The past, when it was the future

1945 plan - a lower, gentler, un-Hammersoned Brent Cross

As built

"This 1955 postcard (above) proudly shows off Coventry's newly-completed Upper Precinct. It wasn't to everyone's taste, though. I must admit not being too keen myself on the 'block' buildings, and the uninteresting straight lines everywhere. At the time, though, this 'Festival of Britain' design with its safe pedestrian walkways won awards, and was copied world-wide."

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A day in the Seventies?

Modernisation

"Even before the Second World War broke out, the architectural department at Coventry Council was drawing up ways of rebuilding the outdated medieval city. 

"Little could they have guessed that the town centre would be virtually erased just two years later. Whilst grieving along with the rest of Coventry's population, once the rubble was cleared the City Architect and the council were not slow to publicise the positive aspect of the blitz, and grasp the fact that the bombing had presented them with a clean canvas on which to build a new city."

Click on any image to link to
"Coventry: The post-war years"

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