Coventry Cathedral Photos

I recently had the opportunity to visit Coventry Cathedral, and I thought it would be the perfect subject for a blog post! 

On a surprisingly cool and grey day a few weeks ago, some friends and I decided to spend the day visiting this cathedral. We got on a train (luckily going the opposite direction to all the football fans) and travelled into the centre of the city. 

Before I go on, it would probably be interesting/useful if I were to give some backstory to the Cathedral. 

The original cathedral in Coventry was medieval. It was a priory and also a cathedral, built in the twelfth century and lasting until the 1530s, when it was the only cathedral in England to be completely destroyed by Henry VIII. Coventry went without a cathedral until 1918, when the late medieval parish church of St Michael was raised to cathedral status.

The old Cathedral

The building was not to last for long, however. 

On the night of November 14th, 1940, the German "Operation Moonlight Sonata" was launched. It was one of the biggest raids of the Blitz, involving over five hundred bombers and lasting around eleven hours, during which around five hundred tons of high explosive were dropped onto the city. (As Coventry was a significant industrial city, it was an obvious target.)

After the horrific bombing raid was over and the cathedral was discovered to be completely destroyed, the people of Coventry decided that they would rebuild their church from the ruins, and forgive those who had ruined such a significant landmark. Their rebuilding became a symbol of hope and forgiveness in post-war Britain.

The first sign we had that we were nearing the building was two spires rising out of the flats, little houses, and insalubrious pubs ahead of us:

(To the far right, by the way, you can see a corner of a Tudor pub, obviously somewhat restored, but still fairly original according to the plaque on the outside.) The spire on the left belongs to another church - more on that later - and that on the right is from the ruined cathedral.

We entered the close of the cathedral, and walked towards the shell of the ruins. We could see the new cathedral to our left, but you have to enter the ruins first.

The remains of the old church aren't as destroyed as you might think. It's more like a blasted shell than  crumbling walls, and, as I said above, one spire still stands. As you can see from this photo, some of the glass is intact: 

The inside of the ruins was, as you can see, fairly complete though still a shell. (There wasn't actually a wedding going on - we just coincided with a photo shoot!) In this picture, you can see remains of the pillars of the medieval church, inside the ruins of the later church: 

At the far end of the ruins is the altar, with a copy of a cross that's inside the church (the original of which is made from blitzed beams of the roof) and the words "Father Forgive" behind it. 

In this picture, you can see the juxtaposition of modern, late medieval, and early medieval architecture: 

We then went down a flight of steps to enter the new cathedral. As we went down, we saw the glass window on the west end, a modern take on the medieval carved statues frequently found on the west end of medieval cathedrals: 

None of us got any good pictures of it, but none of us really liked it that much. 

The glass viewed from the inside, with a view of the ruins

From here on, I was expecting to be incredibly underwhelmed. However, unlike many other cathedrals I've visited, the atmosphere of the church was both prayerful and poignant. That feeling was emphasised and encouraged by there being much emphasis on forgiveness and the suffering of Our Lord inside the church.

The chancel

Say what you will, this window just reminded me of a patchwork quilt

The north transept

Fragments of medieval glass, for which Coventry was once famous

The original Charred Cross

Apparently, when the cathedral was on fire from the bombs, a couple of beams fell from the roof and landed in the form of a cross, where they were discovered the next day. They then made them into a sort of memorial cross as a symbol of forgiveness.

The averagely hideous tapestry behind the high altar - I was not a fan

Yes, I really dislike it. 

The Stalingrad Madonna

Now, this, on the other hand... it was drawn by a Catholic German soldier during Stalingrad, which I find incredibly moving - both the fact that he drew it and the fact that it's in Coventry Cathedral. The writing reads, "Light, Life, Love. Christmas in the Cauldron, 1942".

The glass, with a snippet of one of the Bible verse plaques

The plaques, which are spaced all round the cathedral walls, were commissioned from a German carver.

The second church we visited

We then went off to look at the aforementioned second church. This was a medieval building that had somehow escaped the bombing and is still intact (though most of the stained glass was destroyed). It has an amazing doom painting above one of the arches:

Doom painting

Oh yes, and George Eliot worshipped here!

Jesus and the Apostles

This carving was behind one of the side altars in what was possibly the Lady Chapel.

"Failed Artistic Attempt No. 1" 

I was enjoying messing around with my friend's phone...

Victorian makeover in the sanctuary - the biggest argument we had all day was about Victorian church architecture!

Gift Sermons

This seems to be a thing where you leave the church money in your will, on the condition that a sermon is preached on a certain day. There is a lot more digging that could be done into this subject, but I haven't had the time yet...

More divisive church interiors - do you like this window or not?

I don't, but maybe it's just me.

Before we went home, we walked back through the ruins again.

Coventry Cathedral was far more moving than I had ever expected it to be. Although I wasn't a great fan of the architecture taken by itself, in context it was surprisingly effective. Especially during and after the Second World War, it must have been outstanding in that it was focused on peace and reconciliation and rebuilding, rather than hate or anger.

What do you think? Have you ever visited Coventry Cathedral? Did you like this type of post?

"The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of Hosts; and in this place will be given peace"