10 & 10A Hay Lane, Coventry — Timber Origins, Brick Face

Just off the Cathedral Quarter, 10 and 10A Hay Lane show how Coventry’s houses evolved from timber to brick. What you see today is a smart red-brick frontage from the 1800s, but behind it sits a 16th-century timber-framed merchant’s house. A nearby plaque confirms the timeline, and notes that No. 9 next door is an early 19th-century building with a similar front. A second plaque records a 1992 Evening Telegraph Design Award, recognising the quality of the restoration.

History in brief

Built in the 1500s when Coventry thrived on cloth and trade, the original house would have had exposed timbers and projecting upper floors typical of the period. In the 19th century the front was modernised in brick to match changing tastes and the growing Georgian/early-Victorian streetscape. The ground floor has shifted uses over time, domestic rooms, small shops or offices, while upper floors kept their simple residential plan.

10 & 10A Hay Lane, Coventry 

What to look for

• Red-brick façade with rubbed brick arches above the windows, an 1800s update.

• Tall sash windows replacing earlier mullioned openings.

• Painted classical doorcase and a narrow side passage giving access to the rear.

• The overall proportions still hint at the older timber shell behind the 19th-century face.

Why it matters

Hay Lane sits between Bayley Lane and the cathedral precinct, an area that still carries layers of medieval, Georgian and modern Coventry. 10 & 10A make that story visible: a Tudor merchant’s house adapted for a new age, restored again in our own time. It’s a small frontage with a long memory, proof that Coventry’s heritage isn’t only in its grand guildhalls and churches, but also in the everyday houses that adapted and survived.

Happy travelling.