070 BRIEF ENCOUNTERS
The fierce competition to be UK City of Culture does not always translate into riches for visitors or residents. How is 2021’s choice of Coventry faring? Veronica Simpson takes a closer look
WHENEVER THE UK City of Culture baton gets passed on and we privileged members of the press get carted out of London to visit a regional city we may well have never visited before, you hope for two things: first, to learn some fascinating facts about that place; and secondly, to be inspired enough by what you see going on there that you want to come back. Tere are lots of things I didn’t know about Coventry: I had not appreciated what an important medieval city it was – even, on several brief occasions, becoming England’s capital – nor the extent to which, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was one of those powerhouse cities of the industrial revolution, along with Birmingham and Manchester. I knew it had been badly bombed in the Second World War, and – as part of the national gesture towards its rebirth – a glorious new cathedral had been commissioned, designed by Basil Spence. But I had not realised there were so many historic structures in the city (currently being restored thanks to the innovative practice of creating its own historic buildings’ foundation), nor the extent to which Coventry had been a major religious stronghold; a Saxon nunnery was founded there around AD700 by St Osburga, and great cathedrals, convents and monasteries were built through the ages. We passed some of these ecclesiastical remnants as the press minibus sped along the dual carriageways that make up the ‘concrete collar’ for which this car-centric, mid-century reinvention of the city became famed. Of course, I knew about Lady Godiva – it’s funny how the story of a naked woman on horseback riding through a city sticks in one’s mind – though I hadn’t realised this was a deliberate and successful stunt to pressure her aristocratic husband to stop his punitive taxing of the townsfolk. All the same, the opening event, in which Godiva-esque themes loomed large, was of little interest. Rather, my decision to come to the city was triggered by the announcement of a major strand in its programming that addresses our planetary crisis: Green Futures.
Left Marshmallow Laser Feast’s ‘Observations on Being’ exhibition brings together audio-visual art installations and immersive soundscapes to explore our symbiotic relationship to nature
Right ‘Observations on Being’ took place in Charterhouse Heritage Park and London Road Cemetery
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