Post-war redevelopment

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.

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!

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.

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'.

All change! - great view including remains along West Orchard.

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.

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.

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.

Kaga, where's the 'White Lion' in the photo?

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.

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!

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!

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.

I often wonder about the changes eg the bricked up windows.