Broadgate

But that is exactly my point, Dreamtime. That isolated central island was not welcoming at all, nor was it accessible. It was a completely wasted space in the middle of chaotic traffic. It was completely inconvenient and nothing more than a huge obstacle. Its removal, and opening the area up for people to move around, is a far better arrangement. I believe city centres are for people, not traffic. Can you imagine the gridlock if there had been no change since the 60s? I agree that people need to be able to get into central areas but bus access is still there for the city. It is just difficult for us drivers, and parking prohibitively expensive, and that is what needs to be addressed. It is a difficult balance for sure, but it is better than it was.

1984... Coventry was suffering from the after effects of the recession (as were many other places) but the city suffered more than other cities due to the lack of diversity in its local economy and a population that had migrated here to work and, in some cases, just migrated away again. The opening of the NEC drew all the music acts away from city centre venues, which probably didn't help. The new restaurants on Broadgate have livened it up a lot, I hope they fill the rest of the building out, and I agree with Mr D Di that it's far better as a place where people can go unhindered by traffic than a garden. The carefully framed photographs hide the undeveloped sides of the square very well. The problem with Broadgate is that none of the original plans ever happened, leaving it incomplete up until the 1980s. Right until the 1960s when they abandoned plans for Coventry the area was going to be turned into a square lined by buildings with a route to the Cathedral. This would have involved demolishing the rest of the High Street and also the County Court, both of which we would not dream of doing now. The original plans in the 1980s for Cathedral Lanes show a new lane lined with small shop units leading from Broadgate to the Cathedral Quarter. Parking is cheap and easy in Coventry, and it appears to be in surplus at the moment. It costs us (4) a couple of pounds to park for a few hours. Using the buses would cost us all over ten pounds each way. It's not even an option.

Two things I think about from recent posts, I know it was a while ago, but in my day, 50's 60's early 70's Broadgate I thought worked very well, especially for the buses. I do not recall there being 2 way traffic around Broadgate, was that in fact the case, that in early days traffic was 2 way. I do feel for city planners, it is very difficult to get it right. Many of us all want different things. There is always the unintended consequences also, which can be very difficult to predict.

I`m glad you said that slash1, my contribution to the "two way debate" is that it was definitely one way after approx. 1955/6 when my father was teaching me to drive in a 1936 Morris 8 Tourer, you may know the one with yellowing side windows, nearly opaque, imagine a learner driver approaching this busy island around 5pm (rush hour even in those days), darkish wet weather, coming up High Street from the Council House, getting on to the island and meeting the traffic coming in from the left up Hertford Street. "What do I do here Dad?" "Keep on going" "But I can`t see them" "Just keep on going, they`ve got to keep out of your way!!!" I did - and survived - just. I`m not sure traffic was required by law to give way on an island to traffic approaching from the right in those days. NB - My father had never driven a car - he held a motor bike licence, which was all that was required in those days. I was in the Merchant Navy at that time and was allowed to arrange and take the test in any nearby suitable town - I took mine in Rugby - turned out to be a tester sent over from Coventry. One thing I never learned as an L driver, was how to overtake, i.e. that you had to gather speed and if you were driving an old puddle jumper like me - that was an oxymoron, there was no chance of gathering and speed was for the birds, in fact some of them could fly faster, anyway, sufficient to say - flushed with success, I had a go at overtaking a lorry on the way home to Coventry - got nearly half way along it and then paused to dive for cover in the face of an approaching vehicle. My wife, when she took her test 1967/8/9/? (one of those dates - she passed first time - so did I, my brother didn`t and he`d been driving as an" L" driver during the Suez crisis without an accompaniment); as I was saying, my wife when asked at the end of it by the examiner, "Mrs Turner, if you had to take the test again, what wouldn`t you do again?" "Chop up lorries" was her reply. Do you remember when you came out of the Barracks car park, straight across Queen Victoria Road, to a big island under the ring road, there was a slip road coming down from the top deck to meet the island, she was 1/4 way round, lorry coming down the slip road apparently intent on arriving at that point before she did - the reason for the examiner`s question was the squeal of lorry brakes as my wife made clear her intention to maintain her right of way. She was taught that way, not particularly to be aggressive, but she was required by her teacher to get across the traffic lights and be in a higher gear by the time she got to the far side. Oh! he reinforced his instructions with a ruler which he would apply across the learner driver`s knuckles if she didn`t comply.

That's a thought Slash1, I don't ever remember Broadgate being 2-way, not in my history anyway. I am sure one of our 'wise ones' here on the Forum will enlighten you.

Just looked at a silent film from 1950 on the Broadgate topic which shows Broadgate as one way I can't really see how it ever could have been two way as it was just a very large traffic island.

I have a feeling my parents told me that Broadgate was two-way when it was first established with the island in the middle. It has to be said that at that time my father was not a driver though, so he may have been mistaken. Once it became three-sided it was two way, certainly at the time I lived in Broadgate. High Street was still two way at that time, I believe, and was total chaos at times. I recall one Sunday morning when we were leaving home and were stopped by some stroppy policewoman. She said we weren't allowed in Broadgate in a car and said it was buses only, citing the signs. I said that the sign actually said 'buses and for access only' and that we were using access to our home. She refused to believe we lived in Broadgate, at which point I took her number and said I was reporting her. Fortunately there was a sensible copper nearby who agreed with us and apologised for his over-zealous rookie colleague.

Spot on Mick. It started just as a large island.

Lovely, thank you Osmiroid.

Yes, this was my point at post #383. It was a large area right in the middle of the city that was effectively wasted as nobody could get near it. Far better for it to have been brought into use. The only people who ever went on that green were 'well refreshed' people on Saturday nights. Which did include me a few times in the early 70s, as I recall....

How far back do you people want to go? I remember when there was no Island, and it was all cobblestones with only tram lines running through it, and even then it was three sided, can't remember when the island first appeared, I would guess 36 time when they altered Butcher Row and built Trinity Street, and I have never known two way traffic in Broadgate. When I was a kid it seemed half of Coventry was cobblestoned, with little lanes like the Cathedral lanes, narrow alleyways, with houses that had overhanging top floors, on dull days it was quite 'spooky' for a kid to walk round such places, you felt like someone was going to lean out the window and hoist you up. The lane in front of the Council House was very narrow with tall buildings and with those statues looking right down on you, you felt you were back in Leofric days. But I loved it.

Broadgate island wasn't opened until 1948 Kaga. There was definitely two-way traffic in Broadgate before that as you can see here:

dutchman, only if you count Broadgate as a street and it was never that, in those days the tram lines acted as an island, the traffic never crossed the tramlines and turned left at Hertford Street, the traffic here is doing exactly the same as today, running from the top of Trinity Street up to High Street and round clockwise back down to the Burges, the Burges and Trinity Street were two way, so was High St and Hertford St. If I remember correctly traffic coming into town up Hertford St could not turn right to High St, they had to go to Owen Owens and do a u-turn, thus Broadgate was one way clockwise.