Broadgate

Hi all, on Tuesday I went into the city centre for the first time in a couple of months and was pleasantly surprised. I alighted from the no.20 bus in Trinity Street and walked up to Broadgate. The last few times I've walked towards Broadgate I have been disappointed by the mess the city centre was in. However, on Tuesday I was delighted to see the grass in front of Holy Trinity Church, the work wasn't completely finished but the flowers and grass certainly brightened the area up and brought the church to the forefront. As I walked further towards Broadgate I was disappointed to see all the paving slabs but thought the trees might look good when they have matured. The mature trees and flowers in the Precinct look lovely. Are there plans to have flowers in Broadgate, hanging baskets, pots etc?

Hi Tricia, hi all I was in Broadgate on Wednesday too. I'm not going to over criticise too much yet, as I hope to be still alive when the Corporation St and Fleet St development takes place. What I saw in Broadgate was at least tidy. Coventry has given me a very good living and I want to see our city in good shape. My grandson (15) has been attending his first work experience this week, right in the civic centre, as near to Broadgate as you can get without being in it, so I popped along to wish him well.

It's good to see Broadgate full of people for the Armed Forces Day parade today!

My first look at the (almost) completed work in Broadgate, and I have to say I'm quite impressed with what they've done I particularly like the area in front of Holy Trinity at the top of Trinity Street Here's how the view has changed over the last 60 odd years
A postcard sent in 1950

A scan of a transparency I took in 1965

Another of my photos, dated Jan 2010

And one from this morning

My first impression of the work done in Broadgate to make it traffic-free.

I wonder if they will ever remove the barriers that are surrounding the flowers at the base of the Godiva statue. It gives the new space an unfinished feel.

I keep on wondering exactly the same thing - if they insist on keeping people away from the statue, the least they should do is provide attractive or decorative railings. These things just look like the temporary barriers used for holding back crowds at various events.

Hi all Some pictures recorded this morning. I do hope that you like. Midland Red opened this stage of our thread on Broadgate with comments about being quite impressed. So am I.

Have they finally removed the awful barriers from round Godiva, Philip? I emailed the Council about them and was informed on Monday they were going to surround the statue with cobbles to stop the skate-boarders. That should make quite a difference to the look.

They were not there this morning.

Did you notice if they had done the cobbles?

Hi all That was the one area where dumper trucks were still at work this morning.

Your photographs of the new top of Trinity Street are lovely Philip - and what a welcome improvement to that part of town. At least it partly makes up for the rather bland Broadgate, although even that is better than it was when we had "that tent"! Still a long way to go though - let's hope that the £300M (scaled down from £1Billion) redevelopment doesn't get scaled down any further!

Thought I might have a bash at finding any details of the deaths of the four men. According to the 'Western Daily Express' Bristol, 10th July 1923: Two men were killed in Coventry within a few hours of each other with the same motor water sprinkler. A man from Sheffield fell under the back wheels and another a local man, George Bates, who was riding a motor cycle, lost his balance when passing the same sprinkler and was crushed beneath it. So a tragic tale I haven't managed yet to find any info on the other two men, I haven't got access to the Coventry papers for 1923 on the computer yet. Hope you catch this as your post was a while ago.

A proud symbol of a reborn city, I wonder how many people have met under it?