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Coventry City Arcade demolition work starts

Simon Gilbert
BBC Political Reporter, Coventry and Warwickshire•@TheSimonGilbert
BBC Catherine Bartlem, co-founder Coffee Tots, stands in front of City Arcade. She is wearing a grey Coffee Tots t-shirt and City Arcade behind her is surrounded in hoardings.BBC
Catherine Bartlem said it was "hard" to see her former business premises go

A £450m project to transform Coventry city centre is underway.

It is the biggest redevelopment project in the city centre since it was rebuilt after being devastated during World War Two.

The scheme, called City Centre South, has started with demolition work on the former site of City Arcade, on Queen Victoria Road.

The final project will cover an area the size of nine football pitches, around a quarter of the entire city centre and is expected to deliver around 1,300 homes, hotels, restaurants and shops.

Coventry City Council Aerial map showing Coventry City Centre South will cover almost a quarter of the city centre and saw around 200 retail units vacated to be demolished.Coventry City Council
Coventry City Centre South will cover almost a quarter of the city centre and has seen around 200 retail units vacated to be demolished.

It has been funded by Coventry City Council, supported with more than £100m from the West Midlands Combined Authority.

Councillor Jim O'Boyle, cabinet member for regeneration on the Labour-run authority, said it would be the largest project to be delivered since the city centre was rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s. He said he was "very confident" it would be delivered fully after previous schemes failed to get off the ground over the past two decades.

Image showing four people wearing high vis and hard hats. The demolition vehicle can be seen in the background, and a hoarding reading "Hill - Created for Living".
Stuart Bale, project director at Hill; Kelly Grealis, senior manager at Homes England; Richard Parker, West Midlands Mayor and councillor Jim O'Boyle from Coventry City Council all attended as demolition work got underway.

He said: "Coventry is a big city, it's the 11th or 12th biggest city in the country, we're a growing population, we need places for people to live.

"But it needs to be vibrant as well. We want shops, we want cinemas, we want places for people to visit. That's what Coventry will deliver, and City Centre South will deliver."

Around 200 retail units were taken over by the council using compulsory purchase powers to prepare for demolition work.

Community cafe Coffee Tots was one of those businesses forced to move, having been based at City Arcade since 2010 until 2023. It now has a new base in the city centre at The Wave, on New Union Street.

A yellow vehicle on caterpillar tracks uses its long arm to crush sections of wall.
Demolition work got underway at the former site of City Arcade.

Catherine Bartlem, co-founder of Coffee Tots, said it was "hard" to know the buildings were now being demolished.

She said: "I know change happens and change is necessary, and so on. And I know that City Arcade has been falling apart for years, but it's been home for a lot of us."

She added: "I don't want to see it being [knocked down]. I know it's going to happen, but I don't actually want to see it. I'm going to wait until it's knocked down before I look."

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