Coventry Arts Umbrella Club Archive: February 2021

The Original Coventry Arts Umbrella Club base in Little Park Street 1950's

Coventry Arts Umbrella Club played an important role in Coventry's music history, for bands, folk, literature and more. Larkin wrote for Umbrella magazine and two Two Tone members played in early bands there.

Coventry Arts Umbrella Club opened in Little Park Street, Coventry (seen in the photo) in 1955, with the official opening being conducted by The Goons. It was financed by West Midlands Arts. After its demolition in 1960, it re-opened in new premises at 18, Queen Victoria Rd - and again that premises was condemned and demolished at the end of 1972 and the Umbrella eventually (in 1974), moved to the Charterhouse on London Rd. It's hey days were the 50's / 60's and early 70's but a small group of poets are still keep something modest going.

"The Umbrella Club was founded in 1955 largely on the initiative of members of the City Architect's Department in association with members of the Midland Theatre Company, the forerunner of the Belgrade Theatre. The Club opened on 10 Oct 1955 at 97 Little Park Street with the purpose of encouraging the enjoyment of the arts by providing facilities for members to take part in a wide range of activities and to sponsor and promote artistic and related events of various kinds. When 97 Little Park Street was demolished in 1961, it moved to 18 Queen Victoria Road and membership grew, reaching over 400 by 1964. The Club operated at Queen Victoria Road until these premises were also demolished in the early 1970s. For a time activities continued in The Charterhouse but the lack of suitable premises led to declining membership."

According to architect and early member Bill Berrett " The real movers were Terry Watson, Neil Stair (an English teacher who did the White Devil by Webster) Geoffrey Saunders (I can't recall what his work was, but he made a great contribution to the early building decor), Rex Chell and Stanley Sellers, Architects from the City Department. All these did most of the work and negotiation."

Birth of the Umbrella Club

The Coventry Arts Umbrella (known to its members as The Umbrella Club or The Brolly) opened October 10th 1955 at 97, Little Park Street (as seen in the picture above). This I think was in front of what became the Education Offices after the redevelopment of Little Park Street.

It was initiated largely by the Coventry City Architects department and members of the Midland Theatre Company.
The Aims of the Umbrella were to -
"To provide a congenial meeting place for those interested in artistic and cultural activities and in pursuance of this it promotes lectures, discussions, exhibitions, recitals and similar. The name 'Umbrella' is intended to suggest the wide range of activities covered by the club"

An Umbrella Club Membership Card

Outline of the functions and Structure of Coventry Arts Umbrella Ltd.
"The Association is established to promote, maintain, improve and advance education and assist in the promotion, maintenance, improvement therein. Shall be of charitable nature and in particular, so far as such objectives may be charitable, to raise the artistic taste of Coventry and to promote, encourage and increase the appreciation and understanding of the arts generally and Dramatic Art, Musical Art, Literary Arts and Visual Arts in particular."

The Umbrella Club, although already open, was officially opened by The Goons - Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers. Coventry photographer, Richard Sadler explains in The Journal of London Independant - Winter 2002/3, (pdf file with more photos) why, in those formal times, the Umbrella club chose the Goons to not only to open the club in 1955 but join in their party later on c 1959

" The occasion (of the photos) was the the first time our heroes appeared on stage (Coventry Hippodrome I think) to delight us with their wit and wisdom. It was a flop of course, though not for us, due in the main to having a public who

enjoyed them, till then, only through the radio. The theatre too was controlled at that time, not only by the management, but by the Lord Chamberlain. All theatre performances had to be approved by him and any deviation from the script, at each performance, had to be recorded and forwarded to his office. The anarchic wit and humour of our heroes, to whom the art of the ad lib was essential was fundamental, suffered from this bureaucratic machinery; they had in truth been sent to Coventry."

Sadler goes on to explain -
"We at the Umbrella would have none of that, they would come to our party and celebrate that which we would create together with them, a

future of peace, prosperity and fun...they put up an umbrella, embraced the girls and assumed a pose that would remind us of their personalities, wit and wisdom, that changed, though no one realised it at the time, English humour forever."

An article appears on the Goons in one of the editions of Umbrella.

Bill Berrett offered - "A small anecdote about the opening by the Goons. It was a very informal and crowded do. The Goons mixed in with everybody and had a great time. That is until a young woman asked for an autograph and the Goons swiftly departed! (they did take away 'Spon' from Coventry as in '' I been Sponned'!)"

The Advisory Committee in the early days consisted of The Right Rev - the Lord Bishop of Coventry. Alderman Mrs Pearl Hyde. Mr A.G. Ling FRIBA Coventry City Architect. Lord Leigh. Sir Stanley Harley (Coventry Gauge and Tool Ltd. Mr P.S. Randell (Courtalds)

The club initially had 200 members comprising of students, secretaries, engineers, technologists, Clerks, nurses, Civil Servants, architects, journalists, artists, shop assistants, housewives.

97, Little Park St. Comprised a Lounge (used for lectures and recitals) A Foyer - Exhibition room, music room, cloak room, office and kitchen. The building was demolished to allow for redevelopment.

The first Chair of the Umbrella was Anthony John - later of the BBC - later Dr A H Marshall and Terry Watson was Vice Chair at this stage later to be Chair.

Reply to Criticism
"We can offer a reply to the criticism which tends to be levelled at an expanding industrial town like Coventry - that it's heartless and that there is nothing to do and that it is a 'Cultural desert' . Our reply, based on observation and the deep satisfaction which many intelligent young people have found in using the club and how newcomers to Coventry have said how they have not felt at home in the city until they began to use Umbrella club."

COMPULSORY PURCHASE ORDER
On 3rd April 1961 the Coventry Arts Umbrella received a Compulsory Purchase Order with notice to quit their premises at 97, Little Park St. by the 30th June 1961 after 5 years of residence at that address. The Umbrella claimed, in response, that the Umbrella had established a "unique position as a cultural and social centre, especially for young people who are over youth club age and for whom we provide a service of a kind not to be found elsewhere in the city. It's cultural magazine is subscribed to by the Library of Congress USA and New York Public Library etc."

The Umbrella was rehoused at 18, Queen Victoria Rd. until once again in 1972 they had to move after a 10 year residency this time.

In terms of programme the Umbrella while at Little Park St. organised a series of Cultural Weeks each year as follows -
American Week - 1957
Russian Week - 1958
Norwegian Week -1959

In May 1958 they hosted a production of Webster's White Devil in St. Mary's Hall.

Some of the distinguished speakers included -
EM Forster, Sir Stuart Wilson, Prof. Marvin Felheim, Prof. Nevil Coghill, Aaron Copland, Richard Arnell, Brian Priestman, Sir Eugene Goossens.

The Umbrella magazine is covered in another post on here with some new additions.

The early programme on the move to Queen Victoria Rd. included (up to 1968) Jazz, music , Bridge, art and design and Drama. jazz was particularly strong at the umbrella.

And, from the Umbrella Website http://www.umbrellaclub.org.uk/index.php
A potted history of the club -
" History of the Club
The seeds of the Umbrella Club were sown when a group of people enthusiastic about the arts were meeting socially in the Geisha Cafe in Hertford Street, Coventry.

Geisha Café Right opposite Greens Chemist
Hertford street

The Club opened on 10 October 1955 at 97, Little Park Street, with the purpose of encouraging the enjoyment of the arts by providing facilities for members to take part in a wide range of activities and to sponsor and promote artistic and related events of various kinds.
The official opening took place on 2nd November 1955 and was attended by none other than The Goons, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan.

The club had a sub-committee for each section of the arts and these ran a full programme of events. Notable speakers included Kenneth Tynan, Maurice Edelman, Graham Whettam.

The Club also published a series of magazines, featuring new writing from new and established writers, eg. E. M. Forster, Susan Hill, Philip Larkin. A particularly memorable event was a production of 'The White Devil' in St. Mary's Hall, in the late 50s.

In 1961, Little Park Street was redeveloped and the Club obtained a three story house in Queen Victoria Road. Here the Club went from strength to strength. An outbuilding was converted and extended into a theatre/ cinema and the programme included Jazz on a Summer's Day, The Cranes are Flying, The Seventh Seal. The film group experimented with film making and we have a video copy of Under the Umbrella, a film about the club's activities made in 1965 as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations .

Some events were open to the public, including films, plays,, art exhibitions.

In 1970, the area was due for redevelopment and compulsory purchase left the Club with insufficient resources for premises. Until 1974, members met at The Charterhouse, a historic building on the London Road which had been left to the city for public use. Meetings were held once a week with the film group sometimes meeting separately on an additional night. Unfortunately it proved difficult to maintain the Club under these conditions and though the club was never closed down, activity became minimal.

In the 1990s, there was a reunion and relaunch at the Koko building in Spon End. After an initial busy programme, activities were toned down to the present level. Times have changed and people have many more opportunities and demands on their time than was the case in the 50s and 60s, however there is still a desire for people interested in the arts to meet together in order to participate in and discuss the various media."

Recent Comment

This received from Jean Jennings (neé Gough) April 13, 2013 at 7:13 AM
If anyone can confirm (or otherwise) Jean's memory of the Umbrella being open before 1955 - please get in touch hobozine@googlemail.com

"Thank you for bringing back some wonderful memories of the Umbrella Club. I was a very keen member in the 50's, assisting Terry Watson with the secretarial jobs and publicity. I remember him bringing to the club the first electric typewriter - a scary monster. He was truly an inspired person and brought such enthusiasm to the club.
One problem that I have is with the given date of the inception of the club. I distinctly remember going there in 1953 - and it had been active a while before then. Can anybody confirm this?"

I got a very interesting email from Jim Runnalls, a former pupil of Bablake School and
Aeronautical Engineer and one of the founding members of the Coventry Arts Umbrella Club. Jim has been mentioned on this site before in relation to the article on Matlock. This is Jim in his own words - and hopefully he will tell us some more - which i will add to this page.

My name is Jim Runnalls and I was a very junior teen age 'founder' member. I'm now 83! I recall that the Umbrella had been going for some time before the Goons visit. I do remember Harry Secombe's brief speech when he declared the Umbrella Club 'Open and long may it rain!!!!."

The UMBRELLA could truly be described as a centre of culture in what was a more or less WWII bombed site. Little Park Street was a tiny jewel of medieval Coventry which Hitler failed to completely flatten. It housed a few lawyers and the registry office where I was married and one or two solicitors offices going towards the cathedral. Opposite the club and to the south was a wasteland which became a fairground once or twice a year. On the north side of the club were the remains of a magnificent three story house with internal staircases and balconies which I and a few others pleaded with the Council to restore. Like the Umbrella they poured concrete on it all. The south side of the club housed an medieval courtyard with small dwellings one of which was the home to a very disabled young man who was wheelchair bound speech impaired youth and who played a small xylophone using a clay pipe gripped between his teeth. The entrance to this courtyard housed a fabulous little medieval pub. With The Registry Office opposite it was an almost complete community. Wasn’t it ironic that the clubs creative core were employed in the City’s architects office where they created the awful precinct of concrete devoid of people which destroyed my already battered City?

I was ORIGINALLY adopted by Geoffrey Saunders and Stanley Sellars who PROVED able to generated cultural instincts in an aeronautical engineer. We holidayed in St. Ives together and I met Barbara Hepworth etc.

Rex Chell (Architect) was another notable. We were controlled by an (to an 18y.o.) aged couple. The gentleman who’s name escapes me who controlled most of our more crazy ideas and his more sedate wife.

John & Jean Astle ran the music room which I built with my Bablake music master!!!!

Donald Lindon, jazz musician/double bass who was also a Chartered Quantity Surveyor in Coventry.was I think the musician you were searching for.

When they built a new Central Police Station nearby. We were frequently ‘raided’ but soon they left their helmets near the front door and joined in the fun! The Lady Mayoress, Pearl Hyde quite often would arrive at the club in her official car, in all of her regalia and come to drink coffee and talk to the youngsters who were shaping her city.

I worked closely with Terry Watson on the Umbrella Magazine and am guilty of designing one of its most awful cover pages.

I have to say that those days were extremely beneficial to me and I hope that The UMBRELLA still enthuses the youth of my City.

James Runnalls – Freeman of Coventry.

Jim Runnalls Aeronuatical Engineer & Bablake School July 22, 2021 at 11:20 AM

I'm writing to you as a founder member of The UMBRELLA. I'd left Bablake School at sixteen in 1954 to commence an aeronautical engineering apprenticeship with Armstrong Whitworth. The Corporation bus from Cheylesmore where I lived passed the front door of no. 97 and its magnetism was irresistible.

I became a founder member and was responsible for much of the interior decoration before that visit by the GOONS when The DEDICATION by I think was Harry Secombe who declared I hereby name the club THE UMBRELLA long may it rain. which it was at the time! the Coventry Registry Office was opposite. My wife and I were married there and celebrated in the club afterwards. Geoffrey Saunders and Stanly Sellars were witnesses I think. My Bablake School music master (name escapes me) and I built the Hi-Fi system upstairs. i was instrumental in the Umbrella Magazine and much else before marriage and children intervened. The Umbrella gave me a wonderful early upbringing and has had a profound influence on my life. There were so many guiding lights and never was anything untoward. The Umbrella gave my a start in life which was irreplaceable. I cannot describe the awful impact of its eventual destruction supervised by Arthur Ling.(City Architect)

The Umbrella at Little Park Street in mid to late 50's.