Broadgate

My sister informs me that the Singer sewing machine shop was still there in 1960 as she had an electric sewing machine from there for her 21st.

I remember if you had a date you would meet under the elephant or outside the fire station (Midland Red) or outside the gas showrooms on Corporation Street. It depended which bus they were coming to town on. On Saturday night you coudn't get near the elephant pole.

Memories, hey!

I happen to have an original 'press photo' of this, but although it's a nice large 9" x 7" photo, it's actually quite a poor quality image, sadly. I've blown up the middle part here though, centred around Broadgate and Trinity Street. Broadgate looks popular, doesn't it ! Incidentally, the press photo is stamped 20th Nov 1940, but quite obviously this picture was taken before the big raid. The marked date was probably when it was published, after deciding to use this image to show what Coventry had just lost.

I honestly don't see how this mess will ever be an improvement over what we had before! Why the council need yet "another" bland open space I don't know as they no longer organise any events in the city centre. We used to have the twice yearly Lifestyle shows, cooking displays, dancing, events for the Chinese New Year and St Georges Day. I could go on. Now, we have virtually zero. The switching on of the lights recently was nothing compared to what has been presented in previous years. Why oh why oh why?

I think 1960s Broadgate had character. It did actually look like the centre of the city. But that monstrosity with hexagonal towers and central arch? What the devil is that about? And it looks like yet another pedestrian only area; is it just a ploy to deny any wheeled vehicles anywhere near the city centre? City centres need easy access, or they wither and die. Remembering what Coventry centre was like 30 years ago, it was a bit of a marathon to get around it - all these wide open spaces take time to walk across and along, and can be bitterly cold when the weather is poor, tunnelling wind and rain onto the pedestrians. They put people off; people like to feel a bit comforted and intimate with the shops, not like they are in some vast futuristic architect's model. Then, on top, digging up what was a quite nice centre and making the mess in the photo just adds insult to injury.

What an eyesore Broadgate now is I thought it bad enough when they build Cathedral Lanes, but this takes the biscuit. I'm so glad I no longer go there, and not only Coventry has had its heart ripped out of the town either, Bedworth has done the same, is there a competition on who can build the worst monstrosity killing a town off or something, yes Dougie, you want a rebate, in fact you want free rooms to have to look out upon that, in fact you should be paid by the hotel with extras. Think if you went abroad and had a building site looking out on, you would get compensation. As Keith says about parking, on the radio they were talking about lots of towns losing customers, because of the parking fees, and the predestrians having to walk so far, why would anyone want to pay for parking, walk in drafty areas, or tire from the length from one shop to another, when they have retail parks close at hand in each area where you can buy more or less everything now, also where parking is free and shops compact close together to get out of the rain and wind and not much walking from one shop to another.

I think it was an attempt to recreate Broadgate Castle?

It still is Keith. On Thursday the market was not only closed but locked and bolted on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. I had to walk the length of Sherbourne Arcade twice, Lower Precinct, Market Way, Shelton Square, Bull Yard, Hertford Street, Upper Precinct, West Orchard, Smithford Way and still couldn't find the items I needed!

I don't know Sherbourne Arcade - after my time. There have been letters in our local press about small shops closing - a related issue. I wanted a hairbrush early last year. I went into every likely shop in the town we usually shop in - zilch! Ladies' ones aplenty, but no men's ones. (Don't men use them now? ) I had no choice but to get one off the net - I wasn't going to pay around £4.50 to park in Norwich, nearly a gallon of fuel, all to buy a brush costing a few quid. Someone else commented about offhand service in a small specialist shop, so they went online. No wonder town/city centres are dying. (Norwich - a traditional centre still, mostly - is doing quite well, however, and we now go in by Park and Ride bus - cheaper and less hassle. And people actually LIKE traditional shops!) "Broadgate Castle" looks like a sandcastle with windows, doesn't it? Do they employ amateur architects in Coventry now? A city is defined by its buildings; they are the face it shows to the world. With buildings like that one, they must be trying to frighten people away.

It's a comparatively recent addition which provides a shortcut from the Lower Precinct to the circular market, Keith.

As opposed to Market Way? I thought there was more than one way through anyway, wasn't there?

Sherbourne Arcade runs from the middle of the Lower Precinct to the market. It saves walking the long way around and is also full of new shops, toilets and a cafe.

Holy Trinity wasn't visible from Broadgate in the 1930s at all. It wasn't until Butcher Row was bulldozed to make way for Trinity Street that it became visible for the first time!

Yes, but at least Butcher Row was easy on the eye! Buildings like Broadgate Sandcastle are much taller than old buildings, too, so obscure even more, and have a far greater impact on the overall landscape. As well as invoking eyestrain.....