Coventry's Universities

Thanks for these links

I enjoyed the video of Coventry University. It must have been quite exciting seeing all this stuff go up in 10-15 years. A feeling that 'something' was happening? By the time I arrived here in 1989, it all looked rundown and whole Priory Hall area was a dismal complex of stairways and ugliness. And bits of some of the buildings were falling off. They were still demolishing the old town and building stuff like Cathedral Lanes - or in the case of West Orchards demolishing stuff built in the 1950s/1960s! Even C block has gone already. I remember on an old building opposite D block (Cox Street?) that was used to store canoes and boating equipment for, I assume, one of the societies! It was like the remains of a little old house. I had a great time at the Poly, though... Met loads of friends and learnt a lot. It was nice being in a city rather than the small town I grew up in.

It looks like the 'D' block, or James Starley building as it is now known, is coming to the end of its days It is not structurally sound (which is worrying as my office is in the basement!) and the plan is to begin work to demolish and replace it within a year or 2.

I was based in D block when I did my degree. During my first or second year, they closed it down for a few weeks while they had surveys done! I seem to recall there was a large crack down them middle of it and all the rooms were quite small. Us students used to ridicule how it 'bowed' at the end and sagged in the walkways. Terrible building. The sort of stuff that was thrown up in the 1960s and ridiculed, even then, as being of low quality architecture.

There isn't much left of the east side of the city that the Uni doesn't already own!

I'm not sure that having the whole area dominated by a single use area is particularly good for the city centre. When I was at Sheffield University, the Uni felt much more integrated with the city centre (and it also had a 'flyover' cutting through it as well). We seem to have ended up with a series of single use 'ghettoes' in Coventry city centre.

In the 90's they had to add support to the ends due to the bowing. It is an awful building. I'm in the basement, the air con for the whole building runs through the adjoining office and if you can imagine the smell which comes from the animal labs above .... grim! Leanne

Hi all The university in Coventry does add to the economy of the city. The future is not so certain though, with politics & fees having reduced student applications nationally. Some estimates suggest that a 60% reduction in the bubble of university students is just around the corner. Each uni' is going to have to prove itself on the basis of its success in order to attract students in the future. They might not be queueing to enrol as in the past.

The Uni certainly hasn't added to the history of the city as much of it was pulled down in order to accommodate it!

Thats true, I would be very sad if they ever pulled down the Ellen Terry and Richard Crossman Buildings. Us 'staff' have also had a reminder to not walk over the ruins of the Whitefriars Monastery as locals have complained. I wish they would put some gates or barriers around it, many international students do not appreciate the history. As for the Uni's future, the message from our VC is that we are going from strength to strength. Our applications are increasing and we are now the best post '92 in the country! I hope so, I need a job!! Leanne

Good luck with that but I'm afraid the jobs that many graduates are expecting simply aren't there. I know of one city graduate who is working in a sandwich bar and another who was offered an unpaid work placement in the USA for six months with no guarantee that it would ever lead to a paid position. In spite of that I've seen new posters advertising courses for the types of job which both the city council and the NHS are already cutting back on and are unlikely to exist in the near future.

I agree, the outlook for our graduates is not so great anymore.

Wandered through part of the Coventry University campus today, access from Gulson Road - in the glorious sunshine the buildings and the area all looked very impressive - what do YOU think? This building below is the Lanchester Library This is the Engineering and Computing Building Finally, this is the Staff Car Park viewed from inside the campus - it's behind the William Morris (DHSS) Building and the more common view is from the roundabout at the bottom of Sky Blue Way and Gosford Street

I think it's a shame they've abolished execution by public torture for people who design monstrosities like these!

Some interesting buildings, but it's all such a disjointed mess and I suspect that in 15 years time the 'gimmick' will have worn off and they'll look just as tatty as the existing buildings. This a problem throughout Coventry - in particular the Skydome/Ikea area. No sense that it's a city, just a random collection of badly laid out buildings.