Broadgate from Hertford Street

In recent years the Cathedral Lanes shopping centre has been one of Coventry's most controversial buildings, central to the well-being (or otherwise) of Broadgate, which has long been the focal point of the city.

The very name of this small shopping mall betrays its original intention, which, according to a Coventry Society magazine from 1986, was to have been "....a row of small specialist shops designed to cater for tourists, to be called 'Cathedral Lanes'. This would link the Cathedral area with the Precinct." It's certainly easy to understand why so many people in or from Coventry, who care deeply about their hometown, feel betrayed, and have discussed this place endlessly.

Clicking on the photo above will take you back nearly a century to a time when everything was in black and white! The spire of Holy Trinity church appears to be the only survivor of the age, although who's to say that one of those fine early automobiles isn't now gracing our super museum of British Road Transport?

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