![Oh my Oh my](../resource/emoticons/Oh_my.gif)
Helen F
Warrington |
181 of 975
Sun 4th Oct 2015 6:27pm
Yes, Anne, Osmiroid, the west side was indeed widened from Smithford Street to The Castle hotel. Good images survive of that side both before and after the changes but the east side is a conundrum. I'm talking pre the 1750 maps. There are paintings and drawings of it but none of them match the photos and none of them match each other in any helpful way. They may all be fictional! ![]() |
Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
Helen F
Warrington |
182 of 975
Sun 4th Oct 2015 7:00pm
Best known is this image supposedly looking through to Butcher Row but it has problems. 1) It doesn't show the spire of Holy Trinity. 2) It looks Dutch to me 3) Although there are some similarities with the layout, the row is further back than the map. The building on the left doesn't closely match what I believe was at that point.
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Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
Helen F
Warrington |
183 of 975
Sun 4th Oct 2015 7:38pm
One I'd love to be right is this image but the image was designed and executed in copper engraving by David Gee in about 1825
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Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
Rob Orland
Historic Coventry |
184 of 975
Sun 4th Oct 2015 7:55pm
I wonder if this link will be of any help https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=not-forgotten ? You'd probably not think to look there for it, on the "not Forgotten" article page about the IRA bomb, but it's as accurate an overlay as I've ever managed using Google Maps with a well scaled 1937 street map, so it gives some idea of how the pre-war Broadgate stood in relation to the modern day. I used Trinity church, St. Michael's and the Nat West bank as markers.
Regarding the series of pictures above, it's probable that the Coventry Cross images show the surrounding buildings in a rather "stylised" way, and not necessarily accurate. However, the 1807 map extract below does indeed show the pre-1820s Broadgate (dead centre) (that's not a modern observation!) as very narrow - but opening out northwards into a fairly wide square around the area of the former cross before entering Cross Cheaping.
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Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
Helen F
Warrington |
185 of 975
Sun 4th Oct 2015 10:00pm
You mean 'west side'? That's a great photo (one of the earliest) but it's closer to Cross Cheaping than the sketch and the arch is the road into the market. It was demolished and turned into a normal roadway. It was doubly confusing because there was a second arch, almost identical further to the left. That survived much longer and can be seen in this photo.
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Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
flapdoodle
Coventry |
186 of 975
Mon 5th Oct 2015 6:35pm
Those images of Broadgate are quite painful to look at.
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Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
Rob Orland
Historic Coventry |
187 of 975
Mon 5th Oct 2015 8:04pm
On 4th Oct 2015 10:00pm, Helen F said:
You mean 'west side'?
Whoops a daisy! Yes, I got my compass bearings all in a muddle!!! ![]() ![]() |
Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
Helen F
Warrington |
188 of 975
Mon 5th Oct 2015 9:01pm
I'm glad it's not just me mixing up NSEW ![]() |
Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
flapdoodle
Coventry |
189 of 975
Mon 5th Oct 2015 10:46pm
It doesn't really compare. All that's missing from Broadgate today is a Russian president standing on the balcony and a few missile carriers driving past while the gathered communism leaders salute.
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Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
Osmiroid
UK |
190 of 975
Tue 6th Oct 2015 12:03am
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Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
Skybluedave
Crewe |
191 of 975
Tue 6th Oct 2015 1:49pm
I haven't visited the City centre in 30 years, so my question is............. where has all the grass gone?? |
Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
Helen F
Warrington |
192 of 975
Tue 6th Oct 2015 2:42pm
If you look on Google street view you can see what it was like - two patches of grass either side of a big walkway, bounded on three sides by a busy bus route. Maybe I'm biased because the first time I came back to Coventry and saw it, there was an event going on with stalls of things to eat. I thought it looked much more pleasant. It was doubly nice because the gloomy canopy had gone. |
Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
Annewiggy
Tamworth |
193 of 975
Tue 6th Oct 2015 5:24pm
I think I am biased to the 60's Broadgate. I liked the fact that the buses went into Broadgate and took you to the heart of the shopping centre and easy to get home after a night out. |
Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
Midland Red
|
194 of 975
Tue 6th Oct 2015 6:00pm
On 6th Oct 2015 1:49pm, Skybluedave said:
I haven't visited the City centre in 30 years, so my question is............. where has all the grass gone??
Here it is ![]() |
Streets and Roads - Broadgate | |
Skybluedave
Crewe |
195 of 975
Tue 6th Oct 2015 7:28pm
Many thanks for sharing the photo Cliff, it's more or less how I remember Broadgate. Don't remember any canopy though.
I'm inclined to agree with previous comments regarding the slab manufacturer's paradise and the missing Russian military. I can understand making the area traffic-free, but did they have to remove the greenery - unless the Corporation lawnmowers and tree loppers were too expensive to maintain and have been sold off?
I will be visiting Coventry at the end of this month for a few days and will probably need to prepare myself for a few surprises. |
Streets and Roads - Broadgate |
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