Belgrade Theatre

The first steps of construction took place in 1952, when Coventry's twin city of Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now in Serbia), pledged a gift of beech timber to be used in the new theatre. It is after this city that the Belgrade is named. The Yugoslavian ambassador, Ivo Vejvoda, visited the construction site in 1957; during the same trip he also opened an exhibition of modern Yugoslavian art at the Herbert Gallery. In the same year, the Arts Council announced that they would give financial support to the City Council to equip the new theatre, which was going over budget. The Belgrade was officially opened at 8 pm on 27 March 1958 by the Duchess of Kent in a ceremony attended by many "civic…

The Coventry City Architect's Department under Donald Gibson produced a model in 1944 that showed three interlinked theatres and cinemas arranged radially around a quarter-circle–shaped car park, centred roughly on the site of the Belgrade. Through the late 1940s and early 1950s, it became increasingly clear that only one theatre was needed, so Arthur Ling began work on the building that stands there today. The south-east elevation is reminiscent of Gibson's Broadgate House (1948–53) with an arcade of shopfronts underneath a brick-clad block of flats for visiting actors, with regular square windows framed with pale stone. However, Ling departed from Gibson's theme for the rest of the…