Coventry Council House

The Council House was commissioned to replace St Mary's Guildhall as the headquarters of the mayor and city corporation. The site on Earl Street had previously been occupied by a row of shops. A design for new municipal offices on the site was approved in 1895, but a dispute then arose as to whether shops should be incorporated into the ground floor of the new buildings; this was not swiftly resolved and, though the site was cleared, it remained vacant for over a decade. as stipulated by the Borough Corporation, to be in keeping with the old St Mary's Guildhall to the rear. The foundation stone was laid on 12 June 1913 and the building was completed in 1917, although, because of the First…