New Buildings

I was thinking of this thread as I walked past today, so very sad at what has happened to a useful street. It survived the centuries, it survived the nazis, but it didn't survive the council (except for the use of Nandos customers)

Have to say as mentioned in another thread - I picked my eldest up the other week from Nandos on a Sunday night - it looked really nice around there.

Yes, it is very sad what happened to many useful streets. I sometimes get the feeling we are now paying for the destruction of the city's network of streets. Great job on the refurbished 'New Buildings', but the view down that street is fairly typical now.

It's like they finished off what they started in 1936 - they got Ironmonger Row, they got LBR, they got Butcher Row but at least we've still got New Buildings, one of the old routes to Pool Meadow. But now we haven't.

Was the Alhambra a listed building?

No, you have Trinity St instead, which is a much straighter and coherent route to exactly the same place. As far as I'm concerned rather than them try and get Palmer Lane to work is for them to just seal it off to the public entirely and use it for deliveries, and thus stop people using it as a shortcut allowing them to avoid the more prominent Hales St and Burges.

That depends if a person thinks all the destruction to get a too wide nothing happening place like Trinity Street was worth it. You could connect everything to everything else by direct as the crow flies routes but it would cause so much destruction just to achieve a characterless city centre.

Why would it be characterless? When I was growing up Trinity St was a hive of movement and people. With all the traffic and buses it certainly didn't feel too wide - in fact sometimes it felt too narrow for everything going on - buses barely able to pass on another, constantly bumping into people on the pavement as you tried to get between the people looking in the shops and those waiting for the buses. Imagine all that trying to head down New Buildings? New Buildings at that time was a back street for deliveries and to be avoided at all costs as it was narrow and hidden away.

But it was hardly a "barrier" given that there were numerous gaps - one at every bus stop

I remember distinctly in the late 50's to early 60's when catching my homeward bound bus in Broadgate I never saw anyone at any time cross over the grass and there were no fences around that island at all. That was one of the reasons I liked Broadgate at the time, but given time I daresay it would have been abused one way or another by someone with no respect for the area or the law.

Yes, if you ever crossed Broadgate you walked round the edge of the green. Except on New Years Eve of course, when it was all up on the horse.

I was in Broadgate countless times in the 1960's and cannot recall anyone crossing over to the green, and certainly not walking round it's edge. It was after all a very busy traffic roundabout - not a park. I am not suggesting that nobody crossed over but it was certainly not the norm. People do not generally cross roads over roundabouts in my experience and this one was no different to any other. Also I seem to recall fences on the outside of the road, not a total ring of steel but certainly not making it easy to wander across, which would have done at a person's own peril in my opinion.

There were no gaps in the fence at the two most obvious crossing points, Hertford Street and Trinity Street. I think the fence extended all the way down to Ironmonger Row on the Trinity Street side and down to the Empire cinema on the Hertford Street side. Also there was no staircase option on the east side of Trinity Street so it meant a long walk up and down the ramp near the library. For women with pushchairs or people in wheelchairs the options were even worse.

Then could it be people had a little more respect for their city, and for each other, and it was a different era. I never heard anyone complain about walking around the streets or in wheelchairs having to manipulate awkward places, we tend to forget, you could pick a strange child up in your arms to get a better view of something, without a problem in those days, now I hate how we have become a nation where 'this' is no longer a decent gesture. Our one life becomes many, more for some than others. When I was a child I absolutely adored Coventry, to come into town either by tram or bus, was a thrill, the sights and sounds the smells of the shops and markets, the people so warm affectionate and friendly, the thought of being harmed was never a thought, if I fell, friendly hands would help me up. As I became older it was still the same, wander into town, gaze at the things I could not afford, without feeling I had to have. I think that is a thing of the past for present kids, The war came and it became even more a people of warmth, and togetherness. And then the times I went away, to alight at Coventry Station, and breathe a great sigh of home. Through out the fifties I lived near the city centre, most time I skipped through there would be a friendly wave or shout, but gradually buildings became uglier, people drifted, times changed, people became harder, no longer the friendly wave from the street vendor, and new cultures ousted the old, I suppose I really didn't want to accept. and I changed into another life. But Coventry will always bring back great memories for me. and rightfully my home.

Does anyone know why the name 'New' Buildings? My 1900 map still has it labelled as that so it's hardly new is it! I can see on Rob's maps that it was called that even as far back as 1807. Guessing they weren't very imaginative when they created the road from what appears to have been a way through to what was called Priory Lane from Butcher Row.