Earlsdon began as a residential street in Coventry's new watchmaking village. However, as the watch trade slumped and the watchmakers found it harder to find work, many opened shops in the front of their premises. Thus Earlsdon Street was slowly turned into the shopping street we know today.
In the earliest photograph, Moor Street is in the middle distance on the right, with not as many shops as we see today. Earlsdon Street had not yet become a long range of shops, most being concentrated at the southern end. The pillars holding the tramlines dominate the street scene.
The view showing the original City Arms and the Co-operative Store reveals that the Co-operative Society grocer on the corner of Poplar Road, built in 1907 (now Bedlam), changed little in appearance for many decades. The buildings between the shops and the Earlsdon Working Men's Club were demolished in the late 1980s to make way for a modern Co-op store, rather out of keeping with the rest of the street.
To the left of that scene is the original City Arms, still known by some as Ma Cooper's despite the original pub being replaced with its current building in 1931. Mrs Mary Jane Cooper was in charge from 1897 to 1921, when she died aged 84 — her occupancy started with the opening of Albany Road and concluded when most of the expansion of Earlsdon was complete.
