After six years of battling to get permission for an Ikea on the outskirts of Coventry, they have just announced plans for a city centre store! It'll be on the site of the Co-Op supermarket (In front of Skydome) which is closing next year and is going to apparently to be a six storey building...

Good news for Coventry - a crumby part of the city centre that desperately needs a shot in the arm. Next to medieval Spon Street, which is more like a ghost street, and fingers crossed the thing that breaks the enclosed "ghetto" of retail that the crappy precinct seems to have become.

Suits me fine, Coventry is a good 20 mins closer to Corby than Brum is :yes:

cool - thats closer to me then walsall

If it's as busy as the one here you've got loads of gridlocked bank holiday weekends to look forward to. Seems a bit strange building it in the City centre I thought these things were only built on the outskirts of town.

If it's as busy as the one here you've got loads of gridlocked bank holiday weekends to look forward to. Seems a bit strange building it in the City centre I thought these things were only built on the outskirts of town.

Ikea are unable to get planning permission for new stores on the outskirts. Hence there recent change in strategy to move into centres.

It may well cause chaos in the city centre and ringroad, but I would think that as the company open more stores, the problem will lighten.

It will cause chaos in the city centre. Here in phoenix, the ikea store in tempe (phx suburb) has caused the crossstreets to be clogged all weekend long. The parking lot is at least a square kilometre that is always full and spilling out into empty dirt lots. Is this what Coventry wants?

I dunno... I'm not a fan of the idea of having retail sheds in city centres. Its bad enough that they build them on the outskirts.

If it's as busy as the one here you've got loads of gridlocked bank holiday weekends to look forward to. Seems a bit strange building it in the City centre I thought these things were only built on the outskirts of town.Ikea are building a store in London which will be on a high st (forgotten where though, was talking about it to someone just the other day as well :laugh: ), their also going to build a tower and various other buildings above to maximise returns and to get planning permission: most are for nurses, doctors, etc....

I dunno... I'm not a fan of the idea of having retail sheds in city centres. Its bad enough that they build them on the outskirts.

I don't think it's going to be a retail shed - for a start, it's six floors, so I would image it'll be a more "traditional" style of building.

At least I hope so. Coventry's already got more than its fair share of crap buildings.

I hope so too. Its just at current, Ikea's architectural track record isnt even worthy of mentioning cos its so crap. The new designs for the London one are good. Hopefully Coventry will get something similar.

I hope so too. Its just at current, Ikea's architectural track record isnt even worthy of mentioning cos its so crap. The new designs for the London one are good. Hopefully Coventry will get something similar.

The council tend to be very picky about new buildings these days, after some dreadful mistakes in the 1990s and after the war - they gave the developers of "Belgrade Plaza" a hard time before they let it through.

They did actually publish a design guideline document which is pretty good - it details the sort of stuff they want to see, like "prominent" features for corners of buildings and continuation of street level frontages - virtually the opposite of the dismal planning after the war.

An Ikea Store is big news?

An Ikea Store is big news?


Sadly, yes. The last one that opened caused riots!

Don't see why myself, as it's hardly great stuff.

When there's one in every major town, the novelty will wear off.

great stuff for coventry x

An Ikea Store is big news?
Big News is an understatement. People literally go skitz about it. They believe they are getting quality stuff for excellent prices. I dont get the hype myself. I find Ikea to be boring and painful.

Big News is an understatement. People literally go skitz about it. They believe they are getting quality stuff for excellent prices. I dont get the hype myself. I find Ikea to be boring and painful.

Ditto. Only been once, and was underwhelmed.