quarries at Attleborough or
Rowington in Warwickshire, and for the steps from
the 'late priory' in the city. 'Six or eight old images',
if suitable, were to be repaired and incorporated.
The cross was to be a copy of that at Abingdon
(Berks.) except that the base, as well as the superstructure, was to be hexagonal and that there were
to be four steps instead of eight. The work was to be
completed by Michaelmas 1543. An engraving of
1721 shows the cross as it existed at that time. (fn. 69) It
was 57 ft. high, each of the sides at the base being
7 ft. in width. Above the steps the hexagonal base
was carved with traceried panels having crocketted
ogee heads. The second, third, and fourth stages,
of diminishing size, had canopied niches containing
figures of kings and saints. At the angles of each
stage were flying buttresses, their pinnacles supporting heraldic beasts and naked boys, all holding up
painted metal flags. The finial above the fourth stage
had more figures, a tier of niches, and finally a metal
shaft surmounted by a flag and a crown. Many of
these features had been specified in the original
contract, the corporation having undertaken to
supply the metal flags. According to the city annals
the cross was repaired in 1608-9 (when a figure of
Christ was replaced by one of Lady Godiva) and
again in 1629-30. (fn. 70) A major refurbishing took place
in 1668-9 when large sums were spent not only on
masons' work, but also on paint and gold-leaf. (fn. 71)
The appearance of the cross was afterwards said to
be so splendid that it was almost impossible to look
at it when the sun shone. (fn. 72) The structure had fallen
into decay by 1753 when the upper part was taken
down. (fn. 73) It was finally demolished in 1771, (fn. 74) a date
at which attempts were being made to clear obstructions from the city streets. Three carved figures from
the cross, including one of Henry VI, are preserved
at St. Mary's Hall; they are thought to have come
originally from the Whitefriars.
A smaller cross, known as Swine Cross, stood at
the junction of Bishop Street and Silver Street; (fn. 75)
it was taken down about 1763. (fn. 76) Another 'Swine
Cross' near the east end of Gosford Street was still
in existence in 1749. (fn. 77)
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AFTER 1550.
The
former Mayor's Parlour stood on the west side of
Cross Cheaping near its south end. (fn. 78) The corporation acquired a house there in 1574 and adapted it
soon afterwards. (fn. 79) Probably because St. Mary's Hall
was used for all important civic functions, no effort
seems to have been made at any period to convert
the Mayor's Parlour into an impressive building.
Views of the front suggest that it was originally two
medieval timber-framed tenements, each of three
stories with a jetty at second-floor level. (fn. 80) Below its
south end ran a narrow alley which, in the 18th
century, led to the Women's Market. A covered
walk was made in front of the Mayor's Parlour in
1583, and in 1684 it was set on stone columns; (fn. 81)
these supported a balcony with an iron balustrade.
The back part of the building was reconstructed in
1775-6 (fn. 82) and it was probably at this time that sash
windows were inserted at the front. A gabled dormer
in the roof housed a clock, dating from 1657; (fn. 83) the
clock face was flanked by niches containing figures of
the city crier and the beadle who struck the hours
and quarters with hammers. (fn. 84) The Mayor's Parlour
ceased to be used by the corporation after 1835 when
the police court which had been held there was
moved to St. Mary's Hall. (fn. 85) By 1860 the front had
been completely altered for use as a shop and the
building was demolished in 1878. (fn. 86)
No new public buildings appear to have been
erected in the 17th century, nor, with the exception
of the Market House, in the early 18th century. This
reflects the comparative stagnation of the city at that
period. The former Market House was an open
rectangular structure, five bays long by two bays
wide, consisting of a hipped roof supported on brick
piers. (fn. 87) It stood in a small market place in the angle
between West Orchard and Cross Cheaping, formerly
part of the Peacock Inn yard, and was probably built
soon after the Women's Market was moved there
in 1719; it was pulled down in 1865. (fn. 88) Near its
north-west corner was a brick watch house or lockup, probably also of 18th-century date, which was
demolished at about the same time. The stocks stood
nearby (fn. 89) and a revolving iron cage for confining
'drunken refractory persons' was still in existence
there in the later 18th century. (fn. 90)
In 1783-4 the County Hall was built next to the
gaol on the west side of Trinity Lane. The site had
previously been occupied by an 'old guildhall of the
city', which had contained a courtroom. This was
probably a timber-framed structure and was remodelled in 1696. (fn. 91) The County Hall, designed by
Samuel Eglinton, (fn. 92) was one of the few 18th-century
public buildings in Coventry of any architectural
distinction, and is the only one to survive. The
principal front, facing east towards Trinity Lane,
is of grey stone, the ground floor being rusticated
and having a round-headed doorway and four blind
round-headed openings. Above are five sash
windows and an applied Roman Doric order with a
central pediment. (fn. 93) Internally the courtroom behind
this facade rises through both stories, the windows
being at clerestory level. The fittings, including a
gallery with a cast-iron front, date mostly from the
1840s when the room was improved for use as an
assize court - a function which it ceased to fulfil
soon afterwards. (fn. 94) To the south of the court-room
block is a brick wing with stone dressings which
formerly contained the house of the prison governor. (fn. 95)
Facing Pepper (formerly Gaol) Lane this has a
symmetrical three-storied front of seven bays with a
central pediment pierced by a quatrefoil window.
After 1831 a new gaol, designed by Stedman Whitwell, was built immediately north of the County Hall,
extending as far as Trinity Churchyard. Holy
Trinity Vicarage and several houses in Trinity Lane
were demolished to make way for it. (fn. 96)
The Cavalry Barracks were constructed in 1793
on the site of the former Black Bull Inn. The 'Bull',
which had been in existence since at least the 15th
century, (fn. 97) stood on the south side of Smithford
Street, the property extending nearly as far back as
Warwick Lane. (fn. 98) At the time of its demolition the
front range was a three-storied timber-framed
structure of eight bays, having three gables with
carved barge-boards. (fn. 99) The Barracks frontage which
replaced it was built of stone and was of five bays;
the rusticated ground floor was pierced by a carriageway and there was a central Venetian window to the
first floor with the Royal Arms above. (fn. 1) The barrack
square covered an area which may have been a late18th-century bowling green belonging to the 'Bull'. (fn. 2)
This was used as a market site after 1922 (fn. 3) and is
now (1965) occupied by a multi-story car park.
Another late-18th-century building was the Canal
or Navigation Office which stood at the north end of
Bishop Street near the terminal wharf of the
Coventry Canal. The first office was built in 1788,
but this was later remodelled and a row of warehouses, which still survives, was built beside the
wharf. (fn. 4) Before its demolition about 1956 the Canal
Office was a two-storied stucco building in the
Regency style having a recessed Classical porch in
the centre with a three-light window and a stepped
parapet above. (fn. 5)
The Drapers' Hall, opened in 1832, represents at
least the third hall in Bayley Lane belonging to the
drapers' company. This area seems to have been the
centre of the drapers' activities since the later 14th
century when a building called the Drapery stood in
what is now St. Mary's Street. (fn. 6) In 1727 this was
pulled down and the Half Moon Inn was built on the
site; at the same time the linen, flannel, and cloth
fairs were removed to St. Mary's Hall. (fn. 7) The Drapers'
Hall, 'a dark gloomy edifice', appears to have been an
adjacent but independent structure, completed c.
1637, (fn. 8) facing Bayley Lane. This survived until 1775
when it was replaced by a stone building designed
by Henry Couchman. (fn. 9) The frontage was of three
bays, the upper story of the central bay having
applied Tuscan pilasters surmounted by an entablature and a pediment. The ground floor was of
rusticated masonry and contained three roundheaded openings with swags and medallions in their
spandrels. (fn. 10) Dry rot in this building led to its
demolition less than sixty years later and in 1831-2
the present Drapers' Hall, designed by T. Rickman
and H. W. Hutchinson in the Greek Revival style,
was erected. (fn. 11) The single-storied front is faced with
stone, having on one side a three-light window and
on the other a recessed porch with two unfluted
Ionic columns in antis. The main parapet carries
honeysuckle acroteria, while behind it a blind attic
story has a row of ornamental wreaths and, in the
centre, the arms of the drapers' company. Internally
the principal rooms are all lit from above and there
is much fine Grecian ornament to the roof lights,
doorcases, and fireplaces, as well as to a musicians'
gallery in the hall. (fn. 12) A wing was added on the east
side of the building in 1864. (fn. 13)
The cemetery in London Road, opened in 1847,
was laid out by Joseph (later Sir Joseph) Paxton who
successfully exploited the uneven contours of the
site which had formerly been a stone quarry. There
are two cemetery chapels, one for use by the Church
of England and one by other denominations. (fn. 14) The
former is in the Norman style and consists of a nave,
a chancel, and a north tower with a pyramidal roof.
The other chapel is of Grecian design, having a
pedimented Ionic portico flanked by colonnades.
Beside the main gate at the north end of the site is
an Italianate lodge with a square tower and, next
the road, a small octagonal turret. These buildings
were erected under Paxton's direction and presumably to his designs. (fn. 15) Paxton (d. 1865) is
commemorated in the cemetery by a tall Gothic
monument by Joseph Goddard (fn. 16) which has attached
angle shafts of polished granite surmounted by two
tiers of crocketted niches.
Later 19th-century public buildings included the
Corn Exchange in Hertford Street (1857), designed
in an elaborate Italianate style by James Murray, (fn. 17)
and the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital
(1864-5). (fn. 18) The large retail market, opened in 1867,
was of red, blue, and white brick with stone
dressings, the two market halls having partly glazed
roofs with ornamental cast-iron trusses; the architect
was Frederick Peck of London. (fn. 19) The buildings
were destroyed by bombing during the Second
World War but for a time the clock tower, a structure
135 ft. high resembling an Italian campanile, was
left standing. The most architecturally striking
building of this period was the School of Art in
Ford Street, an ornate example of Ruskinian Gothic.
It was erected in 1863 to plans by James Murray
with sculpture by 'Mr. Boulton of Worcester'. (fn. 20)
The Gulson Library (1873) by Edward Burgess (fn. 21)
was a gabled brick building with stone dressings in
a somewhat similar but plainer style; it occupied
the site of the former gaol in Trinity Lane and was
largely destroyed in 1940.
The Council House in Earl Street was begun in
1913 but was not ready for use until 1917. The
architects, Edward Garret and H. W. Simister of
Birmingham, were chosen as the result of a competition, one of the conditions being that the design
should be in keeping with the adjacent St. Mary's
Hall. (fn. 22) The building is faced with red sandstone in
an early Tudor style, enriched with sculpture and
incorporating many oriel windows and small gables.
It survived the bombing of 1940 and 1941 and has
since acquired added status by the reconstruction of
much of the surrounding area. In particular the
clearance in Little Park Street opposite has opened
up for the first time a comprehensive view of its
principal facade. This is a symmetrical composition
of three stories and sixteen bays, the three central
bays and alternate bays in the side ranges being
accented by gables and first-floor oriels. The central
arched entrance and the window above it are flanked
by heraldic sculpture and surmounted by statues of
Leofric, Godiva, and a figure of Justice. At the east
end of the front is an angle tower supporting a clock.
Internally the first floor council chamber is approached by a grand staircase and has fittings of
Warwickshire oak, a coved ceiling, and windows
containing Perpendicular tracery.
Most of the larger buildings erected in Coventry
between the two world wars were of an industrial
or commercial kind; they included two impressive
neo-Classical banks which are still standing in High
Street. The tower-like war memorial in the Memorial
Park (1927) was the work of the Coventry architect,
T. F. Tickner. (fn. 23) The Technical College in the Butts
(1933-5), designed by A. W. Hoare, (fn. 24) has a pedimented Roman Doric portico above a rusticated
podium as the central feature of its long symmetrical
front.
The inadequacy of Coventry's existing public
buildings in a rapidly expanding city was already
obvious before the bomb damage of 1940 and 1941.
When the reconstruction of the central area was put
in hand after the war priority was given to the
provision of retail shops. By the late 1950s, however,
work had begun on new public buildings, many of
them on a very large scale. (fn. 25) These are mostly sited
to the south, east, and north-east of the existing
Council House. On the south side of Earl Street
a block of council offices was completed by 1960 and
in what was formerly Little Park Street are new
police headquarters and a main telephone exchange;
a civic hall and law courts are also planned for this
site. Buildings to the east of Priory Street include
the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum and the
Central Swimming Baths. The Lanchester College
of Technology in the same area is a complex of
buildings which include the College of Art and a
hall of residence in the form of a 20-storied tower.
A new central library is to be built between the
Council House and the Art Gallery. The Belgrade
Theatre, so-called because of a gift of timber to the
city from Yugoslavia, was completed in 1958; it
stands to the north-west of Corporation Street
where it forms one side of a small square containing
a pool and a fountain. The design of nearly all these
new buildings was the work of the city architect's
department under the successive direction of Donald
Gibson (1938-55), Arthur Ling (1955-64), and
Terence Gregory. Two exceptions are the telephone
exchange for which the Ministry of Public Building
and Works was responsible, and the Herbert Art
Gallery which was designed by Herbert, Son, and
Sawday. The architects for the new Leofric Hotel in
Broadgate were W. S. Hattrell and Partners and for
Owen Owen's department store beside it, R.
Hellberg and M. H. Harris. Several other commercial buildings in the Precinct, Corporation Street,
and elsewhere were erected by individual firms using
private architects, but the city council, as both
ground landlord and planning authority, exercised
control over their design. In this way it has been
possible to achieve a measure of architectural unity
in the rebuilt areas of the city.