Cathedral Lanes

The decline of the city centre has happened since the opening of the numerous retail and business parks around the city, and there is most definitely a correlation between the two. I think accessibility by car is a major factor yet the council seem determined to make the city centre less and less car friendly. I agree that a concert venue would be of more use than just restaurants as it gives people a reason to come into the city centre, especially at night, which could then lead to further money being spent in shops and restaurants. Even those people that do go out solely for a meal are unlikely to choose somewhere like CL because again parking nearby is non-existent. I firmly believe this is why Earlsdon High St has more successful restaurants and shops than the city centre I still believe that this particular building will be removed sometime in my lifetime, although I'm not convinced it would then become the open space I envisage as people have short memories and get enticed by £££. It wouldn't be long before some bright spark at the council went "wouldn't it be great to build some shops/restaurants aimed at tourists near the cathedral. I'm sure it'd make loads of money..."

We may disagree on CL, but I wholeheartedly agree on what needs to be done to turn the city centre around. The tourist attractions are one-offs - you see them and you don't come back. This city needs something that will give people a reason to consistently return, and that is without doubt the entertainment sector. Unfortunately the members of the council seem to think completely the opposite. They seem obsessed with attracting retail when trends show this is a contracting sector due to online retailing and consistently allow new or extended retail parks like the Arena and Binley. They have repeatedly tried to set up restaurant quarters without once considering what brings people to eat out in the evenings. They bring in more pedestrianisation, city centre numbers go down, yet they see that as therefore needing even further pedestrianisation, using unbelievably loaded public consultation questionnaires to validate their argument. Apparently the main issue with a concert venue is, again like the office and retail, it has been decentralised. Large concerts end up at the Ricoh in either the main stadium or the Exhibition Hall and slightly lesser concerts/comedians etc end up at the Warwick Arts Centre. Both of these are fantastic venues but don't bring anyone into the city centre. But other cities, many smaller than Coventry, have numerous theatres etc in comparison. Earlsdon Park has a theatre, but again I doubt that will bring people into the city centre as there will be bars and restaurants on site and if they were to venture further afield I think many would prefer, despite it being further away, to travel up to Earlsdon High St than navigate the ringroad, either by car or foot. I have long thought the Canal Basin area would provide a brilliant Brindley Place style setting for an arts venue, despite being on the 'wrong' side of the ring road. But since that has now been designated a conservation area it will continue to fail to fulfil its potential, even if the Telegraph offices have moved there. Flapdoodle also suggested elsewhere the old Methodist Hall, which would be a great central location and could be made part of a larger public square bringing the third spire into more prominence.

The problem is, IMHO, the fact that the city centre has been allowed to decline to the point where it no longer acts as the economic 'centre' for the region, but has instead been abandoned. CL never really worked, and I doubt it will work with a new front. It doesn't help that the city is not only dead, but also so ugly and awkward. I've never been to a city that lacks any sort of city feel other than Milton Keynes. There are a lot of good things in Coventry, but the mediocrity of the post-war city drowns it all out and seems (to me) to have slowly strangled the life out of it over the years. I recently got the 'rough guide to Britain' and it pretty much dismisses Coventry with just the Cathedral given a mention as notable sight. What about the excellent museum of road transport? Or the guild hall, a rare example of a medieval guild hall? Or Holy Trinity and its doom painting? Or Spon Street & the medieval church? Or the cafe bar in the 'third spire'. There's even singular things like Ford's Hospital. The problem is the areas between these small places are just wretched... When are they going to even finish off Spon Street? Like the rest of Coventry, it feels abandoned and half finished, with too many gaps and awkward spaces and the absolutely ghastly mess created by IKEA and Skydome... It almost beggars belief that people got paid to plan this mess.

Not too sure if this is the best place to vent my opinion about the City past. I know we cannot turn the clock back but if I could I would re-instate Owen Owen, I just loved that store, this is a Christmas thing I guess. They knew how to put on a Christmas theme, I will always remember the show they put on above the canopy, no expense spared, characters over 10 foot high, I used to be gobsmacked. And the grotto on the top floor was great, I know it was a way of getting people in to spend money but you felt as if they cared. I loved taking my son to see Santa, not too sure if I got more fun out of the visit than he did. Just got you in the mood. One thing that did bug me was .... On Christmas Eve if you were in the town you could see all the window dressers changing the window theme, they still do that to this day, "can't they wait until after Boxing day?" Now although I am not too religious but the one thing I miss most of all was the star mounted on the Church spire, why was it removed? And can it be replaced, I am sure that if it was a money thing most Coventrians would, I assume, give to finance the star over the Christmas period. Well it's a nice thought. I just love Christmas. Colin.

I've just arrived back home in Cheshire after a day trip to see my folks in Coventry. I spent a delightful half hour or so at the BBC Coventry and Warwickshire radio studio in Priory Place with producer Siobhan Harrison who allowed me to indulge in a nostalgia fest about the Beatles impact on 60s teenagers. This is the first time in more than twenty years that I've been to the city centre and there is much to admire, especially the Cathedral quarter but that has always been there. I liked Priory Place, especially the small gardens and I think it would be ideal for higher end shopping. However I was dismayed to see the rash of betting shops and low end retail and food outlets around the Burges and what was Broadgate. A few uniformed policemen wouldn't go amiss either. I think that, instead of wondering what to put in, planners should start to think about what could be removed and create some light and space. They could create some green places and should begin by putting Broadgate back as it was. The fact that there is a very large transient student population around the centre of town, that the retail sector is shrinking and that people find it easy to shop in custom built retail parks sort of stack up against the town centre as a large volume shopping destination and necessitates serious long term plans for its future.

The same thing is happening in Nuneaton, I just read that Poundland is moving into M&S vacant property, this is a large shop, and it will be a massive Poundland right in the middle of town....

It beggers belief the amount of different history we have in Coventry and to me Coventry should be built to accommodate its history, not hide what's left, I agree with a comment right back knock the mismatch town down and put it back to how it was pre war, how beautiful and quaint it all looked, it looked easy walking to get to different shops not a trawl. I personally looking at new photos of the town it looks unwelcoming, cold looking like a concrete jungle all muddled up. Example myself and 24 year old daughter take our visitors out for a drink or dinner to the Old Mill at Baginton, never would we choose the town and Baginton is miles from us, town is far closer. You're right about accommodating the people of the town, unless councils forget it's not a town of people of millionaires but mainly working class used to having to save, hard habit to kick and with jobs scarce now. I agree with all the retail parks and on line shopping, with free parking, which the town charges for parking. I would love to see the view of cathedral not hidden and landscaped, if it was me I would transform Coventry like the iron museum has done with their little town with all our history incorporating business for shopping within. Answer to your question on how they get to build these eyesores, it's not what you know, it's who you know and these that give the go ahead are not from here like the planner so I've read.

But it would expose the old part of Coventry that is mostly hidden, as a oil painter and I used to decorate landscape garden, if you keep adding and enclosing it's ugly to the eye, too busy. Many times USA tourists have stopped and asked asked me where are the historic parts of Coventry, it's ok if you are related and come here often knowing where to look for them, be it new or old Coventry the decision should be left to the people who use it daily or regularly that live in the town, Coventry people have their way if they don't like something, they don't use it like CL. I would love to see Coventry as a whole working museum like Ironbridge, with all our industry history, making eg bikes, ribbons, Cash's pictures, clocks, cars, machine tools, brick factories, etc, even if some are miniature, and sell the goods, charge entrance feesto watch while making it would create skill and jobs and bring in money too from tourists. Modern doesn't bring people here as pointed out only the Cathedral is advertised for Coventry.

Going way off the original topic here, but I agree to a certain extent, although not for the whole city centre. It's all very well wanting this vision of a quaint olde Coventry, but all the places that have kept like this are now largely an economic irrelevance. York now rarely registers as important in Yorkshire, let alone the country as a whole. Increasing tourism is worthwhile, but not at the expense of a variety of other industries and sectors. Having said that I've always thought creating a mini 'working museum' in the area of land between Greyfriars Lane, Little Park St and High St could be a worthwhile venture by moving old/historic structures there. There's still so much history within the city but it's so spread out most people just can't be bothered traipsing around to find it. This way it'd be easily accessible in a central area and create a nice link between the three spires too. Plus it'd allow more freedom to redevelop areas without having constraints of having to build around listed buildings leading to heavily compromised developments. People may say that moving buildings makes them lose their context, but for me the context is already lost. Bring someone from the past to the present day and they wouldn't recognise the stuff thats still there - the streetscape is so different now with much more light, clean air and less dirt. If anything you could recreate their original context much better if you moved them for that specific reason. After all, Spon St is largely a forgery - a dumping ground for stuff Gibson wasn't allowed to demolish but people on the whole like that. I also thought my plan for a Broadgate garden could be completed with a sandstone historical museum and library on the south side (Pepper Lane), going through the history and industries of the city, with a new clock tower for Godiva with a watch making exhibit thrown in. The council house shows that if you try to do a proper job of recreating something mediaeval looking you can do so very well.

Knock Down Cathedral Lanes & Bring The Greenery Back To Broadgate is the name of my new facebook page

Cathedral Lanes revamp to bars and restaurants, finished by Christmas next year. Wilkinsons will remain for a while.

Yes - it's official

I'm really pleased to see that Cathedral Lanes could finally realise its potential. A bar and restaurant quarter is long overdue and I did suggest a few years ago that this was the best use for it. Look at the footfall somewhere like Brindley Place attracts in Birmingham, there has been nowhere of that sort in Coventry. I just hope that they can eventually turn the dreadful Wilkinsons into some sort of a serious music venue.

They've already tried the restaurant area idea around the Cathedral quarter, in the more attractive part where you can actually look at the historic buildings instead of the insipid post war stuff. Failed. Building these into restaurants where the interesting view is the one behind it is ludicrous. Like the picture of those whalewatchers where the breaching whale is behind them. Brindley Place does well because of the visitor attractions - NIA, Symphony Hall, ICC, Sealife Centre. There is no reason for anyone to deliberately go to this place. People pass through Broadgate, not use it as a destination. People might pick up the odd snack but they're not going to sit down here for a meal. Plus to get to it they'll have quite a journey on foot as there's practically no parking in the area. This idea will die a death like the others and it just means we'll be stuck with this eyesore covering our truly interesting architecture for a bit longer. The ONLY way this area will be enhanced or for it to work as a restaurant or hotel area is to knock this down and allow the history behind it to showcase itself in the setting it deserves.

I absolutely disagree. The city centre needs things to attract people to use it as a destination rather than somewhere to wander through. A few coffee shops and burger joints are not the answer, it needs to have quality food venues. The music venue I suggested is much needed by the city centre as there is precious little reason for anyone to venture there at night now. Coventry needs its centre to have an injection of leisure outlets to revive it in the evening, not another demolition project which will only drive even more people away. It truly would be a 'Ghost Town'. In truth there isn't much else in the Broad Street area of Birmingham other than food & drink outlets and a music venue. But it attracts people because of this, and also people do live in the area. When we lived in Broadgate the city centre was still alive, unlike now. There is nothing wrong with the building itself, just the type of businesses that have been located there. I wonder what architecture it obscures. Just a church ruin, I suggest, which can be accessed very easily. And what about the residents? How would you feel if someone wanted to demolish your house so that people had a better view of, say, some old church?