Coventry Market

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Re: Coventry Market

Postby dutchman » Sun Jul 15, 2018 12:44 pm

The skeletal remains of the famous old market clock

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It once stood proudly overlooking the city but now Coventry’s former market clock lies discarded and forlorn in a patch of disused land.

The once famous landmark made up part of the city’s skyline for 50 years after it was installed in 1957 at the time the circular indoor market was built.

But the clock was removed from its position on top of Victoria Buildings in 2006 when the building was demolished.

At the time it was promised the clock would be put into safe storage until a new 14-storey building, providing shops and apartments, was built.

But with those plans never materialising the clock has been relegated to a corner of an overgrown square of land where it has sat rusting for the past 12 years.

Speaking in 2009, Coventry tour guide Roger Bailey, who was also a city councillor at the time, said he was saddened to think of the clock’s plight.

“I didn’t know it was there until I saw it when I was sitting in the restaurant in Ikea," he said.

"It’s really sad as it looks as if it’s just been abandoned.

“We need to do something with it.

"I’m hoping it will be put back up over the market or on any building which is put up on that site.

"The longer it is there the more deteriorated it will become.

"It should be covered up.

"We should be preserving anything from the past or our heritage.”

The mechanism was removed from the clock and, until recently, its four faces remained.

In 2009, a spokesman for the city council said: “The council does not own the clock or the Victoria Buildings site.

"I believe the intention was to place the clock back on the new building."

The site was owned by a private regeneration company at the time.

The council spokesman said: "As far as we’re aware they own the space and the clock and it is for them to decide what they are going to do with it.”

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Re: Coventry Market

Postby rebbonk » Sat Jul 29, 2023 2:59 pm

I've picked up on the grapevine that long-term porter/labourer at the market, Roy Jennings has passed away aged 70.
Of course it'll fit; you just need a bigger hammer.
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