How has living in Coventry been impacted by urban development?

I guess this question is mainly aimed at the people who have been living in Coventry for a really long time! I'd love to hear about how urban development has impacted your lives living in Coventry. Thanks in advance.

I'm sure there will be plenty of members who will be willing to share their experiences of this. Can I assume that this research is in aid of a book or thesis, or similar?

Hi Rob. I'm at the University of Warwick, and one of my modules is called 'Urban Data - Theory and Methodologies'. For our first assignment we are writing an ethnography on a given information source surrounding Coventry. I chose this website to base the ethnography on

You could do little better than read a few of the existing threads about people's experiences of the city The Coventry You Will Never Know Our Kaga Members' Articles Dirty Stop Outs From the 70s And many more. Anecdotes are scattered throughout the threads. Alternatively you could think up some questions to trigger specific memories. Urban development and living in Coventry is both a long and anguished story going back to... well to the Saxons. nb the longest threads tend to have the most memories recorded.

Things to think about - How do you define Coventry? Within the ring road (a study in itself), which saw a rapid decline in housing before and after the war, with only a modern up tick due to flats? Or the outer Coventry that has seen massive amounts of homes built since the early 1800s? The distribution of housing, business and shopping is a complicated history in Coventry, even before you consider what people felt about it. In terms of urban development, will you distinguish voluntary development (eg the demolition of Butcher Row area) or forced (eg mass destruction and rebuilding due to the war)? What timescale are you looking at? Depending on how long you intend to consider, the experiences of living in Coventry have varied. You could study the changing experiences of students or shoppers or workers. Or pick old inhabitants versus new ones. Perceptions of the modern city vary depending on what people have seen come and go and even their expectations colour their opinions. Do you pick a subset of society and consider their changing circumstances? There are books discussing immigrants, weavers, women, firemen and others. Their lives were all influenced by Coventry's changing streets. Your first problem will be focusing your study, not finding information.

Looking at the dictionary definition of `ethnography` I would say that you are in for a very big task.

Growth of 'out of town' retail in the 1990s onwards (on former industrial land) probably led to the decline of the city centre (along with the internet retail) and changed shopping patterns from a central 'area' to one reliant on the car. Hence the empty Precinct and queues to get into dismal places like Central Six. In the US they call places like Coventry 'Donut Cities'. The biggest urban development in my time here was probably 'Priory Place', which when it first opened was a bit a breath of fresh air for Coventry, in that it had some contemporary bars/restaurants and the place looked good. My 'group' of friends used to use the places a lot, but they closed down over the years. Although the place seems to have come to life a bit more recently, it was never the 'buzzing' spot it was intended to be and despite winning an award, the overall 'Phoenix' development looks pretty tatty now. In recent years the change-over in Cathedral Lanes from retail to restaurants has been a good improvement and we stay within in the city more now thanks to this. The same for 'Belgrade Plaza' which means a trip to the theatre can also mean a trip to eat out. The office developments in out of town locations (one from the 1980s, one from the 1990s) have attracted companies that provide jobs suitable for my skills, hence we've stayed here. (Some of these places have taken on a lot of the Software and Electronics experts who lost their jobs when Marconi/Ericsson closed.) The Friargate development has made a huge difference to the city's built environment. A collection of subways and flyovers and bridges replaced with a continuous stretch from city centre to the station - makes the place feel and look better, IMHO, and visitors using the station won't be confronted by an embarrassing mess.

Eight years on this situation has changed quite a bit. More shops have closed in the city centre and large areas have been demolished under the City Centre South redevelopment which will bring more housing to the city centre. The council seem to have similar plans to redevelop the area around the current transport museum as City Centre North, although that is probably some years into the future. There are certainly a lot more student blocks than there were eight years ago although some of them seem to be underutilised to the point where the owners wish to convert some of them into Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMO). The Belgrade Plaza area has come on in leaps and bounds with the theatre, two hotels, and numerous places to eat. However as an occasional user of the theatre and the Telegraph Hotel I am wondering where I will park my car now that the very convenient NCP car park has closed down. I suppose that I could risk using the West Orchards car park but that is always very busy and is not user friendly in my opinion. I guess that it is now even busier than before given that both the NCP car park and the Barracks car parks have gone. Coventry city centre does look better than it did but a lot of people still won't come into the city if there are no shops, or if they can't park their car. I know that I could use the bus, and I do so during the daytime but I don't want to hang about for buses when I have been out to the theatre or to some other event. There is also the 'feel safe' factor. There are certain parts of the city centre where I don't feel safe, I am sure that I am not alone in this.

Not Local, your last para probably describes for many one of the many realities of access to the city centre. It certainly does for me, particularly during hot periods. Sitting on a sweaty hot bus is not exactly pleasant as the sun shines on a gloriously sunny day. My local bus route is NOT direct (once a 20 min journey with lots of traffic now nearer 30 mins with less traffic), as a result of service cuts so my bus route encompasses some of the areas covered by their own service, unlike its former glory days, where there were many routes. I could at one time chose from one of four direct bus routes, now down to one that winds its way through multiple side roads and estates.... The loss of manufacturing, what was a valuable source of family income which would help to support the retail businesses. There are many more contributary factors, and many I will not be aware of where others can reveal.