City centre shopping precincts

I know this happens, and it's all about snobbery. Just because someone bought it in Leamington and its more expensive they think its better - its not. Its also another reason why the council plan for increased retail to reinvigorate the city centre is a stategy for failure - some people just won't shop there regardless. I remember about a year ago we took a coach down to London to look round the Tower of London. Some other people were going on a shopping trip. When we all got back on, the bags they were carrying were from Primark. They'd paid for a coach, a four hour round trip and paid more for something they could have bought in the centre of Coventry cheaper!

There is no doubt about it - the attempts at two-level shopping in the Upper Precinct have been a failure. The grouping of M&S, BHS and Woolworths together in the centre was also not sensible and although the siting of the [first] Boots and C&A were attempts to draw people from the centre these have long since moved or moved on. There has never been a draw at the southern end and consequently Shelton Square and the Arcade always feel the worst effects of any downturn in the economy. Whilst I am sure the architects followed the Council's template for the Upper Precinct both sides, along with the Leofric block, were developed/built by Ravenseft Properties who have continued to own them since - although now part of Land Securities. I think the Council had great difficulty at first in getting private developers involved and finished up having to build Broadgate House itself. I suspect the first floors in the Precinct were originally targetted at local traders but there was also difficulty in getting local businesses into new rented shops. Most had owned their own premises before the war and after the blitz occupied temporary shops on modest rents; therefore most stayed put until the Lower Precinct and Smithford Way were built. In the case of Broadgate House, Alexandre's and Hepworth's both took more space than they needed for their own shops and sublet. The Hepworth's space included the large first floor area that became Home and Fashion Stores. I am sure the layout and the location of stores had more to do with the 'vision' than the best flow of customers and I guess there was pressure to get as much built as possible and retail science was in its infancy - that is if it had even been conceived! Finally my recollection of shops that did survive for a time on the top deck were the Electricity showrooms and the Himalaya restaurant.

We all know what Coventry needs, but I doubt the council would admit it's not worked, and the money wouldn't be available.

Here is a link to a film from the late 1950's asking the public what they think of the sculptures by the fountain in the Precinct

Does anyone else recall the escalator that long ago was on the other side of the precinct near Broadgate House? Or did I dream that?

Leamington Spa was a nice place to shop, and was more contained than Coventry centre, more places to get a cup of tea or coffee. Birmingham had everything and was more exciting and multi-cultural. It wasn't a just question of paying more because one thought that it was better.

When I was a student here, in the early 1990s, we used to go to Birmingham to shop as Coventry was terrible. However, Coventry did improve a little, but was still pretty bad compared to similar sized cities. For anything above average, you had to go elsewhere. When I moved back here in the late 1990s (to work), I discovered that most of the local Coventrians I met/worked with tended to avoid the city centre and go to Leamington Spa, Birmingham or Leicester. Everyone just said the shops are rubbish, there's no decent places to eat, and it's a pretty depressing looking place. The aesthetics and poor built environment are a huge factor, especially with people from surrounding towns which are quite decent looking. Of course, 15 years later, we do the same. We go to Leicester, Solihull and Leamington for shopping & eating out. We do go to the city centre, but rarely spend much money there and never bother with it in the evenings. We mainly use it the same way we'd use a local 'convenience' high street. If we're going for Lunch with the kids or to get something specific we just head straight for somewhere else. There's really not much point in even bothering. And, of course, I can't stand that awful precinct. I can only see it declining more as the city centre becomes more geared towards students. I don't really know if the 'precinct south' development will help. it doesn't look particularly impressive. Just mediocre, which seems to be all Coventry gets these days. It's a shame really, as Coventry should be a thriving city, really. It's just not been looked after well.

Hi all I keep hoping that someone from our city's planning & business development, even if retired, might contribute. The difficulty is that so much is wrapped up in politics. For a long time Leamington, for example, has had a much higher ratio of property owner traders than Coventry. Our "City of Coventry Limited" dictates who will trade what & where, which is not always in the best interest of traders. Coventry is not on its own in this degree of management, which is one of the reasons why so many city centres have the same named traders trading. Whilst managing traders does have some advantages, many traders argue that it kills innovation. At the end of the day though, the final dictator is the level of trade. I came through Coventry both at 9am & 2pm today, after visiting Sutton Coldfield. Sutton was bristling with shoppers, whilst by comparison, Coventry seemed slack. Since this is supposed to be one of the busiest pre-Christmas trading days, it does not bode well. From what I saw the busiest bit of our city was around the Belgrade with the pantomime in full swing. Just a week ago, the Saturday of our last forum breakfast, two of us walked around from Trinity St, Broadgate, passing the Council House & Cathedral, & the comment made to me was how quiet it is. So, I am not on my own with this observation.

Yes, Philip, I agree. The Precinct was very quiet this Saturday, and cluttered up with a mediocre attempt at a Christmas market that reeked of fat (what is it with Coventry and junk food? Even West Orchards reeks of kebabs now. I don't know why Debenhams put up with it!) and seemed to be lacking customers. Lidice Place is an insult to Lidice. What is it with blank walls and weird bits of metal in this city? I had to use the bus to get to work, and the route through the city centre was thoroughly depressing. It's hard to believe this train-wreck was planned, as it looks like a random load of things thrown down, and it's not even charming. I wholeheartedly recommend the Noodle Bar, though, even if its setting (Bull Yard?) is a dreary place - although I believe there's a new coffee shop opening up there soonish. I was also in the city centre on Friday evening for some beer, and it was also unbelievably quiet. The place is just full of taxis looking for fares and empty bars and pubs. On the other hand, Earlsdon and the Butts were both heaving. On a positive note, my kids like the mural at the bottom of the Lower Precinct.

By chance, I found this 1977 analysis of the city centre shopping and leisure facilities which for some unexplained reason is from the Pakistan Geographical Review!?

More like the barren, frozen waste of a Lower Precinct that I knew queuing to get into Park Lane!

It was even more barren and desolate before Mercia House was built, especially on Sundays and Thursdays when most of the businesses in the Precinct were shut. The trouble was it didn't connect to Spon Street the way Fleet Street had. There was just the idiotic extension to Corporation Street running at right angles to the Lower Precinct and a kind of "no man's land" in between. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

It's very badly laid out down there. The Precinct is at weird angles to the building that used to be 'superfi' and there's a stupid shaped triangular gap of blank walls. And the bottom of Spon Street is also very poor, with the reconstructed timber building at weird angles (with the strange space behind it filled up with billboards) and the strange pub next to it with canopies and another oddly positioned building next to it. And Lidice Place is a weird chunk of land that seems to form no purpose. I've noticed that a lot of the post-war buildings are at strange angles to streets or in odd locations. Coventry seems to be full of strange spaces that are left over as a consequence of poor planning - Ironmonger Square is a prime example, as is the more recent 'Priory Place'.