Coventry Cross, 29 Cross Cheaping
| Alternative Addresses: | Burges | ||
| These premises have been known by different names during their history: | FROM | TO | NAME |
| 1792 | 1803 | BREWER'S ARMS* / TWO BREWERS* | |
| 1864 | 1867 | VOLUNTEER | |
| 1867 | present | COVENTRY CROSS | |
This pub gets its name from the famous market cross of Coventry which stood in Cross Cheaping until falling into disrepair and being removed in the 1770s.
Licensee William Whitehead advertised his newly opened "THE COVENTRY CROSS" WINE AND SPIRIT VAULTS in the Coventry Herald on September 28th 1867. In 1868 he is also listed as the licensee of the VOLUNTEER on Cross Cheaping, so this must have been the same pub.
In 1904 it was leased by Phillips & Marriott for 21 years for £150 per annum, including 2 cottages, from James Warden of Walsgrave.
In 1919 Phillips & Marriott obtained the freehold.
The building has been variously claimed to date from the 16th or 17th century. In 1984 a campaign by regulars prevented it from being turned into a wine bar and instead the owners, Mitchell & Butlers, spent £65,000 on a restoration, including a beer garden offering views of the babbling brook that passes under the pub, the River Sherbourne.
*There is mention of the BREWER'S ARMS (also referred to as the TWO BREWERS) at the bottom of Cross Cheaping in the Coventry Mercury of 20th August 1792. In 1803 it appears to have closed. Whether the BREWER'S ARMS became the VOLUNTEER and then the COVENTRY CROSS has not yet been established.  | |||
LICENSEES:June 1867 - 1874 William Whitehead 1879 - 1881 Thomas Gregory 1886 - 1893 G. Skidmore 1894 - 1905 Charles J. Wareham 1907 - 1909 Samuel Drakeford Hadden 1910 Thomas Pegg Turman (or Furman) 1911 - 1912 William Buckler 1912 William Palmer 1914 John William Biggs 1914 George Alfred Pickard 1918 - 1922 Mrs. Lizzie Pickard 1922 John Alfred Weller 1929 - 1932 H. Johnson 1933 - 1934 T. Pointer 1935 - 1936 W. Towns 1937 - 1940 E. Deakin 1941 - 1945 Cecil Alfred Fleetwood 1945 - 1960 Mrs Lilian Hilda Fleetwood (widow) | |||
OWNERS:to 1919 James Warden from 1919 Phillips & Marriott | |||
| Previous page: Coventry Arms | This page: Coventry Cross | Next page: Coventry Oak |