City centre culture venue

Technically maybe, but many do not know that WARWICK University is in COVENTRY, and probably don't care either. As far as 'what is in Coventry' is concerned, apparently nothing according to some here. I also don't consider and never have considered Coventry to be anything but culturally backward despite the best efforts of the Belgrade.

You can tell all that from so far away? And why is "according to some here (Canada!)" relevant? I think the vast majority of Coventry people, here in the UK, know where Warwick University is - as I said, it's on the local bus routes!

I think WAC is excellent, but it does almost nothing to help the perception of the city, or the economy of the city centre. I go to quite a few of the comedy gigs, and during the banter I find there are quite a significant number from Warwick, Leamington and Kenilworth etc rather than Coventry. WAC has always been quoted as the reason we have no city centre venue, as there is insufficient demand for both, but other cities of similar size have more than one venue, and if quite a few of the audience are from outside the city there would be a lot of potentially untapped demand I reckon. I've gone to the NIA and the trail of people walking from there to New St for a train are huge. Hundreds of people, and that doesn't include those that drive. Mike H - that site may be on a hill, but is a slope that bad when you're going to be putting in tiered seating?

I was thinking about that and almost placed the new venue directly between the two brick things which guard the entrance to the Precinct as there is a slope there. Its proximity to Cathedral Lanes would be good and diners could have a window table which looked directly at it, but what worried me about that was a service entrance for the new venue and how it could be hidden and not become an eyesore from the other side.

It has to make an impression and it has to be accessible by ALL people in and around Coventry. That means that it has to be in the centre where ALL bus services meet. It is unacceptable for anybody to have to double-bus to get to it. It has to have access to ample parking, and for big events will need good rooms for people to stay over and places to eat, snacks to haute cuisine. It needs to be able to stage a whole range of cultures like Cirque du Soleil, Irish Dancing, Antiques Roadshow, dance championships, major auctions, Adam and the Ants to a full Pink Floyd roadshow or full classical Orchestra, a venue for the BGT finals. It should be circular or elliptical, with 270

Yes, but can it make 'an impression' to the outside world if it is squeezed within the confines of the precincts. We need a landmark building of some architectural merit.

The site I would choose would be between Priory Street and Cox Street - the site now occupied by the Coventry University and a hangover from the Lanchester Polytechnic days. Most of the current buildings are well past their sell-by date. I feel it would extend the city centre beyond the cathedral and yet be just a short walk from Pool Meadow.

Service access would not be good and the site is too far away from major parking. To save creating even more space for parking, one needs to look at using existing facilities where possible and if the facilities are too far away, people will only use the place once.

To get and keep a visitor's attention, the various landmarks need to be within reasonable walking distance of each other, and that includes parking. By spacing fairly close, the visitor will see a short walk to PoI #1 (Point of Interest), then see something different but not too far away, PoI #2, then PoI #3 and so on. The visitor could walk his/her socks off, but it wouldn't feel like it was that far.

A lot of that area, from the Jordan Well end, has recently been redeveloped by the University, and at the Fairfax Street end is the Sports Centre Yes, some of the buildings do date from the Lanch days, but overall the area is now much improved

I'm trying to find that map you did but it appears to have gone. But the bit you earmarked certainly looked too small for what you envisage to me. I'm undecided on the parking. While it would be useful to use existing parking allowing it its own dedicated, self run MSCP could increase the viability of the entire project with the revenues it could provide. The same could be argued of restaurants - if it had space to rent out for them could it make it more viable. Access to revenues such as these have supposedly been the main issue for the football club in recent years. Either way such a venue will not be created by the local council alone - it would need to be done in partnership, most likely with the uni. I agree about drawing people from Point 1 to Point 2, to eventually the venue. Which is why I was looking along the lines of Station - Greyfriars Green - Christchurch Spire - Ford's Hospital (maybe within a Spon St style makeover of Greyfriars Lane, possibly with the Burges' timber framed buildings?) - Cathedral / HT / Lychgate Cottages etc. Draws people into the city and businesses along the route, from retail to restaurant, could benefit from it.

It's not about dragging people through an entire tour of Tudor Coventry to get to any venue. What you have to do is make Coventry interesting enough to want to come back.

Re the map, I didn't do it to scale. I just placed a white blob in the middle of a shopping wasteland that badly needs knocking down and redeveloping.

I'm not saying it should be, but the fact is this venue would be the catalyst for all the things to make it interesting, so initially it'd have to be stuff in situ or relatively inexpensive, and most of the stuff that's 'landmark' in this city is the old stuff. You could commission a few art pieces/statues or move some around but ultimately I think buildings create more of an impression. I think in order to be big enough, slapping right in the centre of the precinct would mean most, if not all of the precinct would need to go (especially taking into account services, parking etc.). So maybe it would be a bit more realistic to take one of the quadrants off the precinct? At most, I think a central placing in the Lower Precinct so it had entrances from Market Way and Corporation St. Plus you could then redirect the road around it so High St and Spon St got reconnected.