The Definitive Guide to the History of
Pubs and Beerhouses in Coventry

Drinking in an Old English Town

Mercers Arms, Swan Lane

These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
	1933	1994	Mercers Arms
	1994	2001	Sky Blue Tavern
This pub opened on Wednesday 5th July 1933 under licensee E. Hall, on the junction of Thackall Street and Swan Lane. In 1982 this was described as a 'large, popular pub opposite Coventry City Football Club's ground' (at Highfield Road, that is). The pub was known for hosting music: in the 1960s it was jazz, in later decades, folk. In November 1994, shortly after the football club acquired the pub, it was renamed the Sky Blue Tavern. The pub appears to have been demolished in 2001. The Company of Mercers (i.e. Drapers) received their first charter in 1393. They dealt mostly in costly materials such as silk. The silk industry was Coventry's main trade for much of the nineteenth century.
LICENSEES: 1933 - 1936 Ernest Hall 1937 - 1940 A. Neville 1955 - 1957 Thomas A. Hardware 1960 - 1962 T. Lloyd