Holbrooks

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Holbrooks is a residential area of Coventry, West Midlands, England. Holbrooks is also sometimes written as Holbrook's.

It is situated some three miles north-west to the city centre, and was mostly developed for private and council housing during the 1950s to replace the many homes destroyed by air raids during the Second World War. A lot of terraced houses were built in Holbrooks around the mid 1930s, one of the 1930s housing estates is locally known as 'The Dales', this is now a somewhat tired housing estate close to the Ricoh arena,and separated from it by a railway line and a main road, the A444 Phoenix way. Another estate is the 'Stadium' estate, found in between 'The Dales' and Lythalls Lane.

'The Dales' estate was mostly built in 1936 is so named because it consists of the following streets. Lauderdale Avenue, Farndale Avenue, Glaisdale Avenue, Langdale Avenue and Bransdale Avenue. Although the houses on the left when entering Langdale Avenue were built slightly later in the early 1940s. The property known as number 8, Langdale Avenue was a dental surgery for many years. Today this estate is troubled by parking problems, a lack of green spaces and any play areas for children.

The 'Stadium' estate is so called because the terraced houses and flats were built on top of a dog racing stadium. It was turned into a green space which was used by local children and pet owners. However this area also had its fair share of trouble, with resulted in emergency services being called out many times. Now, there are plans to turn the green space into new housing, to cater for Coventry's growing middle class. The local children now have nowhere to play, and local homeowners will see prices fall as the area becomes even more congested. This will add to residents woes, as they have already seen prices fall due to the proximity of Ricoh Arena.

Being so close to the Ricoh Arena which has limited parking, a parking permit scheme is in place. Residents must display a pass in order to park there. Visitors on 'match days' must display a visitors parking ticket.

Another notable housing estate in Holbrooks is the area of Everdon Road. Built after the second world war, and accessed from either Beake Avenue or Holbrook Lane, this is a more spacious well designed housing estate with mostly three and four bedroomed houses with large rooms and tall roofs. Also several one bedroomed bungalows with tall roofs.

Due to the spacious layout of the estate, more bungalows were recently built as 'infill' and in the future more development is likely.

There are also a number of four storey residential flats on Everdon Road too, some have open views across parkland.

The shape of the Everdon estate forms a complete loop and includes a small row of shops with flats above. Everdon is regularly used by learner drivers to practice, due to there being many corners and reversing places and the road being quiet during the day. Most houses face onto grassed areas, and the estate is bordered by the large Holbrook park which is maintained by Coventry City Council.

Holbrooks has a diverse and large cultural mix which includes a large number of Polish people, there is now a Polish food store along Holbrook Lane near its junction with Hen lane.

The area of Holbrooks is situated within a few hundred yards of the Ricoh Arena, built in 2005 as the home of the city's professional football club.

Holbrooks is also a short distance from the former British Coal Keresley Colliery site which is now a large industrial estate of warehousing called Prologis Park. The large wheel from the winding tower is to be placed on Prologis Park as a reminder of the site's former use.

Underneath Holbrooks and the surrounding area there are several mined coal seams at a depth range of 600-1500 meters down, these coal seams were excavated or extracted to the pit head at Keresley for many years until its eventual closure. The old railway line still runs through Holbrooks and a once daily train now carries freight from the Prologis Park, along the same rail route coal was taken in years gone by, over the cast iron bridge in Hen Lane and on into Coventry. The coal mining and town gas industry was a major source of employment for Holbrooks and Binley areas of Coventry.