COVENTRY – Poster-child and template for postwar urban renewal
A tour of Coventry with Tim Mars, Tuesday 13 June (full details on this link)
Coventry’s postwar reconstruction was hailed at the time as an inspiration and a template for other bombed and devastated towns and cities to follow. Pevsner called it ‘one of the most imaginative examples of a twentieth-century city centre rebuilt after wartime destruction’. It was described as ‘completely visionary’ by the Twentieth Century Society.
And it continues to be praised in extravagant terms to this day, with comparisons to Bath and Edinburgh. ‘This was something which was in its day internationally lauded [as] that generation’s version of Bath or Edinburgh New Town,’ according to Otto Samaurez-Smith. ‘This was something that they felt they could be proud of.’ Owen Hatherley writes that ‘the result is one of the most enjoyable townscapes in Britain of any era’.
Despite those plaudits, planning permission has been granted for City Centre South, a £300m retail-led scheme that will see the demolition of a significant part of the postwar city centre, starting in September. So what went wrong? Were the postwar plans misconceived, a disaster and a disappointment from day one? Or is this civic vandalism and philistinism—equivalent to razing part of Edinburgh New Town?
This may be your last chance to see these streets, buildings, arcades and squares and decide if this is indeed one of the most enjoyable townscapes in Britain of any era and that what is proposed is civic vandalism on an epic scale. Or that it is much-needed redevelopment of a city centre that has clearly had its day.
Click here to see and read more and book your place on the tour.