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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Fox and Vivian, 48 Gosford Street

Alternative Addresses:	49 Gosford Street
A vivian was a type of dog, so the fox and vivian means the fox and dog. The earliest definite mention of this pub was in the Coventry Standard in May 1844, reporting the auction of houses in "Gosford-street, near the Fox and Vivian public-house". In 1846 the Fox and Vivian is mentioned when looms were being sold in a nearby shop. In 1926 this was a Charringtons pub with an annual rent of £60. They sold it in that year, saying that it was 'practically surrounded by the important Morris works'. In 1970 it was awaiting demolition for extensions to Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University). It had a fourteenth or fifteenth century cellar of massive stones. It closed on 7th january 1971. From the Coventry Evening Telegraph special publication "Cheers - Pubs, taverns and alehouses of old Coventry", March 1992. "Thomas Hipkiss and his wife were the last licensees when the pub closed at Christmas 1970. Mr Hipkiss had been a butcher with the Co-op in Coventry before he entered the licensed trade, and had only moved from a Measham pub to the Fox and Vivian eight months prior to its demolition. There has always been much conjecture over the origins of the name. The most likely explanation is that it has hunting associations. Vivian was, according to one source, the mythical god of hunting, but historian Charles Lines was probably right when he said that the word referred to hunting horses in Warwickshire Tradition has it that the original cellars were connected with the Whitefriars, and could have been an old tavern where business was carried out years ago".
LICENSEES: 1847 - 1849 Charles Twaites 1849 - 1850 John Donald 1850 - 1864 Samuel Beesley (sometimes misspelt Beasley) 1864 - 1874 John H. Shillcock 1874 - 1881 Isaac Carter 1886 - 1896 J. Bayliss 1896 A. J. Lindon 1901 J. Taylor 1903 Arthur Toney 1905 Joseph Astley 1909 R. Pegg 1911 - 1922 Lewis H. Francis 1929 - 1932 R. Don 1933 - 1936 Walter Lomas 1937 Frank Brown 1937 - 1938 William John Toseland 1939 - 1940 William Speed 1940 Walter James Welch 1948 - 1950 Basil Benn (see also Dolphin, Sherriff Avenue 1950 - 60 and Live and Let Live, Wood End 1960 onwards) 1952 Thomas F. Moore 1952 - 1956 Alfred Ward 1956 Thomas Griffiths 1960 R. Power 1960 J. W. Slater 1960 D. H. Hill 1960 - 1961 Edward Devlin 1963 Ronald Richardson 1964 Mr. Davies 1966 Patrick Mullooley 1970 Thomas Hipkiss (see also Minstrel Boy in Allesley Park 1970 onwards)
OWNERS: to 1926 Charringtons Atkinsons
Street plan of 1851