Coventry has been named the UK City of Culture for 2021, picking up the accolade ahead of Swansea, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and the town of Paisely.
The city is the third holder of the title which was first awarded to Londonderry in 2013, before Hull took the crown this year.
As Coventry gears up for its year in the limelight, we look at 11 worthwhile reasons to explore the West Midlands city.
1. To see the ruins of one of England’s most magnificent cathedrals
Coventry was one of the worst-hit cities during the Blitz, including the most devastating bombing in November 1940 which saw the destruction of the Coventry cathedral.
The ruins of the medieval Grade I-listed structure remain as a visitor site and reminder of the bombings, adjacent to a new cathedral (also Grade I-listed). Designed by Sir Basil Spence, the new building features a huge and austere tapestry by Graham Sutherland. Visit in the morning to see the astonishing stained glassed windows at their most glorious.
“Coventry is the only city we are aware of that has had a total of three cathedrals in the past millennia, the earliest of which was once one of the most magnificent in all England. A visit to the old cathedral is essential for any visitor to Coventry. It’s a moving site, with various tributes and reminders of Coventry’s evolution as a city of peace and reconciliation, including a cross that was found seared together amid the rubble," says Coventry native Jolyon Attwooll, for Telegraph Travel.
The spire of St Michael's Church, given cathedral status in 1918, can be climbed using 181 steps to obtain panoramic views across the city.
2. And admire Coventry’s answer to the Sistine Chapel
The Holy Trinity Church, dating back to the 12th century, is home to what's described to be the most impressive Doom wall painting remaining in an English church, painted above the tower arch in the 1430s. Following its recent restoration work, the ancient painting was unveiled in 2004 and dubbed as Coventry’s ‘Sistine Chapel’, having been done by Coventry’s medieval artists around 50 years before Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper.
3. To watch top-class sport
Wasps, the historic rugby team which has a history dating back to 1867, has been a Coventry club since a move from London in 2014. They now play in the Premiership at the Ricoh Arena, and boast a captain in the shape of England international Joe Launchbury.
“There’s somewhat less top-flight action these days in Coventry, with the demise in fortunes of the city’s Coventry City, Coventry Rugby club and the speedway, thank goodness, then, for the arrival of Wasps rugby club at the Ricoh Arena to give sports fans a decent club to follow,” Attwooll tells Telegraph Travel.
4. To ponder the idiom "Sent to Coventry"
The events of the English Civil War could be responsible for this much-used but little-understood phrase. In The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, recounts how captured Royalist troops were taken as prisoners to Coventry, a Parliamentarian stronghold.
5. And the tale of Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom
The legend goes that Lady Godiva, an English noblewoman, was said to have rode naked on a horse through the city's streets in protest of a tax her husband (Earl of Mercia) had imposed on his tenants. Later versions of the story say that a man called Thomas, who watched Lady Godiva riding naked, was struck blind or dead and is the origin of the unflattering label of ‘Peeping Tom’. The city today pays homage to the legend in various forms including a clock and an even less flattering statue.
“The Lady Godiva clock is extraordinarily naff but sort of wonderful at the same time. Slap bang in the city centre, on the hour, every hour, a plastic pantomime unfolds on the Broadgate clock, with small figures re-enacting the legend of Lady Godiva and the unfortunate Peeping Tom,” says Attwooll. The clock, however, currently isreported to be broken and has been for nearly a year.
The Belgian chocolate company Godiva, named after her, also pays tribute to the legend with a logo of her on horseback, while the Coventry Godiva Festival is Britain’s largest free family festival, having hosted a record 179,000 guests this year and various big-name bands including Kasabian and Biffy Clyro
6. It’s the birthplace of Two Tone music
The Specials, the English band known as the originators of Two Tone music (which fuses ska with punk rock) was formed in Coventry in 1977 by Jerry Dammers.
The Telegraph's Andrew Perry explains: “Back in the late Seventies and early Eighties, The Specials were worshipped by their mod-attired teenage fan base. The band’s songs cut right to the quick of young people's daily experiences in Britain's cities. Their deceptively skilful narratives told of teenage pregnancies and street violence, all set to a sound, which defied racial division – an idyll embodied by the band's Anglo-Caribbean personnel.
"For three turbulent years, the Specials were, quite simply, the coolest band around, providing the definitive soundtrack to inner-city life here. Their tunes have continued to resonate across subsequent generations, echoing on through the work of modern day devotees such as the Streets and Lily Allen."
7. And gave us one of Britain’s greatest poets
Philip Larkin, the English poet and jazz critic for the Telegraph between 1961 and 1971, was born in the suburb of Radford in Coventry in 1922. He spent his early childhood in Coventry before completing his university studies in Oxford and working as a librarian in Hull where he wrote most of his work (the poems for which he would late become famous, painting a frequently downbeat portrait of post-war British life transformed by the sweeping social changes of the Sixties, the decade when sex began). The Larkin Trail Guide for fans of the poet has been produced by Coventry City Council.
Last year, a plaque dedicated to the poet was laidamong the greats of English literature in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.
8. You can explore St. Mary's Guildhall
“One of the many places where Mary, Queen of Scots, was held during her long imprisonment, the Guildhall in Coventry’s Cathedral Quarter, has some fine medieval interiors and striking artworks. Some historians are convinced Shakespeare would have performed here,” says Attwooll.
9. There is unsung art and culture
“Coventry culture is not an oxymoron. Far from it, in fact. Warwick Arts centre, on the outskirts of the city (much more Coventry, than Warwick), is one of the biggest of its kind outside of London and has a great programme of films, plays and performances. In the city itself, check out the Herbert Art Gallery (pictured below), the Belgrade Theatre, the long-standing provincial theatre where news of the bid’s success was heard, and the newer Tin Music and Arts Centre in the Canal Basin," Attwooll recommends.
10. An impressive car museum
“The Coventry Transport Museum is a genuinely impressive collection of cars, motorcycles and pushbikes accumulated from Coventry’s time as the car manufacturing capital of the world. It is one of those rare places that appeals even to non-car fans, with exhibits ranging from Queen Mary’s Daimler to the earliest bicycles. Don’t miss the Thrust SSC simulator, which puts you through the motions of achieving the world land speed record (the car, which still holds the record set in 1997, is also on display here),” says Attwooll.
11. And it’s within easy reach of London
England’s ninth largest city is only about an hour by train from the capital, located around 95 miles (153 kilometres) north-west of central London. Visitors can easily plan a day-trip to Coventry by train, too, with connections available from London’s Euston and Paddington stations from about £19.50.
