Canals around Coventry

Unusual view from a postcard looking up Bishop Street circa 1910 What's the building at the top of the road?

I am fairly certain these were the offices of the Canal company.

Bishop Street 1947. Old Grammar School at the bottom, Canal Basin top right

Interesting, always thought this area was a bit strange and illogical, with a lot of streets that don't go anywhere and some old houses perched on the hill at the back of Wickes. I'd been in Coventry for years and didn't even know there was a canal basin hidden away up there. Post copied from topic Bishop Street (incl. Bishop Gate) by Midland Red, 20th Dec 2013 9:51 am

This area was changed in the mid 1960's. When I started work in Sandy Lane the route into the city was down St Nicholas Street. It changed a few years later when they built the new bit of Radford Road. Even then I don't think I was aware that there was a canal basin. I had reason to go to the canal basin a few weeks ago. There is a nice little, reasonably priced friendly cafe down there and an available free car park.

I too was unaware of the basin until my early to mid twenties. I have been to the Tin Angel coal sheds a couple of times, which is a great little venue, and the apartments and old pub could useful as part of an entertainment area IMO. If it could be supported by a larger venue on the corner of the Ring Road it could make it much more noticeable, and maybe some studio style apartments for creative/artistic types. Making it a destination could see visitors by train then travelling north through the centre of Coventry to the entertainment destination creating footfall throughout the whole city centre, unlike stuff like Friargate which is much more likely to remain self contained - why would the developers want you to delve further into the city centre when its potential revenue going elsewhere? Of course the biggest problem for the basin is its disconnection from the centre due to the ring road. I think the proposed at level crossing would help, although I don't see why the council seem to think it has to be that OR the bridge - why not both? At the very least they could see which was used more and have some proof of people's preferences? The other thing which I think could help (and is unlikely to be popular here) is to remove the Leicester Row buildings, as they completely hide the basin away. I think the decision to conserve the canal area is a bit short sighted. I wrote a long critique of that plan when it was put forward, as the entire thing was obviously completely biased, exalting anything old and castigating anything new, and the end decision already reached. I asked questions of how preserving its industrial nature and heritage would help it be economically useful, but no answer was ever put forward.

Why would you remove Leicester Row? It'd just make it into another big empty space... Coventry has enough of those around the ring road! The problem isn't Leicester Row, the problem is the low quality developments this city is saddled with and the poor post-war planning and lack of streets plus the general lack of any reason to be anywhere near the canal basin. Look at Brindley Place, look at Coventry's pathetic canal basin. The huge difference is that Brindley Place is full of attractions that attract thousands of people, both day and night, whether it's for work of leisure. Our council don't appear to understand this. Time after time we get saddled with mediocre, half baked developments in out of the way locations where no one lives, no one works, and with no attractions. And then they wonder why they're empty and can't attract businesses. Ridiculous bunch. They don't seem to understand cities. It's like having a bunch of small town councillors in charge of a city. We need a bunch who won't get involved in legal problems with footballs and invest in things that people will go to in the centre... Not just build restaurant units that no one wants because of the lack of footfall! Get the people in and the rest follows naturally.

You're trying to solve the 'problem' the wrong way. The buildings in the canal basin are about the only decent thing about it, especially Leicester Row. Like a lot of the post-war city the area is a mish-mash of dead ends, dual carriageways and empty spaces cut into weird shapes - random blocks of flats and garages. Built up, enclosed areas are what make cities, not empty spaces in front of dual carriageways. Have you been to Camden or Brindley Place? Both very built up, very urban. If you find that sort of thing 'uninviting' maybe you should be living in Milton Keynes!

it saddens me to read on a historic website some of the posts about Coventry canal basin and demolishing the buildings in Leicester Row just to open it up. We fought for many years to keep Coventry canal and its buildings long before the tourist industry, trendy bars and eateries were thought of. Unfortunately the geographical location of our basin doesn't make it an ideal place for bars and eateries, too far from the city centre, unlike Birmingham which flows right into the centre, which has made it a fabulous tourist venue. The Coventry basin lends itself more to canal history and anyone who was interested in canal history would know exactly where to find it without the need for getting rid of historic buildings

Agree entirely, mickw - if anything should go, it should be the ring road, which created the need to close Radford Road/St Nicholas Street and Leicester Row/Foleshill Road as through roads passing by the canal basin - the new ring road spurs which replaced them isolated the basin almost completely. The planners once again did absolutely no favours in terms of retaining access to an important part of Coventry's history, and making it a tourist attraction for all to enjoy

Hi A golden opportunity was missed to help commercialise for public facility, when a tangible scheme to open up a shopping development at the canal basin, not a white elephant, was turned down by, it is alleged, protesters, to run a metro style tramway from Earlsdon via the city centre & terminating at the canal basin. The funding to do this was allocated & all in place. Central Six was further developed instead. A former councillor told me this & I saw documents.

Hi all, I feel I must add to my previous post about my passion for the Coventry Canal. Over 40 years ago my brother who sadly is no longer with us convinced me to join him and other volunteers to renovate the canal system and buildings. We had no idea then that canals would become as popular as they are today. I now consider this a tribute to people like my brother who stuck at it whereas I didn't due to working away. It`s also great to see distinguished high profile actors like Timothy West and David Suchet supporting our canal heritage. In fairness to Coventry Council they also wouldn't have known how popular the canals were to become when they had the ring road built in the 60s/70s. I think a lot more could have been done with the Admiral Codrington instead of just leaving it to fester for years, a good opportunity missed. Over the years I`ve attended classic car meetings and boat rallies amongst other events at the canal basin but no one from these events bothered with the Codrington. It was either closed or just didn't have any appeal from its looks and when we did go in were made to feel unwelcome. Sorry to go on but a lot of people put a lot of time and effort into our canal heritage, only to be let down by others

Canal basin 1949