Broadgate

Yes, Anne, Osmiroid, the west side was indeed widened from Smithford Street to The Castle hotel. Good images survive of that side both before and after the changes but the east side is a conundrum. I'm talking pre the 1750 maps. There are paintings and drawings of it but none of them match the photos and none of them match each other in any helpful way. They may all be fictional!

Best known is this image supposedly looking through to Butcher Row but it has problems. 1) It doesn't show the spire of Holy Trinity. 2) It looks Dutch to me 3) Although there are some similarities with the layout, the row is further back than the map. The building on the left doesn't closely match what I believe was at that point. This is the best image I think there is of the same area, after the cross was demolished. The west/left side matches what I think was there. Note the building on the junction with Cross Cheaping and Butcher Row. This shows a matching left hand side but the buildings in the gap don't match the corner of Cross Cheaping and Butcher Row but they are similar to the ones further up Cross Cheaping.

One I'd love to be right is this image but the image was designed and executed in copper engraving by David Gee in about 1825

I wonder if this link will be of any help https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=not-forgotten ? You'd probably not think to look there for it, on the "not Forgotten" article page about the IRA bomb, but it's as accurate an overlay as I've ever managed using Google Maps with a well scaled 1937 street map, so it gives some idea of how the pre-war Broadgate stood in relation to the modern day. I used Trinity church, St. Michael's and the Nat West bank as markers. Regarding the series of pictures above, it's probable that the Coventry Cross images show the surrounding buildings in a rather "stylised" way, and not necessarily accurate. However, the 1807 map extract below does indeed show the pre-1820s Broadgate (dead centre) (that's not a modern observation!) as very narrow - but opening out northwards into a fairly wide square around the area of the former cross before entering Cross Cheaping. Your 3rd "Taunton" print does indeed show the buildings on the east side that were demolished to widen the street. Apparently there had been "traffic accidents" and people run over by horses and carts! Sadly this is a bit topical, but it shows how times don't change as much as we think. Below is a post-widening shot of the equivalent buildings on the "new" east side, including the Mayor's Parlour.

You mean 'west side'? That's a great photo (one of the earliest) but it's closer to Cross Cheaping than the sketch and the arch is the road into the market. It was demolished and turned into a normal roadway. It was doubly confusing because there was a second arch, almost identical further to the left. That survived much longer and can be seen in this photo. I kept mistaking the two and ended up missing out a load of buildings. The building to the right of the arch in the old photo is indeed the Mayors Parlour. The building to the left is The Castle Hotel. As far as I can tell The Castle was the first building in the square part of Broadgate. Your city is very confusing and they were forever knocking bits down... again sadly the same as today.

Those images of Broadgate are quite painful to look at.

Whoops a daisy! Yes, I got my compass bearings all in a muddle!!! I did indeed mean west, thank you! And Flapdoodle - I know what you mean.... just think what we could've had, eh!

I'm glad it's not just me mixing up NSEW I invariable have to edit my posts because I've got them wrong.

It doesn't really compare. All that's missing from Broadgate today is a Russian president standing on the balcony and a few missile carriers driving past while the gathered communism leaders salute.

A slab manufacturer's paradise

I haven't visited the City centre in 30 years, so my question is............. where has all the grass gone??

If you look on Google street view you can see what it was like - two patches of grass either side of a big walkway, bounded on three sides by a busy bus route. Maybe I'm biased because the first time I came back to Coventry and saw it, there was an event going on with stalls of things to eat. I thought it looked much more pleasant. It was doubly nice because the gloomy canopy had gone.

I think I am biased to the 60's Broadgate. I liked the fact that the buses went into Broadgate and took you to the heart of the shopping centre and easy to get home after a night out.

Here it is

Many thanks for sharing the photo Cliff, it's more or less how I remember Broadgate. Don't remember any canopy though. I'm inclined to agree with previous comments regarding the slab manufacturer's paradise and the missing Russian military. I can understand making the area traffic-free, but did they have to remove the greenery - unless the Corporation lawnmowers and tree loppers were too expensive to maintain and have been sold off? I will be visiting Coventry at the end of this month for a few days and will probably need to prepare myself for a few surprises.