The Art Box in Clarendon Avenue, near the ‘top’ of the Parade, is an historic Model K6 telephone kiosk which has been repurposed by the Friends of Christchurch Gardens to display images. We are grateful that the Friends have invited us to mount a show. Our members Allan Jennings and Mick Jeffs have prepared a display of photographs and sketches of the town. Note that the kiosk’s door is now closed and locked!
Included are photos of some much loved, long lost, ‘proper’ pubs like the Binswood Tavern, Bricklayers Arms [C1905], Britannia [1976], Carpenters Arms, Cottage Tavern [C1961], Guards Inn, Hope & Anchor [C1930], Jolly Brewer [1976] and the Palace Inn [1975] – along with a photo of the Bath Hotel [C1923].
Other images include Garrad the Chymist at 144 Parade, Parade in the 1920s, Regent Stores at 76 Regent Street in 1924, Lipton’s in the 1930s – it was destroyed on 14th November 1940 when a bomb was dropped on it from a German Bomber, Field Marshall Montgomery travelling along upper Parade on 4th October 1947, two images of Leamington Automobile from Mike Clark, one on the corner of the Parade and Clarendon Avenue and the other on the corner of Warwick Street and Guy Street, the much loved and missed Toytown taken by Bob Saunders – and Woodwards on 30th June 2004, one day before its closure having been in business for 94 years.
Mick’s contribution to the Art Box is about 16 sketches. He does a sketch almost every day. (not all in Leamington). He began seriously in the 1980s and perhaps you can compute how many he has to choose from! The largest image is of a relief model of the front of the Town Hall made with plywood which was a COVID project. Most of the others are from the 1980s to provide a link to the Leamington History Group, of which he is a long-time member. The images on display are mostly enlarged scans from A5 sketches. They include the Thai Elephant restaurant, an earlier version of the Ladder Bridge over the canal, Eden Court and the Old Police Station in High Street.
Prints of sketches may be available, if interested please contact secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk