Butcher Row ('Great' and 'Little')

On 20th Nov 2024 1:41pm, Helen F said: Excellent. Perhaps a better effect would be from an empty photo with superimposed people? Coventry had the opportunity to be spectacular but not unreasonably had other priorities at the time. It's true that Butchers Row fell to road building but it was the lure of the modern and efficient. Coventry was very behind the times. Other cities had already seen their pokey streets demolished by the Georgians and acquired a more modern structure, capable of taking cars. They were originally going to preserve the east side of the street but since they would have to knock large parts of the Cross Cheaping/Butcher Row triangle down someone had the bright idea to clear the lot and build a super dooper department store, Owen Owen, which pushed the road closer to the Holy Trinity. It did open up the view of Holy Trinity, which would have been framed by two modern Tudor style buildings (the Prudential and what is now Wetherspoons) and the timber building on the corner of Derby Lane was to be restored. Smithford Street and the High Street were seeing old timber buildings spruced up and new ones like the White Lion built. A bit longer and the city could have retained a decent number of ancient buildings but the war wiped those feelings out. Spon Street or Gosford Street could have been stocked with survivors but another modernisation bug took the town planners and the rest, as they say, is history.