Coventry Cathedral - The Old and New Cathedral

Ruined Cathedral Church of St Michael, St Michael’s Avenue, Coventry

 

Grade I listed

 

List Entry Number: 1076651

 

 

Details

 

833/1/1

 

833/2/1

 

RUINED CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL

 

05-FEB-55

 

I

 

Among the largest medieval parish churches in England. Made a collegiate church in 1908, cathedral in 1918. Much damaged by an air raid, November 1940, leaving body of church unroofed and without arcades.

 

Nave and chancel with aisles, two pairs of chapels north and south of nave aisles, one on south still roofed. South porch. Apsidal sanctuary with crypt. Magnificent west steeple dominating centre of city.

 

Crypt and south porch circa 1300. West steeple 1373-94 with spire begun 1432. Church walls rebuilt 1373 - circa 1450. Stonework restored 1883-90 by J Oldrid Scott.

 

This entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 2 October 2019.

 

 

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1076651

 

 

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Cathedral of St Michael, Priory Street, Coventry

 

Grade I listed

 

List Entry Number: 1342941

 

 

Details

 

COVENTRY Priory Street SP 3379 SE Cathedral of St Michael 833/2/411 GV. I

 

Cathedral. 1951-62. Designed by Sir Basil Spence. Red sandstone ashlar with green slate cladding to chapels; concrete roof. Lofty space of 7 bays with nave; full height aisles; no clerestorey; full height Lady Chapel and Western (liturgical) porch; circular chapels to north-west (lit) and south-east (lit). Cathedral aligns east-west. Built at right angles to the ruins of the old cathedral, formerly Parish Church (q.v.) and attached to its north-east corner. Nave and chancel walls of new cathedral canted outwards in vertical bands, producing a 'saw-toothed' plan, with vertical 4-light stained glass windows facing north-west (lit) and south-west (lit). Porch with tall circular sandstone piers and 3 flat topped concrete vaults. Baptistry to south west (lit) with convex wall, partly solid and partly glazed with closely spaced vertical stone mullions; Epstein's sculpture of St.Michael and Lucifer attached to baptistry wall by the porch. Chapel of Christ the Servant to south-east (lit) circular with closely spaced vertical mullions. Chapel of Unity to north-west (lit) polygonal with largely solid walls of riven slate, and projecting fins tapering upwards, with vertical strip glazing to ends. East wall blind. West wall fully glazed, from floor to ceiling and wall to wall; 19 lights divided into 8 horizontal bands. Bronze glazing bars, plate glass with engraved figures of saints and angels by John Hutton. Low roof, crowned by openwork metal fleche crowned by cross designed by sculptor Geoffrey Clarke. Interior with cruciform reinforced concrete piers, tapering to the base and supporting concrete 'ribbed' canopy with panels of timber slats between ribs. This has the appearance of a vault but is structurally and visually separate from the walls. Interior contains fitments by the most prominent British artists and designers of the period. These include font and choir stalls designed by Spence himself, monumental inscriptions to walls and floor by Ralph Beyer, stained glass to Baptistry by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens, to aisle walls by Lawrence Lee, Geoffrey Clarke and Keith New, to Lady Chapel by Einar Forseth, to Chapel of Unity by Margaret Traherne; pulpit and lectern by Spence, the latter with an eagle book rest by Elizabeth Frink, in bronze: tapestry to east wall of Lady Chapel, dominating the Cathedral,by Graham Sutherland, altar cross and crown of thorns by Geoffrey Clarke, large ceramic candlesticks by Hans Coper, chairs by Russell, Hodgson, and Leigh: mosaics by Einar Forseth, ceramic panels by Steven Sykes, etc.

 

Coventry Cathedral was one of the most important architectural commissions of its date in Britain, and was built following an architectural competition in 1951. The scheme was also notable in its period for the degree to which the bomb damaged shell of the Medieval church of St.Michael was preserved.

 

N.Pevsner and A.Wedgwood, B o E Warwickshire, pp 249-259 B.Spence, Phoenix at Coventry, 1962

 

Listing NGR: SP3362879067

 

 

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1342941

 

 

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Coventry Cathedral

 

The ruins of Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in the Blitz of November 1940, with the new Cathedral alongside.

 

The Second Cathedral: St Michael's

 

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the destruction of the priory cathedral in 1545, Coventry ceased to be the seat of the bishop. The diocese was still Lichfield and Coventry, but there was no cathedral here as the bishop had moved his seat of business back to Lichfield. In 1837 Coventry was transferred into the diocese of Worcester and the old link with the Lichfield bishopric was lost. But times were changing: the old pattern of Church of England parishes and dioceses which had stood since the 1540s no longer matched the population size or location of late 19th century towns. Coventry was a bustling, growing urban centre, expanding thanks to the industry which was growing around it. The church was growing and new bishops were needed to oversee the spiritual needs of the expanding population. The diocese was revived in 1918 and a new bishop appointed: the 14th century parish church of St Michael became Coventry Cathedral.

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