Coventry Rebuilt Its City Centre From Rubble. Did the Plan Work?

In November 1940 the old heart of Coventry burned. Six years later, a slab of green slate carved with a phoenix was laid in the rubble, and every level of a brand-new city centre was measured from it. This documentary follows Donald Gibson's plan for Britain's first large traffic-free shopping precinct, the cathedral built beside its own ruins, the rooftop car parks, the ring road, the decline and the debate over what to keep. Coventry was not a New Town: it was an ancient city that chose to rebuild itself, and the story is told evenhandedly, from the people who shopped there and the people who mourned what was lost. Chapters: 0:00 A Phoenix in the Paving 3:24 Two Plans for One Ruin 6:33 Building Without Steel 9:34 A Street With No Traffic 12:42 Saturdays in the New Centre 15:32 Cars on the Roof, Plays Behind Glass 18:31 A Cathedral Beside the Ruins 21:31 The Concrete Collar 24:26 What the Bombs Left Standing 27:37 From Model City to Ghost Town, and Back 30:44 Walking the Plan Today 33:55 Between the Ruin and the Precinct What do you think: if it had been your city, would you have rebuilt it the way Coventry did, or fought to save the old streets? And where in the world are you watching from? #Coventry #PostwarBritain #BritainReplanned