Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Coventry Market the Musical

Nothing to do with autism or me even, but this is where I live, and this town has a history.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/coventry/realmedia/market_musical?size=16x9&bgc=C0C0C0&bbram=1

http://tinyurl.com/5rsra2

The building is of course threatened with demolition, never mind it's historical significance, It was designed by Frederick Gibberd and is actually the prototype for Liverpool Catholic Cathedral, in terms of a circular structure with a lantern.

There is something unique about a circular market and I know of no other like it.






4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I hope it's not demolished if it is of historical and architectural significance. It's a damn sight better than that bloody ring road you have in the town centre!

stevethehydra said...

I find that building hideously confusing and disorienting to get around (and i usually have a suprnormal sense of direction). IMO, it's an accessibility nightmare.

Larry Arnold PhD FRSA said...

The ring road is a disaster, the only person I know who wants to keep it is a canon at Coventry Cathedral, a very loose one :)

As for the market, I find it is superior to any other covered market, particularly Birmingham, there is a logic to it, you keep going round and you will come back to the same place, or you cross it and you come to the other side.

It has deteriorated somewhat of late compared to the original layout in which all stalls were the same size, and the roundabout was not situated in the middle, you could probably get round by smell, the vegetables being on the inner circle and other stalls outside with the Fish Market breaking the circle and providing an orienting point. I have grown up with it so perhaps I am used to it, just like I know to drive on the Ring Road, every one for themselves and the devil take the hindmost.

Socrates said...

My only (tenuous) connection with Coventry is that I use to be a student of Coventry photographer Richard Sadler FRPS, Chair of The Royal Photographic Society’s Contemporary Group, whilst a student of Derby University, which at the time was rated as 96th of 96 higher education establishments. Something of a come down after the red-brick glory of Manchester University...