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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Granby Arms, 75 Spon Street

These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
	1862	1871	Wine and Spirit Vaults
	1871	1872	Board
	1874	1875	Spotted Dog
	1875	1924	Melbourne
	1908	1909	Granby Arms
	1911	2002	Bowling Green
	2002	2010	New Bowler
This name was not kept for long. Edwin Herbert Duggan took over as licensee of the Melbourne Gardens in November 1907, and by January 1908 the pub was known as the GRANBY ARMS - a name only used until around August 1909 when the Coventry Herald reported a meeting of the Butts Albions Rugby Football Club at the pub. The brief name change might be connected with the fact that in 1907 the police objected to the renewal of the license for the Melbourne Gardens. The reasons for this objection are not clear, but the license was renewed by the justices anyway, so the the name change was perhaps as a result of the objection. However, by the time Duggan handed the license over to Jesse Tom Woodward in December 1909, the name MELBOURNE GARDENS was once again being used, and soon after that, the BOWLING GREEN. John Manners (1721 - 1770), Marquis of Granby, is honoured in a great many pub names because he set up so many of his own men as tavern-keepers when they left the army. He himself was Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards by 1758 and commander-in-chief of the British Army in 1766. So why was this pub named the Granby 140 years later?
LICENSEES: 1908 - 1909 Edwin Herbert Duggan
Street plan of 1851