At the end of February, roughly a year after the disappointing announcement of IKEA’s Coventry location shutting down, City Council has voted to buy the now-vacant, city centre building in hopes of turning it into an art centre. On top of purchasing, the council has pledged 1.5 million pounds to the renovation project in hopes of seeing a cultural rejuvenation of city life in Coventry, a municipality largely considered to be in decline.
In February 2020, when IKEA announced its first retail store closure in the UK, the people of Coventry were distraught to find a significant city centre landmark would be shutting down. The Coventry IKEA location, unlike standard, out of town IKEA retail stores, was a large, seven storey building in the heart of the city and accounted for the majority of commercial traffic.
Locals expressed their concerns and sorrows on Twitter, with one user stating, “Coventry City centre is grim as it is, but one of the only things that does draw people into the city over Leam, Birmingham for a shopping experience is #IKEA – will have a big impact. Against a backdrop of City of Culture preparations, this is a dent to Coventry’s pulling power…” Others expressed their concern over the inability of many Coventry citizens to travel to Birmingham, Nottingham or Milton Keynes to find their nearest IKEA branch.
IKEA stated in a press release, the Coventry location, due to high operating costs and low revenue, was posting for losses since 2007, with recent trends swaying people towards online shopping and retail malls putting the nail in the coffin.
Concurrently, Coventry is set to be unveiled as the UK’s City of Culture for 2021. Encouraged by the unique designation and saddened by the loss of a city landmark, Coventry City Council plans to turn the 54,000 sq.m. building in a multi-purpose arts centre and museum. Counsellor David Welsh, responsible for arts and culture, says the project would turn the loss of IKEA “into a real positive for the city.” The venue would display 8,000 works from the Arts Council Collection, more than 8,500 works from The British Council Collection as well as numerous works which are unable to be displayed at local museums and heritage sites, allowing the public greater access to their own heritage collection.
City Council hopes the centre will allow for cultural regeneration in the city centre, local, national and international collaboration, and an opportunity to revitalize and open up other heritage buildings in Coventry, such as the Whitefriars Monastery, which have been closed to the public to house a collection of artwork and artifacts at maximum capacity. David Welsh describes the project as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create something Coventry people can be rightly proud of, as well as a national and international center of excellence that will be a lasting legacy from our year as UK City of Culture.”
Counsellor Jim O’Boyle, cabinet member for jobs and regeneration, said with the recent shift of consumer habits to online shopping and the pandemic’s obsoleting of conventional commercial practices, authorities across the UK need to look at opportunities like this, “we have to find a way to understand and re-purpose our city centres.” Coventry’s new art centre is scheduled to open in August 2023, with construction beginning in May 2022, a familiar face is set to return to town.
Words: Hiba Zubairi
