
Rob Orland Historic Coventry All posts by this member | 121 of 134 Sat 11th Aug 2018 10:29pm Webmaster: Joined Jan 2010 Total posts:1651 As strange as it must sound now, our council really did do a lot of planning before and during the early part of the war, as their own publications testify. The picture below depicting their (or should I say, Gibson's) dream for a new Broadgate was made in 1939, and then in 1942, as the last few bombs were being dropped on our city, a booklet named "The City we Loved" was published, including talk of future plans for the city centre, and promising not to make the same mistakes that previous planners had made with poor layout and "incongruous" shops.
I'm sure many people might've questioned whether the councillors' time was being spent wisely while the war was still raging, but I've not heard if that was so - if indeed anyone was aware.
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Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
Dreamtime Perth Western Australia All posts by this member | 122 of 134 Sun 12th Aug 2018 5:09am Member: Joined Jan 2010 Total posts:3477 Thanks for that one Rob. Why anyone could find anything wrong with that layout for a historical old city like Coventry I will never know. All these modern buildings having been built over the years have been since replaced with further modern atrocious (in my mind) eyesores full of UNUSED SPACE. Ok we have to move with the times but let's not get carried away and start forgetting what the word 'heritage' means.
Yes, I know what you are thinking - I no longer live there but it doesn't mean my heart no longer has any space for the old city. There are still a great many of 'the old school' in Coventry who I am sure are so sorry to see what's happening to the ever decreasing city centre.
Sorry folks but that picture of Rob's just got me going, and like you say modern shops would have looked inappropriate. A forfeiture to progress! As always the wrong people have the last word and the people that matter no word at all. That's life! |
Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
Kaga simpson Peacehaven, East Sussex All posts by this member | 123 of 134 Sun 12th Aug 2018 9:26am Member: Joined Sep 2014 Total posts:3773 Rob, that is just the kind of answer I was looking for, of course not during the war but in the fifties, but where would it have been published? - not in the Council House itself, I tried - I don't think in those days to the public itself. If you wanted those sort of things you were told to join some political party or such, or I may have spoken to the wrong person, a number of things could have happened, but it was always an interest to me what the council was doing. Anyway, Rob thank you, and pleased to hear from you now the 'what happened on this day' finished. |
Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
Kaga simpson Peacehaven, East Sussex All posts by this member | 124 of 134 Sun 12th Aug 2018 9:44am Member: Joined Sep 2014 Total posts:3773 Dreamtime,
I'm not sure I like the road between the churches. I always loved the way they stood side by side, but yes the island would have looked peace and quiet for the city following the bombardment type of thing - 'one can dream'. |
Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
NeilsYard Coventry All posts by this member Thread starter | 125 of 134 Tue 26th Feb 2019 11:45am Member: Joined Aug 2010 Total posts:2857 All change! - great view including remains along West Orchard.
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Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
NeilsYard Coventry All posts by this member Thread starter | 126 of 134 Tue 21st May 2019 10:28am Member: Joined Aug 2010 Total posts:2857 On 13th Apr 2012 7:47pm, Rob Orland said:
Well, just finished a bit of a mammoth scanning session! Firstly, though, I'd like to thank LdeMain for her kindness in passing that 1966 Review Plan on to me.
And now for your viewing pleasure and entertainment.... the first 19 pages of the plan - the overview, with photos, models and diagrams. I'll try to put more on as I find some time, but this first section sets the tone of the plan, and in many ways echoes the earlier 1945 plan which laid out the first post-war proposals.
For convenience, I've placed these images in The Gallery.
I hope they will provoke a few memories....
I've just been given a copy of that Rob. Blimey, someone really went to town (so to speak) on that didn't they?! A lot of historic negativity written in to it to create a 'we need a modern Coventry' impression. |
Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
Kaga simpson Peacehaven, East Sussex All posts by this member | 127 of 134 Tue 21st May 2019 5:41pm Member: Joined Sep 2014 Total posts:3773 Neil,
1951 thereabouts, and straight out of the history books, look how frail the White Lion pub looks at the top of the Precinct, standing among the debris, but it was warm and comfortable inside.
The White Lion had stood on that same spot since around 1730. You buy a drink, you take a breath, and let Coventry history seep into you. |
Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
Kaga simpson Peacehaven, East Sussex All posts by this member | 128 of 134 Thu 23rd May 2019 4:33pm Member: Joined Sep 2014 Total posts:3773 Whole books may be written about the redevelopment of the City of Coventry, but for those people who had lived through the whole of those six years of war, despite the hardships, it had been real and a normal life. Therefore peacetime presented a prospect of the great unknown, and redevelopment even more so.
But the White Lion had been a 'Witness to War' and the casualty that created.
For two hundred years or more, the White Lion had been a lively ale house for Coventry people, yet here it stands, around ten years later (Neil's photo), to me the real 'Spirit of Coventry' - a distant voice from the past, amid the skeletons of the past, ghostly against the sky. Its facade standing loose, its front door unable to be used, damaged and war torn, but still able to offer warmth, comfort and hope to anyone who entered. Can you imagine the feeling, the uplift it gave to wartime people. |
Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
Wearethemods Aberdeenshire All posts by this member | 129 of 134 Thu 23rd May 2019 6:48pm Member: Joined Jun 2013 Total posts:473 Kaga, where's the 'White Lion' in the photo? Question |
Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
Prof Gloucester All posts by this member | 130 of 134 Thu 23rd May 2019 8:27pm Member: Joined Jul 2014 Total posts:1531 Looks to me to be in centre of the photo. Look for the City Arcade in Smithford Street, then come forward and though not clear that would be the position I think. It was one of the last survivors before the Precinct was completed. |
Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
Kaga simpson Peacehaven, East Sussex All posts by this member | 131 of 134 Fri 24th May 2019 9:22am Member: Joined Sep 2014 Total posts:3773 Wearethemods,
Next to Broadgate House, that small oblong white building with the black roof and four windows facing you, that's all that remained from the original pub. Half the Leofric took its place later, from that building right down past West Orchard is a car park in the picture (see Rob's photo 271 on Smithford St for a clearer picture).
Four roads used to converge at the National bank, with a policeman controlling traffic, but look what's happened with redevelopment - a concrete bridge turned Hertford St non existent. Just a black hole to lead to it, then Owen Owen - in the process of being built across Cross Cheaping and the Burges, cutting both of from Broadgate. Even the Precinct had no imagination. The island had no fountain or drinking water.
Ten b . . . . years we waited - for this! |
Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
Dreamtime Perth Western Australia All posts by this member | 132 of 134 Fri 24th May 2019 4:43pm Member: Joined Jan 2010 Total posts:3477 Kaga, always the same, not what we/you want to see, it's all about what THEY want. Usually about money. I can see it all around us here in Perth, WA. No end of shops closing down, a lot through redevelopment and we are told by the news media that the tourism industry is failing and new high rises in the city are standing empty all because some moneybags developer had ideas of grandeur. I thought these edifices were for use not just for looking at! All glass and tin. A good earthquake and they would all fall down. Looks very impressive seen in a holiday brochure but not so in the real world.
Personally, I think the world has gone mad. There, that's my whinge for the day! ![]() |
Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
NeilsYard Coventry All posts by this member Thread starter | 133 of 134 Mon 3rd Aug 2020 11:07am Member: Joined Aug 2010 Total posts:2857 Thanks to my friend Dean Nelson on the True Cov FB page. He posted this one today, an unusual (late 50's?) view looking south across the Barracks Market. What really interested me was the capture of the then 'new' elements of Market Way, still visible today.
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Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment | |
Helen F Warrington All posts by this member | 134 of 134 Mon 3rd Aug 2020 6:22pm Moderator: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:2583 I often wonder about the changes eg the bricked up windows. |
Town Planning and Development - Post-war redevelopment |