Broadgate

Yes, Broadgate was spectacular in the 60's, a brilliant place for buses, and was I glad that buses from my side of the city used it. I hated the walk up Trinity Street if ever I had to make the climb. If it was me, I would put it all back just the way that it was, but that would offend many people who liked pre-war Coventry or who like Cathedral Lanes now.

Coventry and it's people were full of hope in the 60's and didn't complain like people do now. It looked like a place that was ready to do business, not a Georgian/Victorian/Edwardian relic. Coventry's precinct may have lacked the class of Leamington Spa or Stratford, but it was more affordable and you could get anything and everything. There may well have been more than a few who didn't particularly like the 'Festival of Britain' style, but they were doing too well to care that much.

It's a pity that it was all lost, and not just in Coventry, but when we were offered a more convenient way of shopping and free parking, we all grabbed it. Now, many buy from the Internet, and there will come a time when the plazas and strip malls disappear too, but we will still have our memories of our favourite Coventry and maybe that is how it should be, like a childhood passed, my childhood, not yours.

I think removing buses from Broadgate was a mistake. I'd personally open it up to traffic again, maybe during the evenings only, so people can park outside the restaurants. Coventry in the 1960s was full of money, not hope. Too much money according to a government report (and it wasn't a compliment.) Correct me if I'm wrong, but in old photos one side of Broadgate is the back of the remains of High Street, and the other side is a load of those shacks. Then it seems to change to be a fragment of the High Street and a scrap of wasteground with trees on it. What would you do? Could they have relocated some of the fake medieval buildings to form a row along the backside of the High Street? Or just demolished the rest of the High Street and the County Court like they proposed in the 1930s?

Some did. There was always one old geezer who used to moan that everything they were doing to the city was wrong and it would never be as good a place to live in again. I gradually became him!

The photo is approx 1931. Shame you lost your photo, it sounds like a real gem.

Here are a few pre-WWII images

Haven't seen that pic before. So Broadgate House itself is the crap I guess. I quite like 50's Architecture, it's generally honest and unpretentious and functions well, although I accept it's a bit heavy handed glueing it onto the original Bank Building, even if it is pretending to be a Greek Temple.

They could remove the bridge and give the former bank its full freedom. The strange question to my way of thinking would be: Why would they NOT do it?

Here I am downunder and still putting in my two pennuth! so I hope you don't mind, I have always loved Broadgate and absolutely agree with what you all say. Loved it in the 60's, so convenient for everybody, used to be the hub of Coventry to me. Once they started to take the heart out of it nothing was the same again. All for the price of progress and modern ideas. You can't please all the people all of the time and they wouldn't listen to me. he he ah ah ha!!!! I hope they do open it up again, breathe a bit of the old life back into it. PS. Who polishes those lovely silver doors? They were a great meeting place in my day or under the elephant. Avaguden everyone

Midland Red. Your picture 16 is the Broadgate I knew until I was 13, it never seemed to alter in those days, and if you wanted something, you knew where to go and what price it would be, and the shop would close on the minute it stated, and knew it would be the same price in any like shop so you never felt 'done'. There was no lights or crossings, you just walked across streets, except where the 'Bobby' stood. It always gave me the feeling of warmth and friendly people. But what I liked best, when it really rained the cobble stones shone, Broadgate looked like a lake and the water ran down the Burges and Trinity Street in rivulets. You always knew the time, you only had to look up, and some shop had a clock showing the accurate time. If the cameraman had turned round I'm sure he would have seen Osmiroid's picture.

Yes, the clocks. In older times fewer people had a wrist or pocket watch. I've just checked on the inflation calculator and a wrist watch bought for me as a Christmas present in 1954 was £4 19 6d. Inflation suggests that would be around £136 in today's money. Parish churches rang the chimes so people working in the fields would know what time it was.

Broadgate as it was on Saturday 12th December 2015, sorry about the quality but the video is just off a camera - if you would like to look

Thank you Dougie, I would have liked to have taken a walk round there. Merry Christmas.

THE SHAME OF COVENTRY 22 OCT 1949 THIS STATUE PLACED HERE TO SYMBOLISE THE REGENERATION OF COVENTRY AFTER THE BOMBING AND OPPRESSION Placed to be seen from all sides of Broadgate - now hidden under TAXable trading huts and fairground amusements, impossible to see unless within a foot of the statue, turned to face out of Broadgate and backside to the Spires, completely neglected and left to decay. An utter disgrace and disrespect. DAMN YOU PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE

Sorry Kaga you feel like that about the Christmas Broadgate as we've been coming down every Christmas for years long before the new Broadgate opened, why is it regular visitors see the changes to the city in a much better light than others that live there, I hope I see it in the next two years when all the changes have taken place

I don't think Kaga is referring to anything to do with Christmas, dougie - more what has happened to the Broadgate island, and the Lady Godiva statue in particular, that he remembers from years ago