Starley Rd Project

The Starley Rd Project is a collaboration between artists Daniel Pryde-Jarman and Jane Ball that responds to the activist history of the Starley Road neighbourhood. It forms a tribute to the agency and determination of the residents who saved their street from demolition, and initiated the city’s first self-managed housing cooperative, still surviving after 40 years. A much-loved mural, still visible at the end of the road, continues to mark the success of their campaign. 

The Starley Rd Project has been funded by an Arts and Culture Project Grant by Coventry City Council.

Starley Housing Cooperative

Starley Housing Co-operative is a small but thriving community of 125 households living together in the heart of the city of Coventry. They house approximately 200 people both in Starley Road itself and in the newly built Vicroft Court. Working together, with members participating according to their skills and interests, they run the Co-operative themselves, providing good quality affordable accommodation for people in housing need. After more than 30-years of building the Co-op the members have learned a thing or two about living together as a community and managing their own lives. They know that being part of a Co-op means increased tenant satisfaction, greater involvement and pride in the community and more value for money in terms of management costs.

Starley Housing Co-operative is a member of the Confederation of Co-operative Housing, the UK organisation for housing co-operatives, tenant-controlled housing organisations, and regional federations of housing Co-ops. As members we firmly believe that the most effective tenant management organisations are those, like us, whose members have greatest control over their housing management, finances and environment. As with all Co-operatives, they abide by the internationally recognised guidelines of the 7 Co-operative Principles.

7 Co-operative Principles

The Starley Rd Project generated a response to each of the 7 Co-operative Principles under which organisations like Starley Housing Co-op put their values into practice.

Resources

• starleyhousing.org.uk | Starley Housing Co-op, Coventry

• Starley Housing Co-operative | Facebook

• 30 years after saving Starley Road, it's time to party! - CoventryLive (coventrytelegraph.net)

• ‘saved from demolition in the late 70s after a group of residents campaigned against the council who had decided that the 37 terrace homes within the ring road were no longer worth renovating. Now, a quarter of a century on, the derelict row of houses has been transformed into 69 dwellings, including flats, homes and bedsits, which cater for about 80 people on low incomes.’:

• Celebrating people power - CoventryLive (coventrytelegraph.net)

• Starley Housing Co-operative mural,... © Alan Paxton :: Geograph Britain and Ireland

• The street is named after one of Coventry's most famous sons - James Starley - the father of the bicycle industry