The Golden Cross, Coventry

Golden Cross Inn, Hay Lane, CV1 5RF

 

Grade II* Listed

 

List Entry Number: 1116277

 

 

Details

 

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 16/06/2016.

 

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 10 October 2019.

 

SP 3378 NE 1/7

 

HAY LANE

 

Golden Cross Inn

 

(Formerly listed as No 8, Bayley Lane, previously listed as No 8 (Golden Cross Inn) BAYLEY LANE)

 

5.2.55

 

II*

 

Late C16, reputedly circa 1583. Timber frame and plaster infilling, much restored. Three storeys, machine tiled roof with modern brick chimney stacks. Upper floors oversail on exposed timbers. Restored and modern four light moulded wooden casement windows. Corner post with curved brackets, clustered slim pilasters. Modern ground floor. Returned side gable with plain bargeboards.

 

Interior: First floor retains exposed dragon beam in ceiling.

 

 

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1116277

 

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Coventry - the Golden Cross

 

The Golden Cross is one of the oldest pubs in Coventry.

 

First mentioned as an inn in 1661, when it was reported as one of 137 inns/alehouses in Coventry, the Golden Cross dates from 1583. The structure of the building is typical of the Tudor style of this period with three vaulted or 'jettied' upper floors. It has close-studding on the upper floors and moulded jetty boards. The finest feature is the 'dragon beam' visible in the ground floor ceiling. This is a large timber beam that enables a jettied first floor to pass round the corner of the building.

 

Today, the Golden Cross stands much modified. A restoration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries used wooden timbers from the original wooden bell bell tower of St Michael's Church. An extension in 1968 substantially changed the interior of the pub, doubling the building's size by extending the gentleman's bar, smoke room and upstairs club room.

 

In February 1955, the Golden Cross was listed by the now-disbanded Coventry City Guild (1914-1961) as a Grade II* listed building of special interest. There are only three buildings like it in the city centre.

 

After suppression of religious houses, inns such as the Golden Cross became important meeting places for city companies. Groups such as the Golden Cross Philanthropic Society, formed in 1859, held regular meetings in the club room upstairs. The society was comprised of well-respected men of society and their aim was to help the poor by raising money for local hospitals, schools etc. The Coventry City Supporters Club also held a meeting at the Golden Cross in 1951. The poet Philip Larkin was a frequent visitor. Since the 1970s, the club room has been associated with live music.

 

The pub stands in the medieval heart of the city close to several other ancient buildings that survived the bombing raids of the Second World War, namely the shell of the old Coventry Cathedral of St Michael, St Mary's Guild Hall and Holy Trinity Church.

The public house is probably named after the nearby Coventry Cross. The new monument is 100 metres from the original position in Broadgate and Cross Cheaping. In 1422 a cross was set up at the south end of Cross Cheaping; it may not have been the first on the site. This was replaced in 1543 by a magnificent monument, for which Sir William Holles had left £200 in his will.

 

This Coventry Cross was erected some 40 years before the Golden Cross public house. In 1668-9 it was refurbished, painted in bright colours and smothered in gold leaf, to the point that it was painful to look at on a sunny day. It had an hexagonal base and was 57 feet high, with niches containing statues of saints and kings. It fell into decay and was demolished in 1771.

Done