DavShill wrote:I agree. I spent a few very pleasant days in Coventry when my youngest was at Warwick Uni. It has an interesting history and some amazing old buildings. I remember one particularly good (very old) pub near the cathedral.
Old pub near the Cathedral - probably the Golden Cross - or perhaps Whitefriars.
Whilst I don't really like cities, when I moved to Coventry, I did find a city I could tolerate.
Indeed it does have a mix of old and new - that street full of old buildings is Spon Street - on the corner of which is St Johns church which traces its roots back to the mid 1300s. This was used as a prison in the civil war and being sent there is one of the explanations of the phrase "sent to Coventry"
The "new" is dominated by 1960s concrete post-war rebuild .... which is looking a bit "tired".
Being the historical centre of Britain's (in fact the world's) motor industries, it has an
excellent transport museum which is well worth a visit.
The Ring Road was one of the first (maybe the first) of it's type and despite frequent criticism (some of the entry & exits are a bit short and are not for the feint-hearted or uncommitted) is really very good and works very well.
One thing I really liked when I moved here was the separation of road traffic and pedestrians - with loads of underpasses that avoided people coming in to contact with vehicles.
Due to those of a nervous disposition feeling intimidated in subways at night, rather than tackling the actual problems, they have filled many of them in and put in pedestrian crossings - a major retrograde step.
Hmmm ... the friargate development .... The jury is very far out on that one.
One of the primary ring-road junctions has been obliterated with that - one that worked well. It's all to make an impressive walkway between the city centre and the railway station .... the railway station itself being an ugly, cold, 1960s concrete carbuncle.
We'll see, but not sure that was the best of ideas.
