Medieval Far Gosford Street - Coventry - Proposed Masterplan

[stig1982]

Originally Posted by NewTroll

Didn't I read that the highways agency may require the application (For some of the buildings lining Skyblue Way) to be withdrawn and resubmitted for some reason?

Yes, there are some highway concerns because the new development at the rear of the site and facing on to Sky Blue Way would appear to block up or restrict part of the existing service road that runs along the site. So the planning department have suggested a 'Stopping Up' application be resubmitted.

Bureaucracy eh?

[Dr Pepper]

[Dr Pepper]

[CovAD]

CT reporting that The Beer Engine is going to become a Hooters-style bar. Not really sure that's what this area needs....

[Dr Pepper]

There is a sign on the back of the pub facing Sky Blue Way stating the pub would be open for the world cup.

[NewTroll]

Sounds utterly dismal:

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/new...2746-26603649/

[Fernando Partridge]

Originally Posted by NewTroll

Sounds utterly dismal:

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/new...2746-26603649/

jesus wept

[We-Are-Borg-1987]

I thought CCC wanted this area to improve !?! There is something similiar in Rugby, its pretty bad.

[Dr Pepper]

Work continues on the car park site.

[Dr Pepper]

Soon to be Bostons Sports Bar.

[NewTroll]

The former landlord of the Beer Engine would be spinning in his grave to see this...:-(

[NewTroll]

Artists have taken up a lease on some offices here:

http://www.fargosfordstreet.com/news...s-in-coventry/

Also the new street plan:

http://www.fargosfordstreet.com/uplo...way%20Plan.pdf

This sort of thing can IMHO go a long to repair the damage that was done by the wholesale destruction of the town planners!

[stig1982]

Scaffolding has been erected around more timber framed listed buildings at numbers 38-41 Far Gosford Street. Restoration work is finally set to commence.



Nice to see that some developers care about Coventry's heritage. Unlike ignorant fuckers like Coventry University and Severn Trent.

[NewTroll]

Originally Posted by stig1982

Nice to see that some developers care about Coventry's heritage. Unlike ignorant fuckers like Coventry University and Severn Trent.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

I've been doing some reading up on the post-war reconstruction of Coventry, and Donald Gibson - who has a monument in the city centre - was equally ignorant, not to mention arrogant as well.

Good to see progress on FGS.

[CovAD]

I really don't see why all the hoo-hah over two bog-standard pubs that really weren't special in any way, so wouldn't attract tourists, and had proved unviable economically for a number of years. Why are these different to the market? The market is at least unique.

Do you think the people that put them up intended them to be shining examples of architectural quality? Or just a cheap as possible build to get as much income as possible at the time. Coventry maybe hasn't got a wealth of Victorian buildings, but even so I don't see any special reason why those should have been saved. If you start saving stuff like that, city's die through having to compromise too much when building stuff that is usable today, or just build on virgin land further out to escape all the problems.

However, I do think NT is right about Gibson - his 'memorial' should be removed as if most of his ideas had come to fruition there'd be pretty much nothing left, and what did get built has proved a massive error. There is very little of his 'planning' that deserves recognition - he was just the person that got lucky when it got destroyed sadly. I think most people on here could have put together a better overall plan than that.

[NewTroll]

By your logic, CovAD, we should destroy anything old that is no longer suitable for what it was originally intended - the sad fact is the pubs have been demolished quickly without any attempt to re-use them, and regardless of their tourist attraction status (The ONLY building in Coventry that attracts tourists is the Cathedral, and they're declining) they are reminders of Coventry's 19th century past and character. Why not demolish the old gatehouse opposite? Surely with the opening of Severn Trent, the Greyhound would have potentially been suitable for a business to support the 1500 workers that'll be there?

Some of your justification for demolition is pretty much the same arguments used in the post-war years to demolish wholesale the city's street plan and replace it with buildings that we all hate, that have made Coventry into a laughing stock and an embarrassment.

Now they are all just empty spaces - with the Hope & Anchor being used by contractors for BAM who are building the pretty bland Coventry Uni building that fits in well with the rest of that campus. (And why, oh why, are the council repeating the biggest mistake by allowing the Uni to turn most of the city centre into a single use campus?) Why can't these building be incorporated into developments?

Part of the reason for the decline is down to the decline in the pub trade, itself heavily affected by supermarket pricing, and it doesn't help that the spectre of that talentless Town Planner (Destroyer) still looms over us: they are stuck down dead-ends created by his ringroad & set adrift on streets that were damaged by the blitz, but them demolished wholesale to make way for Gibson's Folly.

The sad thing is that every city in the 1940s had a Donald Gibson coming up with these grand plans to widen roads, demolish old buildings, build precincts and huge single use zones. People didn't want this new world, but they got it (Mainly from Labour controller councils, who bluntly ignored public opinion as they believed they were right.) Coventry was unlucky in that Gibson managed to get his plan implemented - although altered thanks to Ernest Ford, who was very much for keeping much of the old city - and Arthur Ling followed it through, like a shit after a big fart.

I don't think the pubs are stunning architecture, but they are reminders of a time when Coventry was a proper urban city: it had streets, intersections, frontages with period stying (Some of rather attractive). Now that has virtually all gone, and what's left is probably going to follow.

http://www.coventrysociety.org.uk/de...?ArticleId=172

[CovAD]

I didn't exactly say they should be torn down if they can't be put to their original use - an alternative use would be acceptable if proof could be given that it was a viable venture.

I heard people saying that the Hope and Anchor should have been residential, but as only a two story building with a slightly odd shape, the number of tenants would have been restricted and either unviable or overly expensive. I have no idea who the building met up to current building regs or residential properties for access, fire, etc either.

Possibly the Greyhound could have served the ST workers (although the pub trade is in heavy decline and I feel will only get worse as the govt continues to implement its attempts to make alcohol a socially unacceptable pastime like smoking), but from a quote on here it sounds like it practically fell down anyway.

As for stuff like the gatehouse, as they have an 'older' appearance and more 'character' they're likely to be of more interest and so could be on a tourist trail, but frankly I expect some of them to go during my lifetime too sadly.

[Dr Pepper]

Good to see.

[Dr Pepper]

[morestoreysplease]

Have they re-branded it Fargo??