âThe Naiadâ by George Wagstaffe, 1958Â Â
The Naiad is one of Coventry’s most beloved artworks, created by Coventry-born artist and sculptor George Wagstaffe. In 1958, George won a prize at the Young Contemporaries exhibition held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Coventry City Architect Arthur Ling, successor of Donald Gibson, saw the sculpture at the exhibition and commissioned a bronze copy for the city of Coventry in 1960.
The artist based this sculpture of a water nymph sitting in a pool of water upon imagery from Greek mythology. The Naiad was displayed for many years in a pool in Palace Yard, at the rear of the former Coventry City Council planning office on Earl Street. It was installed in the Upper Precinct water feature in 2021 as part of the regeneration of the Precinct.
When asked to comment on the Naiad, the artist referred to the following quote by Hippocrates, “Life is short, art is long."
'At One With Cofaâs Treeâ by Matt Chu, 2021
This mural brings together three distinct visual elements depicting Coventry’s mythic past, tangible present, and imagined future in a dreamlike composition where disparate realities intersect and inspiration is born.
Inspired by the supposed origin of Coventry's name, its contemporary culture, and our collective hopes and dreams; the bright, colourful artwork depicts a tree, a woman, and an impossible object. These elements are delicately intertwined to show the relationship between altered states of time and reality within our public spaces.
Matt Chu is an artist and illustrator based in Coventry who creates highly detailed psychedelic works that explore the complexity of reality and evoke positive change. The artist states that he wanted to give Pepper Lane “a unique visual identity and create a piece that would instigate discussion and prompt people to contemplate our great city’s possible origins, our recent achievements, and our collective dreams of a brighter future.”
The 272 sq ft mural was hand-painted by the artist with acrylics on fifteen individual plywood boards, then mounted directly onto the masonry. The accompanying wall colours were also chosen and arranged by the artist. This piece was commissioned by Coventry City Council as part of the UK City of Culture Public Realm programme in 2021.
âWeaving Coventry' by Kim Hackleman, 2020
‘Weaving Coventry’ can be found in the Upper Precinct of Coventry’s city centre. The letters of the poem have been embossed in granite and are situated inside the rills, small decorative water channels located in the planters. The poem begins in the planter nearest Broadgate, weaves between the rills and traverses the newer fountains in the middle, before coming to an end in the planter closest to the round fountain at the crossing of and Market Way.
The arrangement of the planters, as well as the rills, was inspired by Coventry’s silk ribbon weaving history. The poem itself reflects on Coventry’s weaving heritage, and how the lives of the city’s citizens are woven together through their daily interactions. It also references the River Sherbourne, which flows through and underneath the city and was once an important resource for Coventry’s cloth industry. Both the current and historic resilience of the city’s people were an inspiration for ‘Weaving Coventry’.
Kim Hackleman is a writer and poet living and working in Coventry, who immigrated to this city from the United States of America in 2001. She is thankful to Coventry City Council for commissioning her, a local artist, to create a poem specifically to suit the new design of the public space and gratefully acknowledges the support of Theatre Absolute.
The poem is below:
The threads of Coventry
are woven together daily
by all of us who
call this city home.
Celebrate
the
many
rich
colours!
Resilient
hands,
negotiate
the
different
strands,
until
silk
becomes
ribbon.
Let us sit
side by side
at the loom.
Imagine
the design.
Create
our future!
My heart,
like the
Sherbourne,
hidden,
flows into
sea-bound
streams,
connecting
me
to you.
Set aside
work,
pause,
sit,
play.
Feel the
water run
beneath
you.
Rise,
and rise
again,
to weave.
âEndless Ribbon Connecting Usâ by Morag Myerscough, 2021
This colourful and immersive work is inspired by Coventry Cathedral’s stained-glass, and the city’s history as a centre for ribbon weaving in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as the people of Coventry. It brings light and colour to Hertford Street. This piece was commissioned by Coventry City Council as part of the UK City of Culture public realm programme in 2021.
Morag is an artist and designer who has created largescale immersive spatial artworks in locations the world over. She often works with the communities who will use the space that she is designing, and she aims to create a sense of joy and belonging for those who encounter her artwork. In 2020, she was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects UK.
Morag said of the work “I experienced a desire for colour in the city and I wanted to get it in the streets. Plus, the simplicity of light and colour is always so magical in every location. Community is at the heart of every project I do. I wanted to change perceptions of space by transforming the canopy walkway with fresh bold colour and an abundance of plants. I wanted to make a new destination for everyone that brings joy to an area that needed some love.”
âThe Martyr's Mosaicâ by Hugh Richard Hosking and René Antonietti, 1955
The mosaic is found in the foyer of Broadgate House, beneath the Godiva clock, and is often missed as many people pass it by, not knowing of the mosaic’s existence. The Coventry Martyrs were 12 men and women who were burned at the stake for their beliefs between 1512 and 1555. The earlier group were Lollards, members of a pre-protestant religious movement who railed against the Catholic Church, and advocated use of an English translation of the Bible from Latin, that would be available to all. They were burned at the stake in Little Park Street and a monument to them was erected in 1910, now on the pedestrian route through Junction 5 of the Ring Road.
The Martyr’s Mosaic was commissioned by City Planner Sir Donald Gibson, designed by the Head of Coventry College of Art, Hugh Hosking, and created by artist Rene Antonietti, after Gibson, whilst on a cycling tour, was captivated by mosaics created by Antonietti in Geneva.
Gibson described in his memoirs how he and Antonietti ‘went touring and got stones from Derbyshire and Ireland, and different bricks from Warwickshire, which all were used in the mosaic’, as well as red and grey Aberdeen granite, Connemara green marble from the Irish secretary’s inkwell, enamel from Venice, onyx from Brazil and spare brick left over from the construction of Broadgate house. Gibson also requested that the mosaic have a 3-dimensional element.
White Lion Hotel Mosaic, circa 1919
This mosaic was uncovered during the regeneration of the Precinct in 2020. It was originally located at the front entrance of the White Lion Hotel on Smithford Street. The street ran diagonally from Broadgate to Fleet Street before the construction of the Precinct in the 1950s.
The earliest mention found so far for the White Lion Hotel dates to 1734, when Thomas Wildey, a Woolcomber, murdered his aunt Susannah Wall, and her daughter. Thomas was hanged on Whitley Common on 17th April 1734 and then his remains were gibbeted, which means put on display after death and left to rot to deter any other would-be criminals.
The mosaic dates to a refurbishment of the pub in around 1919, for which there are records in the Herbert Archives. In 1920, the pub became the temporary home of Pearl Hyde, who went on to become Coventry’s first female Lord Mayor. She moved from London to Coventry to learn the pub trade and lived with her sister and brother-in-law, who were the landlord and lady of the White Lion.
The pub sustained heavy damage during the blitz, when the top storey, where the staff had their quarters, was destroyed. Coventry City Council bought the premises from Brewery Ind Coope and Allsopp Limited in the early 1950s in order to demolish it for the purposes of developing the City Precinct.
âThe Levelling Stoneâ by Trevor Tennant, 1946
The Levelling Stone features a carved phoenix, rising from the ashes, a symbol of the city and its redevelopment following the Blitz during the Second World War. It features a Westmoreland green slate central slab with a Hopton Wood stone surround and a Bronze central plate.
The stone was proposed by Donald Gibson at a meeting of the Planning and Redevelopment Committee on 5 March 1946 and was created in a matter of weeks. Gibson’s memoirs held at the Herbert Archive describe how once he received approval for the monument, he drove through the night with sculptor Trevor Tennant to a quarry to select the perfect block of Westmoreland slate, and 24 hours later the design had been settled upon.
The stone was laid just over three months later on Victory in Europe Day (VE Day), 8 June 1946, in the presence of local dignitaries. This marked the symbolic start of the redevelopment of Coventry’s city centre. The stone was where the theodolite would be placed, a precision instrument used to measure horizontal and vertical angles, from which all the levels of the new precinct would be taken. Hence, the precinct was literally built up around the stone. Beneath the Levelling Stone is a time capsule containing the plans for the redevelopment of the city, and records of the city’s experiences during the war.
The plaque at the base reads: THIS STONE/ COMMEMORATING THE OFFICIAL INAUGURATION/ OF THE REBUILDING OF COVENTRY AFTER THE/ ENEMY ATTACKS OF 1940-1942/ WAS LAID BY/ COUNCILLOR JOHN CHARLES GORDON/ MAYOR OF COVENTRY/ 8 JUNE 1946. MAYOR/ COUNCILLOR J. C. GORDON/ DEPUTY MAYOR COUNCILLOR G. BRIGGS. The surrounding stones read: THIS LEVELLING STONE IN THE CENTRE OF THE WAR DAMAGED AREA WAS CONSTRUCTED AS A GUIDE TO THE REDEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS 1945-1946. This is then followed by the names of the members of The City Redevelopment Committee. The inscription concludes: THE LEVELLING STONE WAS PRESENTED/ BY THE RT HON LORD KENILWORTH/ MEMBER OF THE CITY COUNCIL 1923-1926. THE CITY REDEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE/ CHAIRMAN COUNCILLOR A. ROBERT GRINDLAY/ VICE CHAIRMAN ALDERMAN GEORGE E. HODGKINSON.