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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Sir Colin Campbell, 122 Gosford Street

These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
	1720	?	PARROT AND GRIFFIN
	1772	1851	GRIFFIN
	1868	c2003	SIR COLIN CAMPBELL, CAMPBELL
	c2003	present	PHOENIX
Initially the PARROT AND GRIFFIN, by 1773 it was referred to as the GRIFFIN, and that name remained until 1868 when the name changed to the SIR COLIN CAMPBELL. In the 1980s it was a 'large popular Victorian pub recently modernised' and 'a popular pub particularly with the students from the nearby Polytechnic'. In 1995 a cellar was found behind the pub. This cellar was actually set back from the historic street frontage, apparently behind the building. It was dated to 1380-1410, the heyday of such cellars in Coventry, but had been un-roofed and filled in during the nineteenth century. The location of these cellars, almost shoe-horned in, might suggest that as a status symbol they were sought after, but that their construction might be too disruptive to dig under existing buildings. The cellar under the Sir Colin Campbell contained a west window, and on that plot there was evidence of non-ferrous metalworking, so a west window would allow work to go on indoors, even in bad weather, late into the afternoon, making use of the afternoon light. It would also ventilate the cellar if it was being used for work rather than storage. All of this appears to preclude its use as an alehouse at that date. In the 1920s the pub was a main venue for jazz in the city and this continued to the 1970s. In the 1990s the name was shortened to the CAMPBELL, and from the mid '90s was run by IT'S A SCREAM, which became SCREAM, a student oriented pub chain, part of the Stonegate Pub Company. Around 2003 it became the PHOENIX. Colin Campbell (1792 - 1863) was a distinguished British field marshal, mainly remembered for the relief of Lucknow, India in 1857. He was made Baron Clyde of Clydesdale in 1858.
LICENSEES: 1868 William Graham 1871 Sarah Graham 1874 - 1879 Thomas Preedy 1881 - 1905 Edwin Wall 1909 Mrs H. Wall 1911 - 1929 Samuel Eggington 1931 - 1932 W. L. Eggington 1933 - 1936 J. E. Tyler 1937 - 1940 P. R. Suffolk 1982 Anthony Smith