Daytrippers

After court, I took the opportunity to wander over to the Cathedral. Coventry, thanks to the sterling work of the Luftwaffe, hosts the ghostly shell of a fine medieval cathedral, linked to a fantastic 1950s modernist replacement (by Basil Spence), dedicated to peace and reconciliation. The rest of medieval Coventry was also destroyed, replaced by a seemingly endless concrete shopping centre, some of which sells tertiary education.

In the Cathedral, all the big names of mid-century art are represented by statues, stained glass, crosses and murals, notably Jacob Epstein, Sutherland and Piper. The pillars are slim, the organ is an absolute masterpiece, the architecture daring, beautiful… and yet. The art is stunning, but the building didn't quite work for me. I admired everything about it, but thought it fell short theologically (even though I'm an atheist, I do know a bit about this stuff - from my years as an altar boy). The problem is this. Here's the view down the nave towards the altar.

Stunning, I hope you agree. Modern and yet referring back to the vanished building. However, you wouldn't know from this direction that there are a set of beautiful stained glass windows along each side. You have to be standing where the ministers are to see them: i.e. transcendental beauty is denied to the congregation, which gets unrelieved concrete (just like living in Coventry) but available to the clergy. This is part of the the view they get:

This, to me, refers back to the days of the old Catholic Church, in which access to God was only through the clergy. The congregation at Coventry see concrete slabs - there's no hint of joy as they gaze directly ahead, other than in the tapestry at the end. Stained glass windows were previously used to tell stories to an illiterate crowd - now they just have to listen.

All Basil Spence had to do was reverse the direction of the folds in the structure which conceal the windows.