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Coventry ring road

Infobox road instances in EnglandRoads in CoventryUse British English from February 2013
Coventry Ring Road (A4053) at sunset
Coventry Ring Road (A4053) at sunset

The A4053 Coventry ring road is a 2.25-mile (3.62 km) ring road in Coventry, England, which forms a complete dual-carriageway loop around the city centre. The road encompasses the old and new Coventry Cathedrals, the city's shopping areas and much of Coventry University. With the exception of one roundabout at junction 1, the ring road's nine junctions are entirely grade separated and closely spaced, with weaving sections between them, some as short as 300 yards (270 m), giving the road a reputation for being difficult to navigate. The junctions include connections with three other A roads: the A4114, A4600 and A429. From the 1930s, Coventry City Council began replacing the city's narrow medieval streets with modern roads, to cope with a rapidly growing population. City architect Donald Gibson began work in 1939 on a city centre redevelopment plan which expanded in scope following World War II, in which large areas of the city were destroyed by German bombs. The shopping area was rebuilt first, followed by the ring road, which was constructed in six stages from 1959. Early stages were built with at-grade junctions, cycle tracks and footpaths, envisaged as a surface-level linear park. Following traffic surveys in the early 1960s, however, the council amended the design to include grade separation and the weaving sections. Research by the city engineer indicated that it was the first urban road in the world to use this configuration at such a small scale. The road was completed in 1974, with an overall cost of £14.5 million (equivalent to £160,800,000 in 2021). As one of the few British cities to see its ring road project pushed to completion, Coventry has received considerable attention as a source of research for post-war architecture. An article by BBC News noted that opinions about the road were varied, concluding that "you either love it or you hate it". The road was the subject of a 2015 series of poetry films and driving on it has been likened to driving a Scalextric car and riding on a roller coaster.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Coventry ring road (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Coventry ring road
Ringway St Patricks, Coventry Cheylesmore

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
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Wikipedia: Coventry ring roadContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 52.4031 ° E -1.51019 °
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Address

Ringway St Patricks

Ringway St Patricks
CV1 2LP Coventry, Cheylesmore
England, United Kingdom
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Coventry Ring Road (A4053) at sunset
Coventry Ring Road (A4053) at sunset
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Ford's Hospital
Ford's Hospital

Ford's Hospital, Coventry, traditionally known as Grey Friars Hospital, is a grade I listed 16th century half-timbered almshouse in Greyfriars Lane, Coventry. It was founded by the merchant William Ford (or perhaps 'Fourd') in 1509 to provide accommodation for six elderly people: five men and one woman. Despite the earlier name of "Grey Friars", it bears no relationship to the Franciscan Order but was so named because of its location on Greyfriars Lane.Inside the building is a narrow courtyard (13 yd × 4 yd (11.9 m × 3.7 m)). It has been considered by historians and writers to be a particularly fine example of English domestic architecture of the period.Following Ford's death, the endowment was extended in 1517 to allow six places for couples to live together. In 1529, it was extended further to allow five more couples to stay. According to W. Hickling, a Coventry historian writing in 1846, it was by then serving forty women, each of whom received an allowance of three shillings and six pence per week.During the Coventry Blitz, the building was hit by German bombing, like many other parts of the city. A bomb dropped on 14 October 1940 killed the warden, a nurse and six residents. It was restored with original timbers between 1951 and 1953. The building is located on the site of a chapel within Greyfriars Friary. In 1940, John Bailey Shelton, a Coventry archaeologist discovered encaustic tiles typical of those found in a chapel. The building was built with a considerable amount of teak.In 2006, the building was used as a location for the episode of Doctor Who called The Shakespeare Code. In attempting to reconstruct the Globe Theatre, Shakespeare scholars have used Ford's Hospital to understand Elizabethan doorways.