Coventry Co-operative Societies

My memory suggests 1/- in £

My memory thinks the same - one shilling in the pound. Unless they 'upped' it, which I doubt very much.

The Grange transformed into a Co-op food store Post copied from topic Coventry pubs on 9th Feb 2016 6:56 pm

I'm all for old pubs to be kept in use rather than demolished. But I'm not sure how sustainable a Co-op will be. Co-ops have had their day and offer a very limited option as they never compete either in range of goods available or price. There is usually a cheaper option nearby in the form of one of the big supermarkets. Many disused pubs near where I live are being brought into use as various types of restaurant, I'm pleased to say.

According to this article, Co-ops are actually enjoying a successful time in the UK at present

Hi all The Co-op has been rebranding itself under our noses, with Electrical on-line. The Co-operative Electrical is the trading name of Co-operatives E-Store Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Co-operative Group, based in Manchester.

In contradiction to what the above report stated, Coventry Society are now saying that the Co-op building IS to be demolished, to make way for . . . . student accommodation

I am thinking a lot but lost for words at that MR. So now we will be having the "Saga of the Co-op"!

No surprise there. The city centre cannot attract anything else - it's way too late to fix it now, especially as Coventry creeps towards being a suburb of Birmingham.

That's the way forward for the future, there's no turning back now, so make your town centre one of the nicest / cleanest / safest places for the parents of the children to visit because that's all they are to them, children that still need looking after one way or another A big mistake was making the Travelodge in Broadgate student accommodation, that should have been kept for the mums and dads to stay when visiting, they would be part of the shoppers of tomorrow

The big mistake was the pedestrianisation of Broadgate. I can't imagine that impressed the hotel operators who suddenly found their main entrance inaccessible! It's always all or nothing with this city, and some of the things they have done have been terrible mistakes. You're right, there is no turning back. They sealed Coventry's fate in the 1960s and should have started to reverse the mistakes back in the 1980s instead of actually believing their own phoenix rhetoric. It's an awful city centre, an embarrassment, but to the council everything is 'iconic'.

Not sure that Coventry is the only city centre that has lost its way. Seems to me, many city centres have lost their way. To be fair to the planners, it cannot be easy to foresee the future and how our shopping/living habits will change. Who knows, will we need city centres in 20 years time?

I seem to remember Hawkins (bedding etc) was on the corner of Corporation St and Fleet Street. Also I think I recall huge girders on the Co-op site at the time the temporary shops were opposite. Whether these came into use when the Co-op moved there in 1956 I don't know but imagine that could have been the case

That's correct Prof They were the remains of an extension to the pre-war Iliffe building which was never completed before war broke out and building work abandoned. I think I read that the girders were taken down before the building was converted to a Co-Op but can't be sure.

Prof, Yes I remember those girders, but remember the opposite side better, a shop keeper once told me off for closing the door, he said people won't come in if you close the door, an open door and they enter. But there were flats above them, a young Cov girl tragically died in one of them from an epileptic fit, alone, very tragic, early sixties.