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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Tavern, Bayley Lane

Alternative Addresses:

St Mary's Hall

St Mary's Guildhall, Bayley Lane, 1912 engraving. In 'St Mary's Hall', by Joan C. Lancaster, P30, she says the 'tavern', mentioned from time to time from 1469, occupied the northern chamber (of the undercroft), which shows evidence of the racking used for storing barrels and had access from the street. However, Mary Dormer Harris in 'Dr Troughton's Sketches of Old Coventry' says that the ground, or rather underground, floor was occupied by a cellar of vaulted stone, in town houses often called the 'tavern', a word not neccessarily implying the sale of wine there, but simply used for an underground shop. So, you pays your money and makes your choice; was this a drinking place, or just a shop?