Coventry Retail Market

Coventry Retail Market

A market hall built in 1957 to designs by Douglas Beaton, Ralph Iredale and Ian Crawford of Coventry City Architect's Department, officially opened by Princess Alexandra in November 1958.

The market consists of a series of exposed concrete arches joined by a ring beam, with brick infilling and a concrete roof. It has a circular plan, just over 84 metres in diameter and 4½ metres high. The flat roof is laid out as a car park, featuring a heated ramp (now removed) to prevent icing. A central circular roof light provides natural illumination. The building is arranged with 160 island stalls in concentric rings, grouped in units of two or four, and 40 'shop stalls' set into the perimeter wall, 16 of them facing inwards. A small circular glazed attendant's kiosk is situated near the main entrance on the south-east side. The basement, beneath the western half only, serves as a delivery and storage area.

Inside, the circular space is dominated by tall V-shaped concrete columns that support the roof. The timber stalls are designed as traditional market tables and can be secured after trading by raising side flaps and sliding boards into horizontal channels. Some original shop and stall signs survive. Natural light enters via clerestory windows around the top perimeter and through clerestory lighting and oculi in the central dome. The area beneath the dome, designed for shoppers to rest, is lined with seats and features a terrazzo mosaic floor designed by David Embling with a central sun motif, a gift from the Coventry Branch of the Association of Building Technicians. Two adjacent V-shaped roof supports bear bronze plaques: one commemorating the opening by Princess Alexandra, the other listing members of Coventry's Markets and Baths Committee of 1958–1959.

Above the current market office is an impressive painted mural by art students from Dresden, commissioned in the 1950s in Socialist Realist style, depicting farming and industrial scenes. Colourful figures of mermaids, sailors and Neptune, created by Jim Brown in the late 1950s, decorate V-shaped supports near the central dome and walls near the fish mongers. These were originally located on the cast-iron columns of Victoria Buildings (formerly the Ace Works), a former fish market site, and were relocated here following its demolition in the late 1990s.

The market was built on the site of Barracks and Rex Markets, damaged during Coventry's bombing in November 1940. Tenders were sought in December 1956. The circular design was chosen to encourage circulation and provide multiple entrances. The flat roof was incorporated to create a car park, forming the central focus of a planned complex of linked roof car parks across Coventry. The market replaced earlier market facilities and accommodated former stallholders while offering additional facilities.

The pre-war market had featured a children's merry-go-round, designed by David Mason with models of Coventry-manufactured vehicles, which moved around the site as the market developed. It is now positioned inside the market but remains unfixed and unlisted. Victoria Buildings, which adjoined the market, survived the war and were subsequently converted to a fish market with upper floors continuing in factory use. The cast-iron columns of these buildings carried Jim Brown's decorative figures, which are now sited within the retail market itself.