Bishop Gate

Proposals for the development of the Bishop Street sorting office. Same old thing if you ask me! Only plus is that it'll make people actually walk down Silver Street again I suppose!

As people probably know, the plans for the supermarket on the site of the old sorting office have been delayed. I just saw a potential plan for a 'retail park' on the site. I have to say that there's been some terrible developments in Coventry that have damaged the city centre irreversibly, but this has to be one of the most atrocious, nastiest, parasitic developments I've ever seen. Another dreary retail park filled with retail sheds and car parks with service areas facing the ring road. Utter, utter, utter garbage. Cheap, nasty and destructive. Out of town style retail parks in the centre of the city are just a sign of desperation, IMHO. And does Coventry even need more large sheds like this?

It's just Central Six on the other side of the ring road. Sadly, I think it probably would be more successful than a lot of other projects as these are some of the few things that actually seem to do well here. As for the impact it's hard to say - people don't go into these and then wander around. They go in, get what they want and get out again. But at the same time it would increase footfall and spend in the city centre and make it more attractive to others to invest from a business perspective. Personally, I don't like them and wouldn't want to see any more

Latest plan for sorting office site - Bishopgate apartments. 404 apartments for the rental market plus retail/leisure.

By the look it, it seems they propose a pedestrian crossing for the Inner Ring Road. Took me some time to get my bearings

Good grief, what an awfull blot on the landscape. I accept that we don't have much of a landscape for it to be a blot on, but that looks hideous! And it certainly appears, from that image at least, that they are removing the exisiting bridge and replacing it with a pedestrian crossing - across the ring road!!

Compared to the previous incarnations of this project this appears to be ten times better, and could actually be something a bit different that the city hasn't already got. Why would it be a blot on the landscape? It's not exactly innovative or groundbreaking, but it sure isn't offensive either. I mean the sorting office is such an aesthetically pleasing bit of architecture isn't it? Perhaps another abandoned ruin or empty site would be better? The plan for the removal of the bridge and at-level crossing have been part of every proposal, the first of which must have been at least five years ago. So that isn't something new or shocking. And for some of those plans that was the only bit I liked. For fear of going over another thread, humanising the ring road is long, long overdue and necessary for the future of the city centre. The ring road is NOT a small motorway. It's a regular B road and people should start treating it as such.

I'm with AD, this is a far better development than previous proposals, and it introduces some city-scale buildings and good massing. And the city centre desperately needs residents that aren't students. I don't think that's the actual building, just to indicate the size/scale. That whole area could be turned back into a decent urban grid of residents and street frontages. It might bring a bit of life back to the area, which is currently dead. In more ways than one. What is more interesting is that this is being aimed at Coventry due the city's apparent growth in the next few years.

I don't think you all get it, it's a European initiative so we all look the same, like Europe, same style, same boring shops/outlets, same crossings. My uncle from WWII lived in Singapore and they did the same over there, his exact words were he decided to move to Australia because Singapore had become the same exact look as Europe, same kind of structure, same shops. If he closed his eyes and was put in another one of those countries he would think he was still in Singapore as it looks all the same. He visited Coventry hoping to move back here but said we now all live on top of one another, not the same as when he last visited here and how he remembered it, then returned to Perth. My cousin visited here too thinking to move here from a village a few miles from Hereford. He decided against it and bought a detached house in Ludlow.

I think it's more to address a housing need, rather than a conspiracy from Europe. As a conspiracy that's the oddest one I've heard. Has the EU got a Homogenisation Department overseeing cloning towns? Oh it's already happened in the UK. Moving towards more European style of city would be good, in my view. The UK's city centres have become nothing more than shopping centres (and they're already bland and boring). Bringing people to live in the central area, something that is common on the mainland, would address the problems this has caused (and past attempts have failed).

Actually no it's not - the company involved were formed and are based in the Midlands, and a large number of their projects are within the Midlands region. There may well be an application for EU funding, but a large amount of projects that have occurred in the city have applied for, and received, European funding. As Flapdoodle says, it's unsure if this is an indicative or final design. Sometimes you are difficult to fathom, as you complain everything will look the same but when something a bit different is proposed you complain it doesn't fit in. Of course things will, over time, start to become quite similar because people realise which are the most efficient methods to build and what designs sell. This is especially true nowadays with the ease of worldwide travel and communication. But this isn't new - it's how we recognise a great deal of the architecture. A lot of Edwardian stuff is very similar as people aped the style and 'in' features of the time. Areas of London look extremely similar as they're built in an Edwardian fashion. Similarly with Victorian era. A family member lived in a Victorian terrace and if you went in the neighbours you knew where everything was because they were all built identically. The road must have been about a mile long and practically the entire length of it was identikit. If anything there is slightly more diversity now, as there are people buying houses 'off plan' in new developments and they have managed to agree design and layout changes prior to construction so many of the houses are in fact totally different. Take the Stoke Peugeot plant. There are various designs going on there from apartments to bungalows. It's being built in a least four different colour of brick. Some have garages, some have bay windows, some have upstairs French windows. There is diversity if you care to look. I find it quite funny that your uncle thought we 'lived on top of one another'. I guess coming from Australia where they do have a great deal of open space it might seem quite compact but if he lived in Singapore that's the most densely populated place in the entire world! Compared to most cities Coventry is very low rise and has very little apartment living. Britain does have the smallest homes in Europe in terms of square footage, but that is because we build a great deal of low rise stuff and have gardens for quite a large population in a very small area. One other advantage of this scheme, and the projected growth figures, is it might kick start the final phase of Belgrade closer to its original form.

There are more views here. There's over 400 'luxury' 1 and 2 bedroom apartments, but only 78 car parking spaces? The previous plan, also by Barberry but spelt without a space, appeared to still have the ring road footbridge.

So are you saying Coventry had to bring in outsiders to design our city that Coventry cannot educate its own people to design and take into consideration what Coventry people would like in their city. At least the Victorians, Edwardians, built pleasant to the eye, they didn't cram building upon building into every bit of space. They also considered an assortment of buildings for a variety of entertainment and space, not just places for drink and food and bingo and only one theatre. As for living on top of one another, that depends, doesn't it, on where you live in Coventry presently, but that will be changing too very soon. Yes, we live on top of one another compared to the 80s, even I living here can see that. Now building on green belt where people pay a premium on their home for a view or that area then to become a built up area, to me those people should be compensated. In most areas new builds have tiny gardens, more overlooked. Our city suburbs as a whole in the UK look like a rubbish tip which even the House of Lords have discussed, how dirty the UK has become compared with years ago, also Europe. Even Cameron and his neighbours are sick of rubbish in their lane where they live. Yes, I've seen Europe, clean, nicely spaced out, variety, respect and keep their buildings of heritage, shame we didn't have their weather.

It is a pity that the developers haven't chosen to bridge the Ring Road in the Friargate style because this would open up a better pedestrian link from the city centre, through the Bishopsgate development, and into the Canal Basin and beyond.

Here is the news breaking of the original plans, with the intention of removing the footbridge.