GHOST TOWN

Famed mainly for The Specials and getting flattened in the war, Coventry hasn’t been high on most people’s ‘must see’ list. No longer. Regeneration is the name of the game and Tim Locke is your host.

Dramatic change is afoot in Coventry. Famously razed by bombs during the Second World War and then subjected to one of the blandest of post-war redevelopments in the 50s and 60s, the city is finally fighting back and shaking off its gloomy image to emerge as one of the most exciting inner city developments of recent years.

Now, for the first time, you can see the fruits of the £50 million Phoenix Initiative, which has been some seven years in the making. Planned by acclaimed urban design practice Rummey Design Associates, the ambitious project – this year’s winner of the national Regeneration Award from the Royal Town Planning Institute – threads together the whole of Coventry’s historic core all the way from the cathedral to the newly created Millennium Place. The result is two new civic squares, four public gardens, new bars and upmarket apartments, innovative artworks and even some astonishing archaeology – all linked in an exhilarating blend of old and new. The design ingeniously reinstates a real sense of place: for the first time in over half a century it is an inviting, pleasurable walk across the city centre.

‘Many of the narrow streets contain picturesque houses with projecting upper storeys,’ dryly observes my rather tatty 1927 Baedeker guide to Great Britain. The Baedeker raids (so called because the Luftwaffe chose its targets by leafing through the guidebook) which flattened Coventry overnight in November 1940, obliterated much of what must have been a gem. Had it survived, Coventry, with its several hundred timber-framed houses, would surely be one of Britain’s top tourist haunts.

The symbol of the city’s post-war rehabilitation is Coventry Cathedral, actually one of three cathedrals that existed at various times on adjacent sites, each one practically touching the other. The latest is Basil Spence’s stunning 1960s edifice, austere almost to the point of grimness, but redeemed by several details: the late Jacob Epstein’s last sculpture on the wall outside, John Hutton’s ethereal etched glass façade, Graham Sutherland’s colossal tapestry of Christ and John Piper’s vivid yet simple stained glass. Because of Spence’s zigzag design for the walls (an idea he hit on while under anaesthetic in the dentist’s chair) Piper’s panes reveal themselves only when you look back from the nave. Next door, the skeletal medieval cathedral of St Michael’s stands roofless as a haunting memorial to war  – the charred timbers of the blitzed building  were stood up into a stark crucifix: the ‘Charred Cross’.

A few steps away, the Priory Gardens Visitor Centre marks the site of Coventry’s third, and most mysterious, cathedral: St Mary’s. This vanished almost completely after being abandoned under Henry VIII in the Dissolution. Excavations in 1999 and 2000, with help from TV’s Time Team, rediscovered its layout. By the time this magazine is published, the cathedral’s vaulted cellars (or ‘undercroft’– beneath what was the monks’ dining hall) opens for the first time for free archaeological tours. Meanwhile the visitor centre offers virtual touch-screen ‘walks’ through the once great building. Archaeologists have also unearthed what has proved to be one of Britain’s finest hoards of medieval sculptured stones, along with a remarkable fragment of wall painting and a piece of glass painted with the face of a beautiful female – perhaps that of Coventry’s legendary naked horseback rider, Lady Godiva.

Another extraordinary discovery unveiled this spring is just over the road in the Holy Trinity Church. The early 15th-century ‘Coventry Doom’ painting, which spans the church’s chancel arch, was unwittingly preserved under a layer of varnish in the 19th century. Restored, it now represents one of Britain’s finest medieval church paintings: full of demonic terrors and damned souls. This astonishing work may well be the result of an earthquake in 1426 that surely put the holy wind up the city’s citizens.

This area’s spires, sandstone walls, half-timbering and Georgian brick hint at how the old city once looked, with occasional freakish throwbacks like timber-framed almshouses and a wonderfully time-warped Guildhall. There’s plenty more about the city’s past in the Godiva City section of the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum (itself now undergoing a massive facelift but still open to visitors).

Meanwhile, also part of the Phoenix regeneration scheme, is the long-anticipated completion this spring of the ultra-modern Millennium Place. Here two stunningly slender steel gateways – glowing blue at night – are dedicated to local boy Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine. Eight more artists have decorated this corner of the city with public art. Among them are 24 illuminated lines representing the world’s time zones, which are set in a piazza that doubles as a public performance space; a spiralling footbridge with 800 blue glass fins leads to a section of the medieval town wall with its two original gateways and the hedge maze of the Garden of International Friendship; and a water cascade over a square window in a free-standing copper wall that flanks the Priory Gardens.

Also due for imminent completion is the dramatic refurbishment of the Coventry Transport Museum: its entrance reversed to face the Millennium Place in the shape of an elegant arc. Inside is a formidable celebration of city’s manufacturing relationship with all things ‘wheel’: whether it’s clocks and sewing machines, or bicycles, cars, taxis and even the land record-breaking 750mph Thrust SSC ‘car’. There are more British-made machines here than in any other collection in the world, and 98 per cent of them are Coventry related – after all, British bicycle and car manufacture really gathered pace here.

Round off your trip with a tour of a local car factory to see the contemporary face of Coventry’s long love affair with the wheel. Try Jaguar, all traditionalist and hand-crafted and with an interactive Formula One gallery, or Peugeot, for a taste of the robotic and futuristic side of auto-technology. Whatever you choose to do on a trip to this fair-again city, you’ll be amazed at what the deft injection of some hard regenerative cash can achieve. Coventry’s reinvention is really on a roll.

CITY FOCUS

Coventry stands on the threshold of major change. Bicycles, cars and engineering was what it was all about for a century, but although Jaguar, Peugeot and London Taxis International still thrive, it’s rapidly switching into services and hi-tech industries as the city becomes part of a technology corridor with Warwick and Solihull. New businesses, including PowerGen and Barclays Bank have moved in, while Coventry University now has a new techno park. Tim Locke talks to three/four people who’ve made their mark on Coventry and look forward to a very different future.

Hamish Glen

Director of the Belgrade Theatre, Hamish arrived recently from Dundee and has made Coventry his home. He has great plans for creating a new theatre space for the city by 2006 and in developing new audiences. This in itself will coincide with new commercial development in adjoining Bond Street.

“The Belgrade Theatre is one of the great names amongst the country’s producing theatres and when the opportunity came to take over as Artistic Director I jumped at it.

The job came with a £10m project to re-furbish the existing theatre and to build a new landmark building in the heart of the city that will house a new 300-seat theatre, together with a new foyer space, bar and box office.

This is all the more exciting because it is part of a huge investment in the reinvigoration of Coventry’s city centre that will see it transformed.

I can’t think of anywhere in the country I’d rather be living and working.”

Ian Harrabin

Coventry-born Managing Director of regeneration specialist Complex Development Projects, Ian has been a partner with the council in two major projects, the Phoenix Initiative and Electric Wharf (the development of the city’s first power station as a live-and-work village for creative industries).

“Coventry is a city of contrasts – it has a very rich history but looks to the future.  There is a real community – people pulling together to make the city a better place – and exciting plans for major future redevelopment.  The city is a centre of creativity, new IT based technologies have taken over from the old manufacturing base and the arts scene is coming to the surface.

These are exciting times in the renaissance of the city and the Phoenix Initiative has been the first part of this process of quality regeneration.

I grew up in Coventry but have lived in London for over 20 years.  As a regeneration specialist there are great opportunities for me to be involved in reshaping the city. I now have one foot back in the city of my birth and have bought a fantastic new apartment in the city centre.”

Peter Walters worked as a journalist on the Coventry Evening Telegraph for nearly 20 years and is now Head of Image and Festivals for CV One, Coventry's city centre management and tourism company. He has lived in the city with his family since the late 1970s.

"Working as a journalist here, I witnessed at close hand Coventry's two decades of agony as its engineering employment base was shattered. It's only very recently that the city has begun to recover its spirit, but now, as a place to live, it's getting better all the time.

The potential is huge - this is a place with a terrific history, a wonderful mix of cultures and in my view an exciting future. There's a new Coventry just beginning to emerge and at CV One we want to be part of it."

Tracy Tomlinson

Tracy runs her own floristry, the Tomlinson Flower Company, in the City Arcade. As an outsider, she is enthusiastic about the direction the city is taking.

“Coming from Yorkshire, and not being a Coventrian, I can see a much-loved and multicultural city on the verve of a modern revolution. Feeling proud to belong to a city that is moving forward plays an important part in the performance of my business, which is also constantly developing.

Trading in a colourful and safe environment is inspirational, and of paramount importance for my staff and myself. Also encouraging others to come and visit my business within the city is just as valuable.

Let us learn from our past mistakes and embrace the evolution of Coventry.”

Darren Jones

As general manager Link Mailing, which handles company and tourist mailings, Darren is 32 and heads a company that has rapidly expanded over the past four years.

“I can remember when everyone seemed to describe Coventry as a Ghost Town – the classic song even came from Coventry. But today it’s just no longer the case. Coventry people, and those who come here sense a fundamental change.

It will never be time to forget the bombs – we will always be a world centre for the lessons of peace and reconciliation. but it’s time to move on and create something positive from this and the 1960s near-infamous reconstruction. Britain’s largest casino  and most advanced Arena, Europe’s most comprehensive motor museum, the towering Whittle Arch rivalling the modern iconography of any city in Britain, two universities – the new Coventry flows from a recognition of opportunity.

Around us is growing a truly national centre of culture and art, while innovation is flouring and industry is reinventing itself. Coventry is now a city to visit, live in, work in…and flourish in. for me and the people of this city this is the time of Coventry’s renaissance.”