2.3.4 Influence on Post-War Reconstruction

UNDERSTANDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLACE

Placing Coventry Cathedral Within this Context The Cathedral’s relationship to the wider context of modern European church design is important to consider. Against the backdrop of the shift in liturgical thinking that developed in the first part of the 20th century, the position of Coventry is moot, for it was the site of a liturgical battle in this regard. As a site for which a centrally planned building was originally proposed and then withdrawn, its gestation and design history straddles a period of intense debate about the future of church design. One reading of this is certainly that the building was liturgically anachronistic by the time it was completed. Elain Harwood writes that: “The evolution of Spence’s winning design, was compromised by being the work of a committee, including more conservative thinkers who defeated (Bishop) Gorton when he attempted to bring the altar forward again in 1952.” At the time, Reyner Banham had been rather more critical suggesting that: “the new cathedral at Coventry, illustrates no less clearly than its revivalist predecessors at New York, Liverpool and Guildford the isolation of ecclesiastical architecture from any kind of social or theological context”.

As a part of the oeuvre of a key Modernist architect, whose sensibilities were shaped by Scottish craft traditions, but who was an early advocate of the European Modern Movement, Coventry represents the culmination of a number of Spence’s personal architectural ambitions and can be considered his most successful project. Evolving directly out of the twin threads of his exhibition and church work, it can be seen as unique fusion of the concept of a modern ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ conceived within the framework of Christian architecture. Within the architectural and liturgical contexts discussed previously, Coventry appears at the junction between the shifting forces in both architecture and liturgy. As part of a rich seam of European architectural history, linked intellectually and physically to the deep roots of Christian architectural tradition in Europe, Coventry marks an end point, the last great building in a Gothic mode. As the changes in liturgy took hold in the central years of the 20th century, it can certainly be said that Coventry was out of step with some of the changes, particularly in terms of the relationship between laity and clergy, but this is a context that continues to shift and which continues to be reassessed. Bridging the gap between traditionalism and modernism, between ancient and modern ecumenical practice and between the ruined cathedral and the new, is what makes Coventry so unique.

2.3.4 INFLUENCE ON POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION Many British cities had been devasted by German bombing raids and each one of them developed a Post-War plan to rebuild. The extent to which this was required and the quality of the plans drawn up differed considerably across the country. With specific guidance from the MCTP document,22 The Re-Development of Central Areas, they all featured specific components that marked them out as modern. Clearance of certain areas, functional zoning and the addition of ring roads are common to all of them. The plans for Plymouth and Coventry were particularly progressive in their proposals and this was due to the pioneering nature of the local authorities and the personnel involved. Coventry, largely because of the loss of the Cathedral and the fact that is was the first British city to be bombed during the Blitz, was afforded a special status. The plans for the city were widely published in the architectural press from 1941 onwards and were also published internationally. Architectural Design devoted its December 1958 entirely to Coventry and featured the Cathedral. Such thorough and consistent coverage made the city synonymous with pioneering ideas and modern architectural ideals. The relationship between the city and the Cathedral in this regard was vital and Spence’s building, although singled put for criticism by some, had a vital role to play in the promotion of Coventry as a ‘modern’ city.

An International City Coventry’s international reputation, built predominently on its Post-War planning, was also built on its connectivity and solidarity with other war-affected cities worldwide. Stalingrad, the Russian city devastated by the battle which took place between 1942 and 1943 was first to link with Coventry in the first ever twinning of two cities, in 1944. Dresden followed and the two cities forged a link centred around the rebuilding of the Cathedral and the notions of peace and reconcilliation that had emanated from Coventry since the raids. In the manner in which the Cathedral was a focus and a symbol for the re-building of the city, the Cathedral was both a component part of that rebuilding and a talisman of it. The city’s international reputation, built initially on its pioneering Post-War planning, was augmented further by the important links forged through the Cathedral and these are the threads of Coventry’s international standing that have endured.

22 Originally the Ministry of Works (separately the Ministry of Reconstruction), later Works and Planning, then Town and Country Planning. A government department responsible for issuing advice and guidance on planning after the war.