The Carmelites were a mendicant religious order, dependent on charity from those they taught and on the gifts from pilgrims visiting their shrine of Our Lady of the Tower.

According to Dugdale, 'This Chapell is in the tower of the Cittye Wall without New Gate, close by the roadway leading towards London.

On the outside thereof was a picture of the blessed Virgin, richly painted, and within an image and her altar, whereat most travellers which passed by did offer more or lesse, out of confidence that their journey would be better blest'.

The church was, like the rest of the site, built from red sandstone blocks and the interior was painted white with decorative stonework.

In the choir, the wooden seats and misericords were finely carved and some of these survived but were later removed to the Old Grammar School in Hales Street.

[5] Whitefriars was closed on 1 October 1538 as part of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in England, with the 14 remaining friars signing the instrument of surrender.

[3] The crown granted the friary to Sir Ralph Sadler in 1544, who sold it to John Hales, who had bought much of the former monastic property in Coventry.

[3] The church and churchyard were purchased by George Pollard and Andrew Flammock who subsequently sold it to the Coventry Corporation in 1543.

[5] The friary was also used to house a puritan printing press during Hales' spell abroad and despite his apparent ignorance of the matter, he was heavily fined.

[5] In August 1565, on a state tour around her realm, Queen Elizabeth I made her one and only visit to Coventry, staying for two days at Whitefriars with John Hales,[7] during which time she described it as a "fine house".

[8] Between 25 November 1569 and 2 January 1570, Mary Queen of Scots was held in Coventry on Elizabeth's orders, spending part of this time in Whitefriars.

The Hales family moved to a newly built property elsewhere in Coventry, named "New House", and let Whitefriars to Lord Henry Berkeley of Caludon Castle.

[12] The dormitory was used as an exhibition hall which was home to a small display relating to the building's history: its use as a Friary, private town house and workhouse.

[14] In 1973, Whitefriars Gate which stands several hundred metres from the rest of the remaining building, was bought by Ron Morgan who used it as Coventry Toy Museum.

Whitefriars Gate on Much Park Street and the cloister wing, outside Coventry ring road, are all that remain of the 14th century monastery.