Coventry Cathedral
Built 1956-62
Designed by Sir Basil Spence
“A burst of glory”
I first visited Coventry Cathedral with my parents as a teenager. It was a formative experience. I had never visited a building like this before. I was awed by its modernist grandeur, the sense of space and the beautifully designed details.
St Michael’s Cathedral was destroyed by one of the 200 bombs dropped on Coventry during the night of 14th November 1940. Only the tower, spire, outer wall and the tomb of the first bishop survived. The next morning the Provost, Richard Howard, chalked “Father Forgive” on the wall.
In 1951, Sir Basil Spence was appointed the architect, inspired by Howard’s gesture of reconciliation. Out of a competition of 200 architects, he was the only one who insisted that the new Cathedral should be built next to the bombed site and that the remnants of the old one become a garden of remembrance.
The Cathedral is populated with work by key artists of the day. Sir Jacob Epstein’s sculpture of Archangel Michael overcoming the Devil dominates the outside. John Piper’s Baptistry Window greets you with (in Piper’s own words) “a burst of glory” and Graham Sutherland’s tapestry behind the altar is reputedly the largest in the world.
