The Old Grammar School, Coventry is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

, England on the corner of Bishop Street and Hales Street.

History

Establishment

The Hospital of St John was founded between 1154 and 1179 by Prior Lawrence of the

Benedictine Monastery The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, they ...

Page, pg. 109-112 for a warden and a number of secular brothers or sisters.Page, pg. 109-112 Like many town hospitals in the country dedicated to

St. John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

, the objects of the hospital were "to provide a small permanent staff to supervise the house and maintain the chapel services, to afford temporary relief and lodgement for poor wayfarers, and to give more permanent relief to certain of the local poor who were sick or aged".Page, pg. 109-112

Tudor period

Around 1544 the foundation was closed and then sold to John Hales with King Henry VIII setting a condition that Hales started a Free School in Coventry. This he did and a few years later moved the school, named after the king, from the former Carmelite monastery into the hospital. In 1565,

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...

visited Coventry entering via Bishop Street Gate, and as she passed the school it was mentioned that her father had caused its foundation. She visited and gave a donation for its upkeep.

Georgian period

When the street outside of the Old Grammar School was widened in 1794, the half-timbered part of the building was demolished and the street was renamed to Hales Street. That same year, the west end of the church and the bell tower were also demolished.

Victorian era onwards

The King Henry VIII School moved to its present location in Warwick Road in 1885. After standing empty for over 20 years, it was announced in 2012 that plans were afoot to open the Old Grammar School as an offshoot of the

Coventry Transport Museum Coventry Transport Museum (formerly known as the Museum of British Road Transport) is a transport museum, located in Coventry city centre, England. It houses the largest collection of British-made road transport held in public ownership. It is ...

. In March 2013 planning permission was granted to enable the restoration of the Old Grammar School to be used as an exhibit, education and event space. This included the demolition of an existing adjoining building with the construction of a replacement extension to provide disabled access to the Old Grammar School. The restoration formed part of a £8.5 million redevelopment of the Coventry Transport Museum and began on 31 March 2014 with the Old Grammar School opening to the public on 4 July 2015.

References

Bibliography

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External links

{{coord, 52.4107, -1.5108, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Buildings and structures in Coventry Grade I listed buildings in the West Midlands (county)