For Some, The Destruction Of The City Centre Was Not Just One Of Physical

For some, the destruction of the city centre was not just one of physical loss, but of personally-felt pain:
On the night of the November blitz, it was like the end of the world because I went down town with a friend the next morning and I thought we'd all have to move away for ever. We were walking over bricks all though the middle of town. And well, there was nothing left.
Feelings of loss and disorientation resurfaced once rebuilding begun. Although people had become accustomed to familiar buildings no longer being there, at least the actual street pattern had remained the same after the Blitz. Reconstruction drastically changed this, as one interviewee recalled:
I remembered watching the redevelopment of Smithford Street because that was a street that just disappeared completely and I couldn't understand it. You know, why was it disappearing?
Many people interviewed also appear to have regretted what they saw as needless destruction of buildings during reconstruction. This was partly on account of their contribution to Coventry's townscape but mainly because buildings held specific memories. One recalled her father's reaction to destruction of some buildings in the part of the city centre where he had lived as a child.
I remember him telling me how upset he was about the buildings where Agers shoe shop and things were. Something was pulled down to put them up and he found that quite upsetting.
The use of testimony provides a rejoinder to the somewhat dispassionate accounts that depict the bombing as a providing a welcome opportunity to redevelop a pre-war Coventry that was dirty, congested and unloved. It is clear that local people regretted the loss of a pre-war city that they often described (positively) as medieval. In this respect, the disagreements over the future trajectory of the city concerned more than just those different individuals who were central to the planning process (for example, members of the architects department, engineers department, city council reconstruction committee). Rather, we have found that the reconstruction of Coventry generated a diversity of opinions and experiences. For example, those who were married-with-young-children at the time said they were simply not interested in reconstruction, because, compared to other things in their lives, the planning of Coventry was not really that important:
You were so busy building your life that things like what the town looked like was not a priority in your life you just wanted to provide for you family.
Another respondent explained that she went along with the rebuilding in a Zombie-like fashion because her husband had returned wounded and it was so difficult looking after him and getting used to him being around that she had a nervous breakdown. These family adjustments were no doubt exacerbated by the chronic housing shortage in the city during the 1940s and early 1950s.