Broadgate

To some extent I agree, although just rebuilding what was there before wholesale isn't really economically viable because it doesn't offer the necessary floorspace or meet certain requirements. Plus it would be a bit of a waste of an opportunity and led to an even further decline of the economic importance of the city. York may look lovely, but considering its economic importance now from its medieval powerbase, perhaps it should have made a few more concessions to a bit of modernisation along the way? Coventry embraced it all a bit too much and now we've come de-sensitised to the starkness of modern/brutalist architecture. But if it were just a handful of them I think they'd be looked upon quite fondly, a bit like the Victorian architecture in the city which, despite being unremarkable, is much loved because it's relatively rare. There's also quite a lot of older buildings still in Coventry as a whole and even the city centre itself, but they're very spread out and tourists don't want to wander around looking for the odd gem here and there. Rebuilding 'as was' wouldn't be necessary if authentic originals elsewhere, which may be proving a barrier to regeneration in situ, could be moved into a central 'preservation zone', somewhere around the Cathedral quarter (my own personal preference being around Greyfriars Lane to complement Ford Hospital and create a tourist/history trail between the three spires). It's similar to how Spon St came about but on a grander scale and more prominent. It would provide easily accessible access to Coventry's history, boosting the tourist trade, and in some cases could perhaps be a working museum, like a Watchmaker's Cottage for example, with others used for independent businesses harnessing the increased tourism. It wouldn't be feasible with everything of course, and context would be lost, but I think it would prolong the life of these buildings by giving them a new economic use, allow regeneration elsewhere and add some atmosphere and historic character back into the city centre.

As for the new square, when I first saw it on a sunny day just after opening, I thought it looked quite clean and uncluttered, even tranquil without the traffic (although it having more tarmac patchwork than the one they'd just dug up annoyed me immensely!). Then I saw it on a wet and windy day and God it felt bleak. The square and the buildings around it looked so drab I felt I was in Communist Russia or something. And it's eerily quiet if it isn't busy without the background traffic noise, almost intimidating even. Then I thought, what it'll look like in five years, with even more tarmac patchwork, and uneven due to tree roots, and I just shook my head. If this is the showcase for the city, then the message we want to give is dull, unimaginative and cheap

As Jaytob mentioned earlier, the tarmac "patchwork" is temporarily filling the areas reserved for electric hook-up points. But I do agree about the whole area appearing a little "bleak". I'm going to reserve final judgement until its totally completed.

I was very fortunate as I was able to be a stay-at-home mum whilst Tony worked, and I never minded having to catch a bus into town. If I missed one there was always another due not long after and I always got off in Broadgate. Pity, it will never be the same again. Anyway, walking kept us ladies slim in those days, didn't have to worry about 'working out' in some gym. I must have walked miles pushing a pram in my time. You were right about 'the school run', Beesman, I had never heard of it then !

I've read that they (Who? Council? Owners of CL?) have been trying to market the 'mall' for restaurant/food use. If you look at Broadgate now it's pretty clear CL is located in a dead spot that has very little footfall around it, and in the evenings it's an extremely dead space. If they can't let a restaurant unit at Belgrade Plaza (which has its own car park, plus a theatre that attracts people) then I can't see much hope for this spot! I always thought the best thing to do would be to open it up and link it to the Cathedral Quarter properly - didn't an old lane used to run from Broadgate down past the library to the Cathedral area? Replicate that sort of linkage and make it obvious it goes somewhere, rather than the current route that has poor line of sight. It's a strange and oddly planned thing and the backside facing the Cathedral quarter is an absolute abomination. What was designed as a 'mall' for tourists didn't even have any frontage or proper entrance facing the Cathedral, apart from the restaurant that lasted about six months! All IMHO.

Some good points flapdoodle

Hi all Annie Othen, on her local radio show at 9am, devoted an hour this morning to the subject of shopping foot-fall. The latest stats show a further slide in city centre retail sales in the West Midlands. Her guests could have been reading scripts off this thread of ours. The cost of parking, travel and the lack of convenience with parking, all given as part of the problem, as well as competition from out of town and internet.

Coventry MP Geoffrey Robinson says city is 'desolate'

Thanks for the above MR. Glad to know we are not alone, but I fear it is too late to save the 'inner city' now. Perhaps some bright spark in the upper chambers will come up with a brave new idea to give the city a new life!!!!!! Is Broadgate actually completed yet?

I never had much time for MPs yet this guy seems to know what he is on about.

It's his party that have been responsible for the mess it's in. I remember this came up 20 years ago in parliament and the response was 'bomb it again'. So nothing has changed apart from a series of pretty disastrous projects - plus the strange situation where small suburban street (Earlsdon) appears to have become the city's main centre for nightlife. I've lived in other cities, and Coventry is an absolute shambles, perhaps the worse city centre I've ever visited in the UK apart from maybe Plymouth. What always struck me was how it doesn't really have any sort of urban grid. There are no city 'streets' like those you have in Manchester, Leeds or Cardiff, just this awful precinct and a weird collection of dead ends or small streets without any real cohesion - weird empty spaces, terrible buildings that straddle the road, and a lot of places that just seem inaccessible and pointless that are bisected by the ring road. There are no busy streets on which people can set up businesses, just a weird dual carriageway that encircles the city centre for the benefit of people who want to bypass it, and it's surrounded by empty land and cheap buildings - and its exits just take you down empty roads to car parks or through roads that you can't really stop along anyway. It's left places inaccessible and economically unviable. The most astonishing area is Spon Street/Skydome and IKEA. That's a total and utter mess. Skydome's entrance faces IKEA's service areas and the backsides of the building on Spon Street. IKEA has a blank wall opposite a blank wall and a weird "IKEA plaza' that's vast and empty... This is a city centre yet it's all so lifeless and dreary and empty. Oh and Spon Street is just frankly horrible and poorly defined, with gaps in it. Plus the view from Spon Street is of the backside of the Lower Precinct (A towering grey wall). I think it's declined too far and been planned too badly to bring it back into life. I frankly find it an embarrassment and don't show visitors the city centre. We just take them to Leamington, Birmingham or Leicester. This is the problem. Coventry's city centre is perhaps redundant. Do we really need it?

I think while Coventry is encircled by that stupid 'by pass' the city centre is doomed. It needs to be lowered/raised and turned into a series of boulevards lined with buildings that can be used for residential or business purposes... Very much like the sort of boulevards you get in European city centres. As it stands it takes up too much space and the land around it is difficult to use in many places as its got poor access or is cut into strange shapes by the curved road. It's just destined to be filled up with the backsides of buildings which will make the city look terrible. The road as it stands is just not suited to such tight inner city centre use, as it provides no visual links to businesses and, even if it did, you can't stop on it. You have to negotiate the nearest exit and try to find where you're going to. It's more suited to fake cities like Milton Keynes than one like Coventry, that had a traditional series of routes and commercial areas that had built up due to the traffic and people flow. The ring road encourages nothing but getting around and out quickly, and those commercial areas and routes are now dead and empty. The fact the precinct was planned and does not encourage flow into the surrounding streets doesn't help. I know some people in Cov think the ring road is great, but it was built as a distributor and has become a bypass (Very few journeys on the ring road finish or start within the city centre.) Larger cities manage without a ring road like this, and other cities that built ring roads tended to keep the existing urban streets connected up - whereas Coventry pretty much obliterated most of it and IMHO the city has suffered as a consequence. (Bristol, for example.) I don't care if losing it means more traffic. This can be managed, and all it does at the moment is give a few seconds of speed before you hit the traffic on the suburban roads. An outer ring road would be far more sensible! The fact that nowhere else copied Coventry's so called 'ground breaking' post-war reconstruction speaks volumes to me about what people think of it - and in a number of cities they are busy reversing these sorts of mistakes. Birmingham is so much better since they started removing chunks of the ring road.

Broadgate 4.6.2012 Classic Coventry!

Thank you for that - what is classic Coventry is those ubiquitous metal safety barriers - isn't it time we had some nicely designed, colourful temporary barriers to use at these events?

Couldn't agree more, it looks like the building work is still in progress! I suppose the weather didn't help, but turnout looks a little disappointing