What would attract visitors to our city long term?

For me the biggest turn off for any town or city is new gigantic buildings. If I'd never been to Coventry but heard that it was infested with gigantic buildings my wish to go there would be zero.

In many ways I'm with Flapdoodle. The old city has gone and isn't coming back. Tall buildings aren't the worst you could have, after all New York has done well as has London. What's at street level is more important and I just hope that they get round to tidying up the bit along Corporation Street as nicely as the Belgrade area was looking. Money is important and paying students are what you've got right now. New accommodation being so close to the theatre might give that a boost in funds, allowing it to keep going, even if it has to put on more comedians and bands. The old bits are precious but need to be linked up with new stuff. I lived in Coventry for 15 years and barely saw any of it because there wasn't the businesses in between to draw me towards them. The city needs to be improved one notch at a time and from what I've seen it is doing that. As for leisure, I'm not sure what people do out these days apart from eat, drink and play on their phone. Even sport is a minority pastime.

But if you look at the list of places with large amounts of tourists, all of them have big buildings somewhere. So, while that may be sufficient to put you off going there, it clearly isn't enough for a majority of people. Just as there are people who will visit somewhere for the old stuff, there are plenty of people who visit places like Dubai BECAUSE of the new tall buildings. Look at popular attractions in these well visited places and you get things like Empire State Building, Burj Khalifa, Eiffel Tower etc. Even this new building is, in modern terms, quite small. It barely classifies as mid-rise. But as Flap says, this isn't the major issue. Having things to do is far more important than the buildings, which on the whole tend to be 'filler' activities. But if you attract more people you need places for them to stay, and that will invariably lead to having to build taller buildings. The trick is getting the balance between new and old, and catering for a wider variety of people. Those that do want to see the old stuff don't really want a huge modern structure overlooking it, and (IMO) trying to keep the two separate to a large degree is the best solution. Unfortunately, Coventry has its old stuff far too spread out to achieve this, and as I've said before it needs to look at grouping these together where possible to make the most of them and facilitate more coherent new developements.

I think big buildings are good where they fit in nicely. When you are sitting on bench on Butcher Row with the giant brick cliff face of Primark nearby it just feels so nasty to me, as an example.

That area is unfortunate, as it was never completed properly. The original intention was for there to be another building where the 'square' called Ironmonger Square is and this would have hidden the backside of Primark which is quite bland (although the building is actually decent). The deviation from Gibson's original plans (for a number of reasons) means that even bits of the post-war city are at odds with each other and had left a somewhat awkward streetplan. Not visiting a city because of tall buildings is a ridiculous stance to take.

I agree that there are poorly designed big buildings in this city - Primark (well, the back of it) is a perfect example. It's got a large footprint, it reduces the legibility and access to the route, the brick doesn't allow light to reflect in so it dominates the space even more, the wall itself is practically featureless and most importantly IMO there is nothing at all at ground floor level. Even something like window displays would have helped. It was a poorly thought out building plonked there purely to create the Square in Broadgate. IKEA is the most recent example. Poor choice of site to begin with exacerbated by totally blank walls and views of its car park. They are, of course, a welcome addition to the retail choice, but considering they're supposed to be renowned for their innovative good design and the council gave them pretty much carte blanche in the design of their building, it's hard to believe they managed to create such an absolute carbuncle of a building. BTW, it also is a bit telling in the fact that you hark for the past when you talk about sitting in Butcher Row - a street that has not actually existed for decades!

Didn't the basement restaurant used to look out onto Ironmonger Row* at one time? *Arguably the site of Little Butcher Row

The ground area of Butcher Row exists again uncovered, as these merged map images show.

Dutchman, LBR merged maps.

Thanks Osmiroid!

I was looking the other day at what are called 'microstock' sites - the places people put their pictures up for sale. What surprised me was that there were so few pictures of Coventry. And, the pictures that were there concentrated on the tired old view of the ruins of the old cathedral. Tour operators and holiday magazine editors from around the world see only those images. It gives the impression that is all Coventry has to offer. The microstock sites like any other photo agency accept only good quality images but from what I have seen on this forum some of you might like to try your luck.

Have we forgot we were the hub of the car industry and motor bikes and all the best of manufacturing?

Er, no, but that isn't coming back.

"IanVisits", a London blogger, has recently visited the city. He has posted blogs on: - Coventry's medieval architecture - The Museum of British Road Transport - Midland Air Museum - Electric Railway Museum They give an interesting perspective from an outsider. Regards, Peter.

I made the effort to get into town yesterday specifically to pick up leaflets for the forthcoming 'Coventry Heritage Days' taking place in little over a fortnight. They are only now being printed. That just shows to me how interested the local council is in attracting tourists. By the time the leaflets are distributed potential visitors to the city will have decided to go elsewhere.