What if (our development had turned out differently)?

Hi Helen Having seen many changes over the last 60 years, it is a city centre that has had a massive decline in revenue and has tried its best to keep up to date. Having lived in Coventry all of my life, the centre was important to me personally during the late 60's and early 70's. In those years I had been to very few places to compare it to, so it appeared to me to be quite up to date. Now, I hardly ever visit (last time was to go to IKEA), no need to, there is nothing I can't buy elsewhere or on line. But, I do not knock it, it is still my home town and I feel it is doing its best, but it will never please everyone. The shape and style of the buildings do not bother me, I do like the new colourful student accommodation buildings. One thing though, I have never felt the need or desire to live there.

Mick. Here's some of those new buildings which have altered the city skyline Looking from Belgrade Plaza, across Upper Well Street and beyond the Coventry Telegraph site. Weaver Place rises high in a view from the Corporation Street end of Well Street. It has been built on the corner of Bishop Street and Lamb Street. Bishop Street, from Corporation Street, with the high-rise Bishop Gate complex in Tower Street which replaced the Royal Mail building.

Great pictures, thanks MR

If you can afford to live and commute from a nice detached home with a garden in a leafy area, why wouldn't you move? But we haven't got the land for everyone to have their dream home. Increasingly we need people to live in cities. That not only reduces their physical footprint but all the others. When people get closer together then services and restaurants become more viable. People supported theatres and cinemas in the past because there was less to do at home, now those attractions have to be easy to get to and offer something people can't get at home. Those venues can't afford much novelty if there isn't a large and regular audience. Cities grew from a need to pool resources, including safety. In the early 1800s people could suddenly spread out and the vacant spaces were taken by business. Then businesses outgrew town centres and offices and large stores replaced them. The pandemic has merely turbo charged the next phase, where large, in town shops are going and even office life might be on the verge of abandoning the centre. They're building massive sheds in the countryside and munching green fields by the dozen. We genuinely need cities to become popular again, but tempting people back to them isn't easy. Easier for people to start there when they can't afford anywhere else. The government has a theory that those who no longer have kids should give up their homes and move into flats but they'd have to be outstanding. Who would give up their home, their friends and their space to move into a small flat with a dodgy lift and limited amenities? Having investigated retirement complexes I can tell you that they're a rip off.

Yes, they are great pictures MR, but why do they remind me of matchboxes standing on end?

Perhaps because they are "ENGLANDS GLORY"

Where were these photos taken. I haven't been to Cov. in ages so I sometimes find it hard to orient myself.

lindatee, I've now added captions to the photos

Coventry could have been planned better in the thirties. With the hills and lows of Coventry and a river through two thirds of the city, it should have made use of the water, a garden city, and districts like smaller cities along all its banks. Wood End could have spread all along the Sowe, the slough, with riverside homes, gardens and shops. All it needed was a little imagination.

Thank you so much, I never would have guessed. I used to catch the Radford bus outside a suitcase/handbag shop at the bottom of the street.

Plus a whole lot of cash!!