Coventry in the heart of the Midlands (Coventry in General)

Member Name: lubyloo

Product:	Coventry in General
Date:	03/11/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: New & improving image

Disadvantages: Bit gruby in places (but what city isn't)

I wonder if Coventry's one of those places you either love it or hate it! I love it! I've lived here all my life, my mum and dad moved here for work in the 70's.

One of the best things is that it's in the midlands it's so close to all the main motorways and it's within easy reach of the north, south, east & west! of course as it's the middle! Meriden is actually the middle of England hence Meriden (Meridian) it's about 2miles from the outskirts of Coventry on the West Side.

Coventry is becoming more cosmopolitan and it's trying to lift it's image, we have the Transport Museum which is free and the Herbert Art Gallery which is also free they have exellent and unusal exhibitions and usually interactive, the history library is also based there.

I love the mish mash of old building in Coventry, we have the old Cathedral with the new Cathedral built right next to it and complimenting it - if you've never been you must go and look round it's so interesting. Coventry is known for it's three spires they are the spires of the three main churches; Holy Trinity, the Old Cathedral and the New Cathedral.

Coventry as was said in previous review was the first to be twinned with another City Dresden in Germany. Coventry is also first for having a ring road which although may not look fab actually works and is a brilliant idea. I can't say I've ever had to que to get across town, it gets busy at times and if you're new to the area it takes some getting used to but it's a fab idea for avoiding congestion found in a lot of city's.

Coventry also has an Olympic size swimming pool which was built for when the Olympics were last in UK. It's a great pool with splash facitilities, it's within a whole sports complex which is if you view it from one particular direction on the ring road built in the shape of an Elephant the emblem of Coventry. (I'm not sure where the elephant came from)

And then of course there's lady Godiva! she is the woman who rode through Coventry naked in protest. If you find Cathedral Lanes Shopping centre you will find a statue of her and also if you wait around till an O'clock time you will see her appear out of the clock on one of the buildings and peeping tom peeps out at her! my girls love it and I remember loving it as a child, now I'm older it looks a bit taky but they think it's great!

The city centre is all pedestrian access only which makes it nice for shopping and we have all the main shops such as; Next, H&M, Debenhams, Marks & Sparks, Primark, New Look and lots lots more. It's in the shape of a cross and in the centre is a fountain so it's fairly easy to find your way round.

For evening entertainment there are plenty of bars and restauarants, there are a few near the ikea which incidentaly is the first town Ikea of it's kind, you can park in ikea it's free if you spend over £10 it has a cafe and restaurant. Anyway back to bars and restaurants; there are also some restaurants near the Transport Musuem in a new area called Priory Place it is where time team uncovered new evidence of a really early Cathedral.

The main industries of Coventry were originally watch making and bikes and then cars were a huge part of Coventry. many of the factories have been knocked down now and replaced with housing estates, many of them named after particular cars that were built on those sites.

I just think it's a great city for all ages.

Summary: Right in the centre of everything