IKEA building

Mick is right, the issue is keeping it going after the first year. Plus they are struggling to keep the existing museums open, what makes them think a new one would change that? The British Museum is my favourite and even the basic collection bears visiting many times because of the number and magnificence of the displays. Plus the free entry helps. On top of that it has regular touring exhibitions that are fairly pricey but worth it and all the ones I've been to were booked out. As several have pointed out, galleries in tourist places have a ready audience but Coventry? How often will it be open? Will it fill a day's visit or will people combine it with something else? Is that venue open at the same time? When I visit the Archive the other places I want to see are almost always shut when I'm free. Who will visit? School children? Students? Day trippers? Shoppers? The retired? Each is looking for a slightly or massively different experience. I'm not sure as a nation we know what makes a museum work or not. One section of society are determined to close museums because of the contents anyway. Art in particular will fade in popularity because we see so much online or tv. Coventry can't compete with the Louvre or the Tate Modern, which, apart from the building, I thought was overrated. What percentage of visitors does Coventry need to make the place viable? All that said, I do think that culture needs to be boosted outside London.

Edit: This sculpture is by Favour Jonathan and won the Sky Arts 'Landmark' 2021 competition. Apparently there was a competition with a public vote - entries displayed in the Cathedral Ruins in May. It is called "In honour of Ira Frederick Aldridge". It's a lot more impressive when you see it in person. Ira Aldridge was a black American actor who managed the Coventry Theatre in 1828. He also has a mural on the side of the Belgrade Theatre

I love this statue and the story of its creator. It's so much bigger than I thought and I can't wait to see it in 'real life' when I can get back to the UK. Wasn't there a thread somewhere about clocks in Coventry - this surely needed to be included. Thank you, again, Brother Joybert, for your generous talent of bringing the fun and beauty of Coventry's art to us who can't be there. ps. LOVED the car show.

It will soon be a year since the last post on this building. Any update on what is happening?

Is there a particular reason why IKEA is not favoured in Coventry? As a contrast the one in Perth is normally filled to crawling pace on a Saturday. With a nice cafe too.

That's a good question actually, and there's no obvious answer. On the few occasions that I went there, it always appeared to be well patronised. I'm not sure how many people in there meant to still be there, though, as it was always difficult to find your way out! I'm sure I saw one young kid go in, and he was starting to grow a beard by the time he left!!! But despite that, I think Ikea gave low sales as the reason for pulling out of Coventry. Their coming here in the first place was apparently an experiment, as it was the first time they'd tried to install a branch in an inner city location - all previous Ikeas had been in huge out-of-town areas. So perhaps my perceived view of a busy store was actually quite low by their expectations? I suppose, on the bright side, at least they thought highly enough of our city to think of trying in the first place.

Thanks Rob, thanks for putting me wise. I was beginning to think Coventry folk didn't like spending hours on building their cupboards, etc. They can be a challenge when you have a few screws left over. Our outlet is out of the city, too but not too far away from us, thankfully.