[7] The store attracted about three thousand people on the opening day, some arriving at four in the morning to secure their place in the queue.

[14] The architectural theme around which most buildings in Coventry's post-war shopping precinct were based was set in 1948 by Donald Gibson's design for Broadgate House.

It is a brick-clad building with regularly spaced windows edged with white stone, and an arcade at street level supported by stone-clad columns.

[15] The brick chosen is a similar colour to the local red-grey sandstone, allowing the new buildings to sit less jarringly next to the old.

[17] In a talk to the Coventry Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1954 Rolf Hellberg, the architect, stated that the building had been designed with "attraction, appraisal and atmosphere" in mind.

From the east, the facade bears horizontal bands of windows and brick, terminating in the grey concrete panelling of the lift shaft.