Coventry Historical Walking Tour: Inventors, Industry & Art

This tour zig-zags through the city centre away from the cathedrals, and takes participants on a walk through a city which has kept making history by inventing the future. It’s a history that fits together like a jigsaw, come and explore it with us.
Highlights include:

The industrial booms which saw Coventry as the centre of weaving, watch making, bikes and cars.
The most complete part of the City Wall, and learn where the Civil War really started.
The Royal Palace in the city centre where the King and Queen stayed when Coventry was the capital of England.
The story of the inventors who brought us the bicycle and the jet engine.
Different theories as to where the phrase “Sent to Coventry” came from.
Explanations and information about of dozens of artworks around the city centre.
Details of the rich cultural history of Coventry.
Stories of the Phoenix City, the 'City of Tomorrow', risen from the ashes of the Blitz.

Meeting Point

Sky Blue City Walks

Broadgate, Coventry CV1 1NE, UK

The meeting point is in Broadgate, between the statue and the clock. If there is an event or stalls in Broadgate, the meeting place will be under the clock on the south wall. Either way, just look for the man with the Sky Blue top hat, tailcoat and flag. (9.50am Tues/Thurs/Sat, 12.50pm Weds/Fri)

What's included:

• A guided historical walk with a local guide.

What to expect:

Duration: 2 hours, 45 minutes

Lady Godiva Statue

Broadgate, , Coventry

We start off the tour Broadgate around Godiva's Statue, at the heart of the 'City of Tomorrow', Donald Gibson's masterplan for the post-war reconstruction of Coventry.

15 minutes

New Buildings

New Buildings, Coventry CV1, UK

At the last surviving former ribbon weaving factory in the City Centre, hear about the rise and fall of this industry, next to the surviving wall of the original Coventry Cathedral; St Mary's.

5 minutes

Sir Frank Whittle statue

Millennium Place, Coventry, CV1 1JD

Next to his statue, here the story of Earlsdon born Engineer and RAF officer, Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine.

5 minutes

Lady Herbert's Garden

Hale Street, behind Millennium Place in Coventry City Centre, Coventry, CV1 1JQ

In and around Lady Herbert's Garden, you'll find out about the birth of the bicycle industry and how the modern bike came into being. Turn around and we see the start of the best preserved section of the Coventry City Wall, the story of how it was built and why industrialist Alfred Herbert saved if from destruction, before hearing the tale of the one time the wall was needed, the tale of the true beginning of the English Civil War.

15 minutes

A4053

A4053, Coventry CV1, UK

That's right, we'll spend a couple of minutes on this tour to learn about the engineering marvel that is the Coventry Ring Road!

3 minutes

Millennium Place

Millennium Pl, Coventry CV1, UK

Next to the Coventry Transport Museum, hear the story of the Coventry Motor industry; How Coventry became the motor city of England and a global centre of car manufacture, and then how it almost all disappeared forever.

10 minutes

Palmer Lane

Palmer Ln, Coventry CV1, UK

Very much off the beaten track see a few things in the heart of the city that many of the locals don't know are there.

5 minutes

Old Grammar School

Corner Of Bishop Street & Hale Street, Coventry

On one street corner, you can see the building we shouldn't call the Old Grammar School, an artwork celebrating the Coventry motor industry, and the building names after the most famous poet from the city.

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Belgrade Theatre

Corporation Street, , Coventry, CV1 1GS

Walking around the outside of the Belgrade Theatre, various artworks will be used to help tell the stories of the theatre itself, the long history of plays which Coventry was famous for, Ira Aldridge who 200 years after Othello was written became the first Black man to play the led character, and the three most prominent women of the arts in the history of the city.

10 minutes

Bond's Hospital

Hill St, Coventry CV1 4AN, UK

Here we spend 5 minutes to take in a few things including the building built in1505 by Thomas Bond, which are still used for the same purpose he intended today, over 500 years later.

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

The Parish Church of St John the Baptist

Fleet Street, Coventry, CV1 3AY

Outside this church, originally built as a private church for the richest in the city, your guide will explain why it is claimed to be the original of the phrase 'Sent to Coventry'.

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Historic Spon Street

Spon Street, Coventry

In and around Spon Street, we'll talk more about industries like dying, tanning, watchmaking and bicycles as well as how the street was for centuries one of the major roads in the country, and while not everything is as it may first seem in the area.

20 minutes

Coventry Market Shopping Centre

Queen Victoria Road, Coventry, CV1 3HT

Just a quick pop into the market. Not on Sundays.

5 minutes

Bull Yard

Bull Yard, Coventry CV1, UK

In The Bull Yard and Shelton Square find out more about the 'City of Tomorrow' and the stories behind some of eclectic public artworks in the area, as well as finding out what the area had been back in days gone by.

10 minutes

Cheylesmore Manor House

Manor House Dr, Coventry CV1 2HL, UK

Here highlights of the story of one of the real hidden gems of Coventry, Cheylesmore Manor House, a 700 year-old Royal Palace in the heart of he city.

12 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

New Union Street

New Union St, Coventry CV1, UK

Hear the story of Coventry's great survivor: Greyfriars Spire.

5 minutes

Fords Hospital

Fords Hospital Greyfriars Lane, Coventry, CV1 2GY

A travel writer in 1902 said "Perhaps there is nothing so exquisite in the whole Kingdon as Ford's Hospital in Coventry"...

5 minutes

Hertford Street

Hertford St, Coventry CV1, UK

To wind up, we spend a couple of minute looking at a handful of things in Hertford Street as we meander back to the starting point

5 minutes