The Flickr Hertfordstreet Image Generatr

Whilst My Guitar Gently Weeps.
© Ian Halsey MMXXV

Former National Provincial Bank lettering visible at Hertford Street side of what is now the NatWest Bank at Broadgate Coventry.

Information on the public art on the building can be found here -
www.coventrysociety.org.uk/public-art-in-coventry/nationa...

Information on the public art on the building can be found here -
www.coventrysociety.org.uk/public-art-in-coventry/nationa...

Originally uploaded for the Guess Where Group www.flickr.com/groups/guesswhereuk/

In ABCs and 123s: 6 is for Six Windows

From a Kodachrome slide processed in April 1970. Photographer unknown. For a recent comparison see: maps.app.goo.gl/DsyBTfrs52ywquvc9

A Sushi Hertford Street. To me it looked like the window had been decorated for Christmas and then smashed but looking on GSV the glass appears to have been broken at least since summer.

Lights in the trees at the Broadgate end of Hertford Street. The Pork Of The Town (aka Porky's) takeaway stall in front of The hmv Empire.

Mural.
© Ian Halsey MMXXIV

Originally uploaded for the Guess Where Group www.flickr.com/groups/guesswhereuk/

For those of us of a certain age, growing up in England and Ireland in the 1950s, a radio station far away in Europe – yet somehow broadcasting into our living rooms here at home – was the pinnacle of our entertainment.

Radio Luxembourg broadcast on 208 metres on the medium wave. And though it faded frequently and the sound was distorted, we were hooked. The signal was so weak that we could hardly receive it until the evening because of the all-important meteorological conditions – including darkness itself. But then we were rewarded with pop music of the day introduced by very familiar names – disc jockeys and presenters moonlighting from the BBC.

Many listeners believed that these stars – the likes of Pete Murray, Jimmy Young, David Jacobs, Barry Alldis, Sam Costa, Jack Jackson and Alan Freeman – were broadcasting from the Grand Duchy. But in fact they recorded their programmes here at 38 Hertford Street, Mayfair, and the programmes were transmitted from Luxembourg.

Another exciting aspect of Radio Luxembourg was that it was a commercial station. But then, in 1964, along came the ‘pirate stations’ led by Radio Caroline and Radio London (‘Big L’). Their signal strengths were stronger, the jingles catchier, and a new wave of DJs took over: Kenny Everett and Dave Cash ('Kenny and Cash'), Tony Blackburn, Noel Edmunds, Tommy Vance, Duncan Johnson, Emperor Rosko, Johnny Walker. Advertisers flocked to them and the sounds of broadcasting were changed for ever.

In 1967 everything changed again. The pirates were banned by the British government, and in their place the BBC launched Radio 1. In due course Radio Luxembourg faded into irrelevance, and today, all that’s left of its ground-breaking presence in London is a plaque on a wall. But for teenagers like me, it was fun while it lasted – even though the signal ebbed and flowed, and they never played a record to its full length!

Random Old Analogue Photo Of The Day: As the last in this series dealt with a central place, in the shape of Derby's The Spot, this carries on the theme of centrality with this being the (former) British Heart Foundation charity shop, located quite fittingly on Hertford Street, Coventry, near the very Heart of England. Coventry is very rich in Post-WWII Modernist architecture, such as the Precincts and the circular Coventry City Market but Pre-WWII architecture, such as this clearly is, going by the style, is a remarkable survival of the devastating Luftwaffe raid of the evening of 14th November 1940.The Pre-WWII Owen Owen department store, for example, was not so fortunate, having only been a functioning shop for a matter of two or three years or so.

Empty office block.
© Ian Halsey MMXXII

The Peeping Tom head and shoulders sculpture Hertford Street, Coventry was once a pub sign for a pub demolished in the 1960s

The Peeping Tom head and shoulders sculpture Hertford Street, Coventry was once a pub sign for a pub demolished in the 1960s

Curzon Cinema, Mayfair. Opened in 1966, the Curzon Mayfair is the UK's youngest listed cinema - grade 2. It was designed by Horace Hammond from Burnet, Tait & Lorne, and seated 530 mainly on the large stalls floor, but with two small boxes at an upper level. The wall treatment is fibreglass panels, designed by William Mitchell. The rear stalls were sensitively partitioned to form an intimate 98 seat second screen in 2002. The current cinema replaced an earlier, highly successful cinema of the same name, which opened in 1934 and closed and was demolished in 1963.

cinematreasures.org/theaters/7507http://cinematreasures.o...

City of Westminster, London, England - Curzon Mayfair Cinema, Curzon Street, W1
March 2022

Curzon Cinema, Mayfair. Opened in 1966, the Curzon Mayfair is the UK's youngest listed cinema - grade 2. It was designed by Horace Hammond from Burnet, Tait & Lorne, and seated 530 mainly on the large stalls floor, but with two small boxes at an upper level. The wall treatment is fibreglass panels, designed by William Mitchell. The rear stalls were sensitively partitioned to form an intimate 98 seat second screen in 2002. The current cinema replaced an earlier, highly successful cinema of the same name, which opened in 1934 and closed and was demolished in 1963.

www.curzon.com/venues/mayfair/

City of Westminster, London, England - Curzon Mayfair Cinema, Curzon Street, W1
March 2022

Curzon Cinema, Mayfair. Opened in 1966, the Curzon Mayfair is the UK's youngest listed cinema - grade 2. It was designed by Horace Hammond from Burnet, Tait & Lorne, and seated 530 (now 307) mainly on the large stalls floor, but with two small boxes at an upper level. The entrance to the cinema was shifted from Curzon Street to Hertford Street in the 1966 rebuild. The current cinema replaced an earlier, highly successful cinema of the same name, which opened in 1934 and closed and was demolished in 1963.

cinematreasures.org/theaters/7507

City of Westminster, London, England - Curzon Mayfair Cinema, Curzon Street, W1
March 2022

Curzon Cinema, Mayfair. Opened in 1966, the Curzon Mayfair is the UK's youngest listed cinema - grade 2. It was designed by Horace Hammond from Burnet, Tait & Lorne, and seated 530 mainly on the large stalls floor, but with two small boxes at an upper level. The wall treatment is fibreglass panels, designed by William Mitchell. The rear stalls were sensitively partitioned to form an intimate 98 seat (now 67) second screen in 2002. The current cinema replaced an earlier, highly successful cinema of the same name, which opened in 1934 and closed and was demolished in 1963.

City of Westminster, London, England - Curzon Mayfair Cinema, Curzon Street, W1
March 2022

Central Post Office, Hertford Street, Coventry

Central Post Office, Hertford Street, Coventry

In Coventry linking Hertford Street with Greyfriars Lane. In the distance is the grade I listed Ford's Hospital Almshouse -
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1342891