Bishop Gate

Looks like it MR, but let's get in there quick with the wildlife people and move the whole project down to Bishopsgate!!!!! Seriously, why not, if the money is around move it, and they could still have the marina there (at Aldermans Green) but I think it's too much to ask the council to do something right!!!!

I agree strongly with your point of integrating the canal into the Bishopgate scheme, and thereby into the city centre as a whole. However, I disagree with your later ideas re: the locks under the RR or Falkirk Wheel. I think such ideas would be expensive and difficult to implement. I'm quite happy for the canal to terminate where it does, but it does need to be more easily accessible and visible from the city centre. That is why I'm all for the at-level crossing on the ringroad replacing the bridge. Controversially, for this site certainly given it's historic nature, I am even possibly for the removal of Leicester Row to improve visibility of the canal basin. Personally I see the canal basin area as a potential Brindley Place, with a venue on the corner of the RR and Foleshill Road, with canalside apartments and restaurants/bars. My only slight dismay with the size of the proposed development is the height of it, as I think the canal basin COULD provide a lovely vista over the city centre and the spires, but we don't live in an ideal world. There have been a number of proposals to turn old industrial sites into housing developments along the canal, many of which have been turned down by council because of a lack of employment within them . I think such plans could aid the redevelopment of the north of the city massively, improving it socio-economically with a number of luxury canal side houses and apartments with a mix of more affordable housing If the city centre were to have the watercourse through it I think opening up sections of the, albeit small, river would be much more viable. For example, extending the current open section towards the Transport Museum would make that little pocket park a bit more interesting, and could possibly in the long term become the feature of a square in front of a large renewal project for the area between Hales St/Trinity St/Ironmonger Row/Burges. I also agree to a certain extent about not getting rid of the ring road in its entirety, but to 'downgrade' it, not in a technical or legal sense but in a perceptive sense, so people stop treating it as a mini-motorway, and putting the pedestrians wishing to cross it on a more even keel with the drivers on it. That it why I like the crossing idea, and why I've been very disappointed the Swanswell Boulevard never saw the light of day.

Good points AD, The Falkirk idea is pie in the sky, I know, but there are ways to get the canal the other side of the RR which should be looked at. My view of the RR is that it serves a purpose and a good one at that. The talk of lowering it won't work, people who use it are those who want to get from A to B as quickly as possible, pedestrians should have walkways to go under or over the RR.

My initial thoughts on this earlier were that the Canal Basin should be linked into the Bishopgate redevelopment. The land around the Canal Basin and Leicester Row is a bit higher than Bishop Street across the Ring Road. My thoughts were that the two areas could be linked together with wide bridges or walkways across the Ring Road rather than the present single footbridge. The Canal Basin area is already accessible on foot from the Electric Wharf housing development so a better link across the Ring Road would bring together the new housing, the presently isolated Canal Basin and the proposed Bishopgate development. This could then all be linked in to the rest of the city centre through the Bishop Street corridor. I agree that we don't want any more subways. I dropped my wife's car off for a service and walked back from Spon End into the city centre a few years back, my only memories are seeing the used hypodermic needles lying in the subway and making sure I was ready to deal with anyone who might be lurking around the next corner. Negative memories or even negative perception is not good for business.

Morgana, Bishopsgate is a pokey little corner tucked away in a dingy corner. It isn't big enough. Bishopsgate should become something attached to the Canal Basin theme and office space.

I meant the whole of Bishop Street minus the old school.

Latest news re demolition of former Royal Mail sorting office

Good grief, not more student accommodation!

It won't be long before we'll need a student union card to enter the city centre the way it's going.

Telegraph readers' responses

For those interested, there are a number of photos of the inside of the old sorting office here

Good to see something going up on that site! It's been empty for ages.