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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Peeping Tom, 44 Hertford Street

Alternative Addresses:	Bull Yard
These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
	1841	1938	RAILWAY INN / HOTEL
	1878	1938	PEEPING TOM
The Peeping Tom on the corner of The Bullyard and Hertford Street, c1903. During Lady Godiva's ride all of Coventry's inhabitants behaved chivalrously and kept indoors behind closed window, except one - the tailor who peeped at Godiva as she rode past. He was reputedly struck blind and gave rise to the expression 'Peeping Tom'. A traditional Coventry tale, not created until several centuries after the alleged ride, but never-the-less became part of the legend. This pub was never officially called by the name Peeping Tom - licences were always transferred under its proper name, the RAILWAY INN. However, from 1878, when licensee Hannah Hatton decorated the pub with a Peeping Tom effigy and emblazoned his name on the pub's exterior, that was the name that remained in the public consciousness until the day the pub closed in 1938. Hannah Hatton had indeed asked for a change of name from Railway Inn to Peeping Tom in September 1878, naively believing that the new name could be used without an official application. The Bench refused the request, but allowed the effigy and sign-writing to remain. There was a head and shoulders copy of Peeping Tom in the top window. The original stood in the Kings Head, at the opposite end of Hertford Street. This copy now stands at the entrance to the covered part of Hertford Street. After the Second World War the pub became G. E. Jones clothiers and was demolished in the early 1960s when the west side of Hertford Street was rebuilt.
LICENSEES: 1874 - 1879 Hannah Hatton 1879 - 1886 Edward Wallen 1890 - 1891 G. Armson 1893 - 1896 F. W. Allard 1903 - 1922 Henry Edwin Willford 1922 - 1924 Alec Buckland 1926 - 1932 S. W. Turner 1933 - 1938 Thomas R. Tudman
Street plan of 1851
Google map location (Due to the scaling on old maps, the pin location might not be 100% accurate.)