This booklet is a souvenir publication, commemorating the reconstruction and consecration of Coventry Cathedral. It celebrates the determination, formed when the ancient church was bombed in 1940, to replace it with a cathedral, ‘more splendid than before’.
The initial design was decided by anonymous competition and was won by the little known architect, Basil Spence. The result of the competition was controversial as Basil Spence later said:
I received 700 letters about my design. Eighty percent of them were rude – the rest very rude.
The concept was to provide a setting worthy of embellishment by the leading artists and craftsmen of the day, and this booklet introduces many of them:
- Jacob Epstein, whose statue of St Michael and the devil dominates the entrance
- John Hutton who designed the west window , engraved with figures of angels and saints
- Graham Sutherland, who designed the tapestry behind the high alter
- Margaret Traherne, designer of the columns of glass in the chapel of unity and
- Einar Forseth who designed the mosaic floor
- Ralth Beyer, designer of the inscriptions throughout the cathedral
- John Piper, whose Baptistry window is said to be probably the greatest piece of stained glass since the Reformation
- Geoffrey Clarke, designer of the silver and gold altar cross, candlesticks and bookrest
- Geoffrey Clarke, Keith New and Lawrence Lee who designed the Nave windows.
Cathedral Reborn – Coventry, 1962 is on sale at Oxfam Wilmslow for £1.99.
Oxfam Wilmslow 