City Centre South

Great photos, Robin - but so much has already changed from my memories of growing up in this area in the seventies! Here's a few memories brought on by your photos: In and around Shelton Square - The birdcage by the toy shop, Virgin Records, Dockerys? fish shop, Woolies where my aunt ran the cafe. Hertford Street - The Curry Bowl (first ever curry), The Army Recruitment Store and a bit further up WHSmith and HMV. I've posted previously about the Empire being replaced by the ABC/HMV cinema and the "Woof and Puff" Beryl Houghton's photography store and The Three Tuns at the bottom of Hertford Street by the "supermarket" now the "The Litten Tree" and singing with the Phoenix Male Voice Choir in the Central Hall. Just a few memories!

Thanks to those who gave kind words about my photographs. My passion is photography. For 15 years I worked in a school of architecture as a photographer. The experience I gained there helps so much in my taking pictures of buildings - especially modern buildings. At Thames Polytechnic (now Greenwich University) I often sat in on lectures and critiques of student's work to gain more insights. In this forum I am learning again. I learn from the accumulation of individual histories, memories, and knowledge that people write about on the Historic Coventry Forum. These days I am mostly confined to a mobility scooter for getting about. Perhaps 'confined' is the wrong word. I'm always sitting down, while I see others of my age struggling going up ramps carrying their shopping. I can stop almost wherever I wish to take a picture. I travel in relative comfort. And there are rarely traffic jams on pavements

Coventry Point demolition, and City Centre South regeneration - article

To disappear under the Coventry South development.

Unfortunately when I visited in November and walked through the Arcade, it looked nothing like the photo above from the 1960's. It looked decrepit and was filthy!

The original planning permission for the City Centre South development was approved with some haste (two months earlier than expected!) in 2012. This has now lapsed. I presume the whole area has been on minimum maintenance since then. The target date is still 2020 so I presume they won't be using the contractors linking Broadgate to Hertford Street! Peter.

High street woes force rethink on £300million redevelopment of Coventry city centre (Coventry Telegraph).

Coventry missed the boat a little with regard to retail, but it's never been particularly good at attracting retailers in the past due to the local situation (I ndustrial decline, poor environment in the Precinct, and lack of demand from the population) and proximity to Leamington (upmarket) or Birmingham (bigger mass market offering). Solihull's expansion killed any chance of a department store here. The developers may see potential in a city in a catchment of 500,000 (some of it wealthy) that has the retail offering of a small town and feel they can tap into that potential growth. The group who took on Cathedral Lanes have taken advantage of the lack of restaurants and have seen the growth potential in a market that's saturated in many cities, and the group behind the co-op have also attracted businesses. This isn't something that happened ten years ago. It probably helps that the number of city centre residents is going up thanks to the student numbers. At least we'll get rid of Coventry Point (I don't mind the shape, it's quite interesting) but the location is odd. The general plan they have is good, effectively getting rid of a bunch of decaying arcades and squares and making it a lot more like a proper street network.

Covid-19 has killed off any hope of the massive rebuilt of Coventry City Centre, most of the shops will never re-open. To me a sensible idea would be to close many of the out of town shopping centres, and relocate those stores to the City Centre. Let's make town a place worth visiting again. The original idea of Cathedral Lanes could perhaps be re-visited as well, with many small, specialist shops in an area that encouraged exploring through twisted streets, and water features. This of course would have to be after the City Centre was brought back to life.

"Further doubt cast on anchor tenant" Perhaps it is time pause the project and give everything a lick of paint for the City of Culture year. Peter.

Plans for major Coventry city centre scheme welcomed by WMCA "Plans have been submitted for the regeneration of a large part of Coventry city centre in a major scheme being backed with nearly £100m of West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) funding. Outline plans for the City Centre South project, which includes new homes, shops, restaurants and a cinema were today (Friday November 27) welcomed by Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street, who said the scheme would help the city bounce back from the impacts of Covid-19." Planning Application