The Definitive Guide to the History of
Pubs and Beerhouses in Coventry

Drinking in an Old English Town

Flying Standard, Trinity Street

Photo courtesy of Steve Orland (steve.historiccoventry.co.uk) The flying standard was the emblem of Standard motor cars. Standard's first car, the Motor Victoria, was built by Reginald Maudslay, in Much Park Street, in 1903. The 'Standard Nine' was launched in 1927. Inexpensive, at £198, its success saw Standard through the 'slump', and it was still going strong when, in 1936, the Flying Standard models made their debut. This pub is now on the site which was once THE SPOTTED DOG, the Bullring. In the late 1930s part of the city was demolished to make way for Trinity Street. One of the roads demolished was Great Butcher Row. Here a large steel-framed building was erected in 1938, originally called 'Priory Gate'. This building had an applied timber-frame, jetties, bay windows, balconies, gables and tall brick chimneys. It harmonized with the genuinely medieval Lych Gate Cottages to which it was attached. For many year this was the premises of Timothy White's the Chemist, but in 2000 it opened as a Wetherspoons pub called the Flying Standard.