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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Old Tower Inn, 21 Cook Street

These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
			Old Tower Inn
			Ye Old Tower Inn
Ye Old Tower Tavern adjacent to Cook Street Gate in 1910. This pub got its name from the fact that it stood next door to Cook Street Gate in the city wall. In 1835 it was the BEERHOUSE, Tower Street. The building is said to have been erected in the 16th century. It appears in Phipps Estates ledger so it must have been leased by them at one time. There is also a photograph of the pub advertising Cheshire's Windmill Ales and Stouts. In 1901 the property was bought by Messrs. Hunt, Edmonds & Co. - the company name emblazoned on the front of the pub in the photograph above. The pub closed in 1915. It was later presented by Mitchells and Butler to the city council as a building of historic interest. As may be imagined, the council showed their usual interest in the built environment by demolishing the property in May 1963. You can see why many of us maintain that the city council did far more damage to Coventry than the Luftwaffe ever did.
LICENSEES: 1850 - 1861 Thomas Pickard 1868 Robert Arnold, maltster (declared bankrupt 4th Feb 1869) 1879 - 1881 Richard benson 1886 Alice Clarke 1890 - 1891 E. Clarke 1885 Richard Benson 1885 - 1896 Jane Wigston (license temporarily transferred to Jane's daughter, Alice Clarke, in April 1885) 1902 Lucy E. Stafford 1902 - 1905 Edward Lamb 1905 - 1910 James Arthur Kendrick 1910 - 1913 James Henry Pratt