Free for members, £2 for visitors
A guided tour of
Meet at 7.30pm at the Watch Museum, Spon Street Free for members, £2 for visitors
July 2018
As House of Fraser announces it is pulling out of Birmingham and Solihull Keith Draper argues that it’s time to re-think the City Centre South shopping development. Designed specifically to attract the multi-nationals, he asks the question: “Isn’t it time to think again? Isn’t it time to stop putting all our eggs in one basket, relying forever on the whims of profit-driven big boys?” It’s understandable our City Fathers should want to see our retail offer move up the rankings, but half a minute, shouldn’t we really be taking a fresh look at this grandiose City Centre South scheme granted outline planning consent all those years ago in 2012. Six years ago! Hasn’t the retail trade moved on since those days? From what I read it’s a challenging market for retailers. Spending is squeezed and costs are rising. We are already seeing an acceleration of store closures among the multi-nationals. Online continues to outperform the rest of the market. Clearly the multi-national store still has a part to play but it looks as though there will be fewer of them. No doubt you will recall that the whole purpose of City Centre South was to provide a considerable number of units with deeper trading floors for the big chains. Does this make sense in the prevailing climate? The Society has always believed the small local retailer needs better support, especially in these challenging days. Often the owner has invested considerable time and sums of The shopping experience in the money to provide an individual City Arcade: neglected for years service to shoppers. Think Agers; think Walter Smith; think Butterfly Bras. Take the City Centre South redevelopment area. There are still some highly successful businesses that have clung on here despite no security of tenure. No promise of alternative premises to trade from when the day of eviction arrives. Does this make sense? Some of us will have lived through the years of comprehensive redevelopment that brought to fruition the precincts we enjoy
today. Has the Council thought through the effect of massive demolition in Market Way, Shelton Square, the City Arcade, Bull Yard and Herford Street? How will it affect trading in the rest of the city centre as these challenging times continue. It’s hard to imagine the effect it will have on the reputation of Coventry as we head towards CC South Vision: do we need City of Culture 2021. So what is more windswept squares? the alternative? Few would deny that much of the city centre needs to be updated. It’s scruffy and ill-kept. Frontages once the pride of the Gibson plan have been neglected. They appear to provide the ammunition that developers and the Council look for to demolish. What happened to pride in our central streetscapes and precincts? Oddly enough the more intimate environments of Shelton Square and Bull Yard and the City Arcade have the sort of premises eminently suited to the small trader. So why not restore, modernise, re-face? Form a small retailers’ trust. A co-operative that might negotiate the sort of rents that are affordable. A sustainable city centre shining out with the sort of shop window displays we once enjoyed? Put together by enthusiastic shop staff. Isn’t it time to give our young entrepreneurs a real opportunity to become part of a new small trader community. The seeds are there. You see them emerge in shop units that have lain waste for months. This approach may well not appeal to developers like Shearer. Perhaps not entirely true if only our City Council gave a lead. Surely there has to be an alternative plan at this crucial time. I urge the Council to think again.
After a year of rigorous campaigning the Naiad is to be returned to public display. This famous piece of public art by internationally recognised artist George Wagstaffe had been hidden away from public view for nearly a decade. Eventually the city were forced to pay for the repair caused by poor storage and theft attempts, and store it in the Council House rather than the old gate house at Lady Herbert’s Garden. Although I, like many Coventry people, will be happy to see her back, it raises the question about the poor guardianship of our
public art. There are many missing artworks in this city and our city council must answer for their condition and whereabouts. Naiad will initially be displayed in the new Friargate foyer until a more appropriate setting can be provided. Of course its original location in the Earl Street courtyard, after this location has been restored would be ideal, but this Grade 2 listed location is now owned by Coventry University, and they have proved to be more interested in what they can take from this city than preserving our post-war heritage.
More news and views on our website: www.coventrysociety.org.uk
Tile Hill Village Residents’ Group has nominated its local pub, the Bell Inn, to be locally listed. The initial assessment has been completed and representations have been invited, before a recommendation is made to the Planning Committee. This is online at http://www.coventry.gov.uk/ locallistnominations
pre-industrial settlements and fits the Arden rural landscape. Rose and Woodbine The future for the Rose and Woodbine looks more certain as new owners have asked the Council to confirm A4 pub use. We understand that this would also allow new use as a shop or café although any alterations to the frontage would of course require planning consent. So we are cautiously optimistic for the future of the historic hostelry.
►The Bell Inn is thought to date back to at least 1813 and may well contain fragments from an earlier building. It is typical of roadside inns opened to serve travellers and locals alike. The building is a distinctive historical element of Coventry’s surviving
Dr Nick Mallinson Programme Manager for the Warwick Manufacturing Group was our guide and speaker when we visited the National Automotive Innovation Centre at Warwick University in June. Members were shown the Vehicle Energy storage and management, carbon fibre reinforced composite manufacturing technologies, a three-dimensional representative of real world conditions where autonomous vehicle technology is investigated and the Very Light Rail project. The railway, weighing 50% less than a DMU, reduces track wear and energy requirements. A demonstrator is due next year. We were also shown a very light rail vehicle battery-powered alternative to conventional trams plus a low-cost track solution for on and off-road running – WMG will work with UK companies to deliver a demonstrator vehicle and novel track by early 2020. Coventry City Council has awarded an £8.0m contract to WMG to develop this system for the streets of our city. This was one of the most informative external meetings we have experienced.
Civic Day at the Priory Visitor Centre once again provided a platform to champion the city’s post-war precincts and architecture. Visitors were clearly interested in our displays highlighting the story of Broadgate and the Upper and Lower Precincts. Many asked about the future of ‘The Elephant’ building, although it was difficult to provide positive assurance as to its future. While Les Fawcett took a group on a tour of the city centre, many others preferred to use the self-guided leaflet produced by Paul Maddocks. With some good support from members of the committee—Pete Walters, John Marshall, Vincent and Geraldine Hammersely and Angus Kaye, the day was a great success.
A couple of years ago we met the architect employed to work on the restoration and re-use of the former Nurses’ Home on Stoney Stanton Road. We were encouraged to see that a real effort was being made to enhance the site with a new build to match the historic old house. We suggested some alteration to the scheme for the old octagonal operating theatre. However, work on the site appears to have stalled and we become more and more concerned for its future as we have seen security become an ever growing problem in other parts of the city. We have asked Coventry Council to serve a Section 215 notice on the owner. This power requires the land to be cleaned up when its condition affects the amenity of the area. We have also asked the Council to serve an Urgent Works notice on the site and follow it up with a Repairs Notice. We understand this is under consideration by senior officers.
Octagonal: The historic operating theatre at the old Coventry & Warwickshire Hospital site on Stoney Stanton Road.
Contacts
Exhibits: Visitors studying the pull-up display panels that were produced last year by Keith Draper.
Postal address: 77 Craven Street, Coventry CV5 8DT Chairman’s tel: 07814327614 Email: info @coventrysociety.org.uk If Twitter is your thing, you can follow us at https://twitter.com/#!/CovSoc We also have our own page on Facebook. You can also follow us there at http://www.facebook.com/ CoventrySociety