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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Town Wall Tavern, 26 Bond Street

These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
	1841	?	Beerhouse
	1845	1869	Town Wall Tavern
	1869	1878	Brewers Arms
	1878		Town Wall Tavern
This little pub stands on Bond Street, right in the heart of the city. However, two centuries ago, whilst housing had developed along Hill Street and Well Street, it had left the valley of the Radford Brook inbetween untouched. These two streets were connected by a narrow footpath following the foundations of the City Wall. The footpath was bounded on the city side by gardens and on the countryside by an orchard and peppermint plantation. The footpath was actually called 'The Town Wall'. It later became Bond Street and the first buildings, including the Town Wall Tavern, were erected in 1825. The Town Wall overlooks the site of another pub on the opposite side of the road called the Buck and Crown, which closed in 1914. The Town wall appears to have been a home-brew pub until c1914. When John Beers passed on the licence to Joseph Salt in 1869 he had changed the name of the pub to the BREWERS ARMS. Just nine years later, however, Alfred Evans appears to have reverted the name, passing the Town Wall Tavern licence on to Joseph Hewins in 1879. The list of licensees shows that the pub was kept for 24 years from 1881 to 1905 by the Hewins family and by Francis Albert Murphy for 20 years from 1919 to 1939. More recent notable licensees have been Terry Jones in the mid 1970s, who went on to the Old Windmill (Ma Brown's), Ray Hoare from 1977 to 1983 and Martin McKeown in the early 1990s. Martin now runs the Gatehouse, just up Hill Street. The Town Wall has had a somewhat fraught existence since the last war. It had a compulsory purchase order served way back in 1957, and subsequently there were five successive redevelopment schemes. In 1964, the cottages alongside the pub were demolished to make way for the car park. However, the Town Wall had always been well supported by the journalists of the Coventry Evening Telegraph and the acting profession from the Belgrade Theatre, so it has had vociferous and influential defenders. In 1975 M&B's policy of removing hand-pumps and replacing them with electric pumps reached the Town Wall. The licensee at the time, Terry Jones, and the customers, refused the M&B engineers access, so they retired hurt, never to attempt the exercise again. In 1976 the city council unveiled their plans to have a hotel built where the Town Wall stands. In order to appease the regulars, the hotel was actually going to incorporate the pub! Fat chance of that happening! Again the customers organised a petition and sought publicity, reaching the national press with the Guardian on 19th September 1980. As may be imagined from the time between these two dates, the hotel project was not exactly speeding ahead. In fact, by the time the Guardian article appeared, the council had already declared that, due to the recession, the developers had pulled out and the hotel scheme was abandoned. The compulsory purchase order remained though. It was not until 1982 that it was rescinded, 25 years after originally being imposed. And so the Town Wall sails imperturbably on. In late May 2024 the pub's owners announced that, sadly, they could not afford to carry on trading at a loss, and in August the Town Wall Tavern closed, seeking new tenants. Happily, new tenants were found, and a reopening is planned for the 28th February 2025.
LICENSEES: 1842 - 1848 James Shilton (died 24th July 1848) 1848 - 1849 Widow of the late James Shilton 1849 - 1864 Silvester Penn 1864 - 1865 George Ingram 1868 J. Parsons 1869 John Beers 1869 - 1871 Joseph Salt (as the Brewers Arms) 1871 - 1878 Henry Barton (as the Brewers Arms) 1878 - 1879 Alfred Evans 1879 - 1881 Joseph Hewins 1886 - 1891 Mrs F. Hewins 1893 - 1905 William Hewins 1909 - 1913 Samuel Windridge 1919 - 1938 Francis Albert Murphy 1939 - 1940 W. G. Nobles 1961 Mr & Mrs John Hendry 1966 Mr Alan Major 1966 Mr Jose Rivero Cabrera (Pepe) 1970 Geoff & Ann Ratcliffe 1975 Terry Jones 1977 Colin & Nola Wilkes 1977 - 1983 Ray Hoare 1990s Martin McKeown 2010 Lesley Jackson BREWERS: 1914 George Taylor