Broadgate

The good old days, eh, Philip..

It's no wonder that you and I have very different views re Coventry. By the late 80's, the party was well over. Saturday mornings in the 50's, 60's and early 70's, it was like everybody descended on the centre. You could almost hear the people in their homes all say in unison "Going off to town now", the noise of knives and forks hitting plates in Woolies Cafeteria could be heard in Bayley Lane. There were times when I don't doubt that somebody said "Gotta get a bigger Precinct"

You missed all of the fun, arriving as late as you did. I actually suspect that you might have hated it because it was so crowded and full of traffic.

Nope, I love city centres that are busy and full of crowds. Cities that aren't like that have something wrong with them.

You should have arrived earlier then, when Coventry was enjoying its hey-days, Ring Road and all.

Not a very clear picture but the name Salmon & Gluckstein can be seen on the shop on the left.

A great picture Anne, I wonder what they are looking at

There's a procession of some kind from the council house to Broadgate with people in ceremonial costume and the whole pavement cordoned off.

EXCELLENT docu on Mods v Rockers the other day on BBC4 featured the generation of mods & rockers being interviewed, and I noticed a 'blink-and-you-will-miss-it' moment of a picture that features Broadgate in the background! Shows people being filmed from the balcony at the top of Broadgate (when Ernest Jones jewellers now stands) Sorry for quality of picture, had to snap it quickly, and apologies if the picture has been shown elsewhere on this forum!

Thanks Dutchman, yes I can see now they are on the pavement, and not out on the road, perhaps a council procession, pity the shop awnings aren't up to keep them dry. Avaguen

I was born in the 1970s... My Dad did go on a school trip to Coventry during the 1950s apparently, to look at the new shopping precinct and an uncle of mine worked on the Owen Owen building. (I'm not sure if he meant pre-war or post-war.) By the time I arrived it was a truly depressing place - as were many British cities back then, including Birmingham. However, some have moved on and are barely recognisable from then. Coventry has struggled due to its lack of diverse skills in the population and the 20th century reliance on a single industry. My fellow students couldn't really wait to finish and leave. However, the Poly students were far more tolerant than those at Warwick (I did a year there) who were almost afraid of Coventry - I never saw any trouble as a student (Others did) but you did have to go 'out' of the city for gigs and shopping. Although my group of friends were quite happy to chill out in the Hand and Heart with the local folks rather than the student union... Having said that, I had a great time at the Poly, but even stuff from those days has gone - and with it some of the character and characters that made the place a bit more interesting than now. The 'public realm improvements' without subsequent new businesses to liven the place have made the centre feel somewhat dull and empty. Almost as if it's been tarted up and waiting for people to arrive...

Could the newsvendor have been Rabin, I had a feeling he took over from Devlin, I also remember seeing Rabins down near where Pool Meadow used to be, bottom of Trinity Street, but in that row of new shops that runs on new wide road that ran parallel to Pool Meadow. Reading further on wasn`t Thorntons opposite the Hippodrome? or was there more than one. The Estate Agents that inhabited the corner by Devlins, was Golden Key run by Mike Benfield (Approx 1967 onwards?), perhaps it was even the Lyons shop he inhabited?

I haven't seen this image posted before, which I believe shows the subway under Trinity St to Owen Owen under construction. I'm intrigued about how the buses got from the stop in the foreground to the far side? There's a few other interesting images on the same site.

Two video's of the Christmas Lights here and here PS. After looking at the video's they don't look half as good as seeing them for real yourself