Aerial views of Coventry

Thank you Philip, just the job to ponder over.

The council destroyed more of Coventry than the Nazis, IMHO. The blitzing just damaged/destroyed buildings, the council demolished a lot for no reason and also made fundamental changes to the flow of people that have created a some what difficult city to redevelop and regenerate.

Superb Philip As Dutchman says they are already on the Britain from Above site but it's great to see them in full-screen size glory

Re the Westwood Heath picture, is this some sort of WW2 establishment, an army camp, hospital or POW camp? I'Ve discounted prefabs because didn't they have flat roofs? At least the one that I was born in did. And where approximately was the site?

I would suggest the Westwood Heath picture is in fact Charter Avenue, showing the newly built BISF houses, with Wolfe Road running across the centre.

Adrian, spot on It's funny I didn't recognise it yet if I had a £1 for every time I'd been along Wolfe Rd!!!

Had the planners/developers not started to clear areas of central Coventry, slums and old buildings that were not worth a dime, where would all of the people and the mass of cars which were inevitable have parked, and how would they have managed to get through old cobbled streets. Was old Coventry capable of coping with the ingress of workers and their families from all over the British Isles? Between 1931 and 1971, the population almost doubled. Something had to give and whatever replaced the originals was never going to please everybody, didn't and still doesn't. The redevelopment isn't for old stooges like you, me, MR, Admiral Lord Philip, Rob the bike et al. The city has to face a future that does not include anything from Coventry's illustrious industrial past. It has to redefine its identity, and it can't do that by slotting new stuff in-between crumbling relics of bygone ages that were or are being held together with nostalgia and garden twine.

Hi Mike & thank you for that A classic example of redevelopment is to compare our school world atlases of the fifties to Google maps of today. At school, I could recite most of the African countries, but I have hardly a clue nowadays.

Welcome to my world, Mike H, only mine is 40 yrs. come September not 14. I so rely on the cluey members to put me on the right road so to speak and find the Britain from above is brilliant, but when you were younger we/I didn't take a lot of notice of your surroundings at the time and now I try to see where 'I was at'! As you say much has changed and the Google map street views can be as confusing as my brain. My father's Standard was at Banner Lane. All the best to you.

It's not true that 'no one wanted' it. And problems caused by growth could have been addressed without so much destruction. It's a well known fact that much of the destruction after the war in the UK was needless and done for political reasons - in many cases properties weren't even surveyed properly, just marked for destruction based on narrow criteria such as 'outside toilet' and it was probably cheaper to refurbish than demolish and rebuild (many of the most desirable parts of London are old houses). Most of Coventry was destroyed to make way for the ring road, which was an over-engineered solution and has had some fairly destructive side effects (the original plan in the 1930s was for a surface level road that would have remained connected to the city's urban grid) and arterial routes that were once lined with businesses are now empty streets or just areas that have been cleared and never redeveloped. if anything, it's the current city that 'no one wants' - with its half empty precinct, empty buildings & empty sites. No one wanted the Leofric Hotel (it's student flats now and the ballroom is mothballed) and no one wanted the Owen Owen department store (it's only half used). I'm more bothered by the changes of the urban fabric than the buildings - buildings always come and go, but they do so in response to the flow of people around the streets. This is where Coventry has a big problem, and comparing old aerial photos with new ones you can see how the old city formed a fairly well linked up series of streets and routes. I personally think is what needs to be addressed - there's no reason why the best of the post-war stuff can't live alongside the surviving old fragments, but it needs people to make it viable.

Agreed Flap - the ring road did some hugely unnecessary damage to the city. It's been discussed on here before as well that it was used as an excuse in many parts to remove buildings that could have remained. The pedestrianisation is failing indeed. Areas like Hertford Street need to allow traffic back through IMO to generate life.

Hertford Street was a bottleneck which allowed cars and vans and motorcycles to make life more difficult for the buses in Broadgate, and where did the vehicles go from there? Queue up to get into West Orchard, adding to congestion in the bottleneck called Cross Cheaping? Join the fray at the intersection of Trinity, Hales and Fairfax Street? It wasn't fun, that I do remember. Should it have been buses only? It was for a time, wasn't it, but people who lived on the side of the city which was serviced by Kenilworth and Leamington roads had cars, and I don't suppose the buses from Cheylesmore, Styvechale and Green Lane were the fullest buses you would ever see. If you want people back in the centre, you have to get them to live there, and that means HIGH RISE - arrgh - and nice views - double arrgh - and easy access, underground parking, good local entertainment, eating, security etc. You need a centrepiece too, a river or canal. Coventry has both and neither is impressive, so construct a faux river or canal and have recirculating water. Young Philip could run tours up and down what used to be Corporation Street, sailings on the hour and endless fun telling the punters where Elizabeth's cake shop used to be, and on the right is the site of the old CET, a local newspaper which existed in the good old days before electronic news served up on an iPad. How much will it all cost? Millions and no guarantee that all of the units will be taken or that anybody would care where Elizabeth's used to be, but it would look nice for a while, just like the new Precinct did before acid rain and grime took their toll.

Philip, do you realize how much time I've spent this evening looking at all those pictures? This interweb is "a black hole for time" once you get drawn into it eh? Mind you I've enjoyed every minute and ended up finding my birthplace 20+yrs before I was born there, so many thanks and keep up the good work. All I need to do now is convince my wife to stop looking at her old haunts and I can get some sleep!

Hi dreamtime, Hi Poetscorner, Yes, I am up & raring to go!