Friargate development

I agree there Neil, it's all a bit of a nightmare at the moment. It would just be nice if we, the general public, were kept informed! On the subject of things changing, I experienced the new ANPR car-park charging system that came into force in the "market" car park today. And it wasn't working properly! (no surprise there then!) It not only failed to read my registration number when I entered, but when I finally convinced the system that my car was indeed in the car park, it took it nearly a minute to recognise my vehicle when I finally got to the barrier!

There does seem to be a lot of road works in Earlsdon at the moment, lots of side roads closed, and I think due to the work on Kenilworth road a lot more traffic is using Beechwood Avenue as a rat run... There's also traffic lights on the Butts ring road junction, but so far they've not really caused me any issues - if anything, they slow things down somewhat, as those roundabouts are like racing tracks most of the time. I guess they need to do this because more traffic will be coming down this ramp from Warwick Road (To turn Right onto the ring road.)

They were just installing those lights when I went round Spon End the other day, but I think they are actually in use now. When you say "Turn right on the ring road, do you mean for them to join and go back anti-clockwise". I had forgotten about that. I was thinking that traffic would just want to go along Croft Road into town. They'll either do that, or, depending on where they are coming from, they could go down Humphrey Burton Road, through the "bus gate" into Stoney Road then Quinton Road to Junction 5 (at the Police Station) The Stoney Road/Quinton Road junction is going to be a nightmare as well !!

A bit of traffic chaos is hopefully going to be worth it! This is from a report on Coventry in 2009 for English Heritage: "It is obvious that the tight circle drawn by the ring road and its configuration as an urban motorway with grade separated junctions has sharply and arbitrarily divided the centre from the remainder of the city. The separation between the centre and the city outside the ring and the shortage of negotiable connections across it are unacceptable in a modern city. The layout and form of, and the necessity for a ring road should be carefully re-considered. One radical proposal would be to redesign the ring road at grade, together with its junctions. The spaces left over after planning, the backages advocated by Alker Tripp, should be re-configured to enclose the road and present, instead, frontages." I actually think this plus a reconfiguration of the precinct so it's more permeable is what the city centre needs.

I hope so too. If it isn't it could make things a lot worse though. The current setup of leaving the station is an atrocious first impression of the city, but if it doesn't attract more tenants it'll be a massive derelict waste site, which is arguably even worse as it'd make the place look totally in decline. And the changes made to the ring road could prevent any further erosion of the concrete collar for another generation due to the extra pressure this scheme puts on other parts of it.

Considering the number of years past since the demolition of the Tax offices next to the Warwick Road/Ringway Queens site - I find it hard to believe that all of sudden there will be a clamber for Office space on that spot.

Do you mean this one? The sign hung on the front of it declares "TO LET OFFICE SUITES 5,000 - 105,000 SQ FT" There have also been thousands of square feet of office space right outside the station standing empty for as many years as I can remember.

Deeleys built this building in the late 70s, it didn't last long did it? Whilst I worked on it I took a series of photos of the city from the roof. I'll see if I can find them and put them up.

Apparently, Friargate is responding to demand from 'professional services' which, until now, do not have anywhere to 'cluster' in the city. And if the KNUCKLE railway thing gets a move on, the station will be a 'hub' with links. Although I think the lack of HS2 in Coventry will probably turn the city into a local station on Birmingham's network and we'll lose most of the links to London. The infrastructure changes are important, as well. I suspect the current layout of the area is unappealing for businesses, and the current office buildings there are... Pretty poor, and that one that was demolished had dingy entrances and accessed via gloomy underpasses. Low quality office buildings in poor city environments are always going to struggle to attract tenants.

Great shot Tony - trying to work out which angle thats been taken from? I thought that was Westminster Road you can just see the red car exiting from in front but that does not match the sign directions? Is that the direction of Queens Road church behind the trees? Love to see those photos matchle55

Hi Neil, I was stood approx on the 'X' and the photo was taken looking in the direction of the arrow. View ©Google Maps

...and another similar view, taken from a few paces back. You can see, on the left of the photo, where they have already demolished about a

Thanks Tony It's amazing how quickly you get used to developments and how equally quickly you forget the 'lie of the land' as it was before. There was a lot of office space empty in that building back then! Shows what a Coventrian lover I am - I was actually trying to see if there was anything interesting piled up by the excavator on that site yesterday. They are currently clearing the 'pile' to make it all level.

How long ago was that demolished? I've forgotten what it was like when there was a building there. I went there once with a friend of mine when he went to 'sign on' (I think it was a job centre?)

You're right Flap - the job centre was there for a while. I recall going in there as well circa 1985. I think it must have been late 80's when it went