Hillfields

I suspect what 17COV145 is referring to is the loss of community spirit when people were relocated to clear large areas of early 19 century houses. The trust between neighbours that built up over generations was lost. I suspect the evangelical revivals were important in creating communities for those moving to cities back in the late 18 and early 19th centuries. At the time the quality of housing built for the weavers and watch makers must have seemed a big improvement to those displaced from the cottages generally provided for agricultural labourers. The problem with having a clean slate to rebuild virtually everything within a couple of decades is that solitary buildings of historical or architectural merit that are left behind look out of place, similarly with attemps to integrate newer styles. In trying to be innovative mistakes were made: high alumia cement, asbestos, poor insulation, rebar rusting, etc. Perhaps we can forgive the planners for not anticipating the change in retail purchasing. In 1950 who would have predicted the disappearance of Woolworths and British Home Stores or that of large scale manufacturing, requiring then an inner ring road to cope with the rush hour traffic crossing the city to get to work. Perhaps if some of the brutalist architecture is retained, Coventry may, in a couple of centuries, become an attraction for tourists again!

I'm not sure that architecture changes are what have primarily affected how humans interact. For most of time the only entertainment people had 99% of the time was talking to the people nearby. Whether family, friends, colleagues or neighbours. That was even more so for villages and farms. Once radio, TV and now the internet appeared, people didn't need each other in the same way. The addictiveness of the internet is there is always something/one more interesting than what is happening around you. Watch any waiting room crowd these days. Almost everyone has their nose in a phone.

My Grandma and Grandad Hastings were moved to Willenhall from Hillfields and they and the rest of their family never really got over it. All the shops they needed, including the co-op, were at the top of their home in Wellington Street, instead of the trek down to the shopping center in Willenhall with no car to haul it back. The rest of the family were in Radford, Coundon, Tile Hill, Wyken and other neighbourhoods so popping in when you were in the city shopping became a thing of the past. Even their church was a hike for two pensioners. They lost their community.

My uncle was a butcher all his life and his shop was on the corner of Wellington Street and King William Street. He never had a problem with wind until the skyscrapers opposite were built. (No facetious remarks please - we don't want humour on this forum. ) No, it was only after the first skyscraper was built that he said, "Cor blimey, it ain't half windy in the road nowadays; those buildings force all the wind down to street level. I have to hold on to me 'at when I'm going to me car."