Skip to main content
Regional secretary with the National Education Union
Coventry – city of culture, city of peace
NICK MATTHEWS pays tribute to a fascinating city that’s not always its own best advocate
The Coventry circular market contains a mural from the 1950s by specially commissioned art students from Dresden

COVENTRY is a fascinating city. Like a lot of places in the Midlands you wouldn’t know this from the people who live there or often from the people who are at least nominally its custodians. 

The locals are not always great ambassadors or appreciative of the good things their city has. Sometimes it takes outsiders to see it. There is a sort of contempt born of familiarity. 

One outsider is Adrian Jones, who for me has inherited the mantle of architectural critic Ian Nairn — he has written some great stuff in his book Towns in Britain (with Chris Matthews, Five Leaves Press, 2014), and blogs as “Jones the Planner.” 

The Last Judgement painting in Coventry’s Holy Trinity church (Philip Halling/Creative Commons)
Dresden in 1945 (Pic: Beyer, G/Deutsches Bundesarchiv/Creative Commons)
The ruins of Coventry Cathedral (Pic: Andrew Walker/Creative Commons)
Choir of Survivors (Pic: Ben McHutchion/Creative Commons)
The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, photographed c1893  / Pic: Author unknown/Public domain
Music / 22 July 2025
22 July 2025

NICK MATTHEWS welcomes the return of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s music to the repertoire of this years’ Three Choirs Festival

Mo Chara and Moglai Bap of Kneecap performing on the West Holts Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, June 28, 2025
Features / 11 July 2025
11 July 2025

From sexual innuendo about Blackpool Rock to Bob Dylan’s ‘God-almighty world,’ the corporation’s classist moral custodianship of pop music has created a roll call of censored artists anyone would feel honoured to join, writes NICK MATTHEWS

DISTINGUISHED: Portrait of Hans Hess c1962 (photographer unk
Features / 20 June 2025
20 June 2025

NICK MATTHEWS previews a landmark book launch taking place in Leicester next weekend

LEADING THE WAY: Wind power plants in Xinjiang, China. Photo: Chris Lim/Creative Commons
Features / 9 June 2025
9 June 2025

As new wind, solar and nuclear capacity have displaced coal generation, China has been able to drastically lower its CO2 emissions even as demand for power has increased — the world must take note and get ready to follow, writes NICK MATTHEWS

Similar stories
The crowd at Manchester Punk Festival 2024
Culture / 11 April 2025
11 April 2025
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
GUILTY PARTIES: Rembrandt Van Rijn (1606-1669), Syndics of t
Book Review / 4 February 2025
4 February 2025
CAROLINE FOWLER explains how the slave trade helped establish the ‘golden age’ of Dutch painting and where to find its hidden traces
RESILIENCE: (Right) Stand Up To Racism protest on October 26
Features / 31 December 2024
31 December 2024
The Morning Star sorts the good eggs from the rotten scoundrels of the year
A panel from the Palestinian History Tapestry
Exhibition Review / 1 October 2024
1 October 2024
MARJORIE MAYO recommends an exhibition that asserts Palestinian history, culture and creativity in the face of strategies to erase them