Friargate Coventry
Friargate is a redevelopment of 37 acres of land surrounding Coventry Railway Station. Quoted as a £100million transformational project. Conceived in 2010, the project is now resulting in many visible deliverables.
Project Programme
As a programme of works it comprises many separate and individual projects including:
- The demolition of Copthall house and the Rocket public house
- Junction 6 ring-road bridge deck – work started 2014 and completed May 2015
- The demolition of the old station tower – completed Autumn 2015
- Construction of 25 new buildings, including 14 office buildings, 2 hotels, and residential accommodation
- The transfer of the council office staff from the city centre to the new facility
- The transfer of existing city centre council buildings to the university
Friargate Crane
These pictures show the 98 metre high crane erected to assist the construction of a 13 storey office block. The crane dominates the skyline as this view from Baginton over Styvechale, Finham, and Cheylesmore shows.
Coventry as Viewed from the South
The council will move into new (£40million) headquarters in 2017.
Project Stakeholders
Stakeholders for such a large programme of work will include many diverse partners:
- Local residents specifically, but the whole city will take an interest
- Landowners
- Network Rail and the rail operating companies, Virgin, First, and London Midland trains.
- Contractors for the demolition, the construction, and for the fitting out
- Electrical, water, gas, telecommunications and sewerage companies
- Architects for both the buildings and the landscaped areas
- Letting agents and local businesses disrupted by the work over several years.
Project Objectives
As a project, one of the objectives was to improve the aesthetics and access for pedestrians walking from the railway station to the city centre, and this new walkway opened on March 10th 2016.
Station Walkway
This blog has been continued in an update made in August 2017.
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