Street Regeneration Project at The Burges, Coventry

Symon were engaged as principal contractors to work on high street regeneration of a number of shop units on The Burges and Cross Cheaping in Coventry City Centre.

Works included shop front joinery works as well as brickwork repairs and external works.

The project was awarded a High street Aware from the Future Cities Forum in 2021. The judges were asked to consider the use of heritage to improve the high street from economic, social and aesthetic perspectives, the re-purposing of the department store and how universities have supported investment in retail provision and are connecting with their host cities.

Cora Kwiatkowski of Stride Treglown admired the Coventry project: ‘It has a lot of detail and on the local economy and is impressive in getting whole community behind it. The Burges is public space so a lot of people would benefit. It is about taking responsibility for the space. Best scheme.’
Kim Wright of Lewisham Council was struck by Historic England’s HAZ project: ‘This was about shops and conserving heritage and history, using abandoned upper floors and making a connected community.’

Leonie Bell of V&A Dundee remarked that ‘I like the way they (the Coventry teams) were analysing place and moving back to move forward.’