The former home of the co-founder of Triumph motorcycles and a one-time Lord Mayor of Coventry has been reinvented as 14 luxury apartments and bungalows.

Developers P&K Estates Ltd are close to completing work on the locally-listed building named Elm Bank on North Avenue, Stoke Park, which still bears a blue plaque honouring the time Siegfried Bettmann owned and lived in the property.

The firm acquired the site in February 2018 and was granted planning permission for a range of 14 apartments, bungalows and mews apartments – three of which have already been sold.

The properties are a mix of nine 2 bedroom and five 1 bedroom, with prices from £190,000 for a one bedroom apartment offering 540 sq ft.

The project has been headed by Ramesh Parmar of MCE who has over 30 years’ experience in construction and this is the second development for P&K Estates which is Ramesh’s partnership with Pawan Kenth. The first project by P&K Estates was the construction of 14 houses in Erdington, Birmingham.

Project manager Rickesh Parmar of P&K Estates Ltd, said: “I believe we have created one of the best places to live in Coventry.

“It has been a near three year labour of love to restore this Victorian villa which was constructed in the 1870s.

“In collaboration with the architects Neil Boddison Associates, we have worked hard to reinvent Elm Bank to a high specification, creating a truly unique living environment in this beautiful part of Coventry.

“The history of the site and the significance of Siegfried Bettmann to Coventry’s motor heritage should not be understated. One of the most interesting apartments is partly formed from Siegfried Bettmann’s billiard room and has an original frieze still in place which we have been at pains to protect while building work was underway.”

The frieze consists of a series of eight oil paintings on canvas by the artist Oscar Mancine of the Birmingham School and are in the style of Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones.

In its time, Elm Bank has been used as a private home, a teachers’ club and latterly as offices for Coventry City Council teams including the learning and behaviour support service.

The restyling and renovation of the property by P&K Estates Ltd has been carried out to a high standard and the gated development has allocated parking for each apartment and electric car charging points for owner use.

The luxury features include underfloor heating throughout all the apartments, two parking spaces for the two bedroom homes and one space for the one bedroom properties. The specification in each apartment includes SieMatic kitchens, Siemens appliances and Porcelanosa bathrooms and tiles.

The development is located just 1.2 miles from Coventry city centre and 1.4 miles to Coventry railway station, which offers 19 minute direct trains into Birmingham and 57 minutes direct to London Euston. There is also direct train link from Coventry railway station to Birmingham International Airport which is just 12 miles away.

“Apartments 10, 11 and 12 are complete and available for viewing by the wider public and we are now able to launch Elm Bank publicly.”

Selling agents are the Coventry office of Allsopp & Allsopp on 02476 627366. More information at https://www.instagram.com/elmbank_cov/

Ends (533 words)

For further information, please contact:

Ramesh Parmar, Managing Director,

P&K Estates Ltd

07768 230906

Prepared and issued by Andy Skinner of ASAP PR – 01608 651203 or mobile, 07990 978257.

Notes to Editors

Built in the 1870s, Elm Bank was purchased by a ribbon manufacturer named Edward Ralphs in 1884. In 1889, H. Williamson of Stoke School Board occupied the property.

It was in 1905 that Siegfried Bettmann, one of the co-founders of the Triumph Cycle Company in Coventry, took up residence.

Bettmann was born in Nuremberg in 1863 but moved to Coventry to start the Triumph Cycle Works with fellow German Mauritz J Schulte, building the Priory Street works in 1894 and becoming a British citizen.

The following year he married Annie Meyrick and they lived in the mansion until his death in 1951, aged 88.

He was president of the Coventry Liberal Association, a freemason, a founder member and president of Coventry’s Chamber of Commerce, a Justice of the Peace, and chairman of the Standard Motor Company.

In 1913 he became Lord Mayor of Coventry – the first non-British subject ever to do so, but the outbreak of the First World War, and the resultant anti-German feeling, led him to resign as mayor.