We are back in the Old Grammar School for Heritage Open Days with Coventry Family History Society and others on Saturday and Sunday, September 15-16. 12noon to 4pm each day. To make the event a success we need a team of volunteers. The duties will be onerous! Please contact the chairman with offers of help— an hour or two will really help.
September 2018
We also see the proposed removal of the canopy in front of the former BHS store as ruination to the well balanced cross-roads of the precincts. We acknowledge that the canopy was removed from Waterstones sometime ago, but the former BHS store elevation matches the M&S frontage perfectly. We ask the question: 'why change it?' These tinkering devices will not solve the problem of declining fortunes in our city centre. We applaud the series of pre-application meetings held last year by Litchfields Consultancy and understand from results that the public consider the need for rain cover to be important. Hardly surprising. Coventry City Council state: “.. this must be a top quality scheme..” We couldn’t agree more. “..it’s what local people and the Upper Precinct deserve. In fact this plan is very similar to the original Gibson plan..” An incorrect statement when our ground-breaking precinct respected across the world, would have important features like its sheltered pavements removed in favour of more retail space.
Never in our wildest dreams did we expect to see arcaded shopping that has kept shoppers out of the rain for more than 50 years, be taken away from Coventry’s Upper Precinct. An integral part of the widely acclaimed post-war city centre designed by Donald Gibson, it’s practical, a pleasing feature and part of Coventry's heritage. When members of Coventry Society were shown the plans by developers before Historic England listed the Upper Precinct, we were asked for our opinion. We expressed our concern over the lack of easy access to the balcony in the scheme. Getting retailers back onto the balcony level—first class. But footfall will be lamentably low once the ramp and escalator are both removed. Not that we object to the removal of the escalator. Coventry Society will be delighted to see it go. But in so doing a new footway to the balcony from We have yet to see plans for the public realm with restored Broadgate will be absolutely vital. greenery and water features, as mentioned in the local press.
Monday, September 10 at 7.30pm Shopfront Theatre, City Arcade There will also be a Special General Meeting at the start of the meeting (7.15pm) to amend the Constitution of the Society. There will also be a presentation of Life Membership to Ralph Butcher. Free for members, £2 for visitors
Pictured right: George Wagstaffe and left: his Naiad work of art in Palace Yard, its original home.
More news and views on our website: www.coventrysociety.org.uk