War Memorial

Coventry City Council formed a war memorial committee in 1919 to develop proposals to commemorate the 2,587 Coventrians who died in the First World War. The committee determined that the creation of a public park would be a suitable memorial, and raised £31,000 to acquire a site at Stivichall on the south side of the city from Hon Alexander Frederick Gregory, son of Samuel Hood-Tibbits, 3rd Viscount Hood, on the high ground between the River Sherbourne and the River Sowe. The 120 acre park opened in 1921, with a formal area to the northeast and a separate informal area to the southwest with playing fields. The park was designed with avenues leading away from a monument on the high ground at…

Construction of the memorial tower began in 1925 and it was completed in 1927. It was built using reinforced concrete and clad with Portland stone, in Art Deco style with Classical details. It has a square section, and originally stood on a stepped octagonal stone platform, replaced in 2011 with a circular platform of granite with eight steps, handrails and a ramp. The corners are heavily buttressed and step back in ten tiers with blunt pinnacles, reaching a summit which has an eternal light. Stone pedestals near the corners of the memorial, constructed in 1928, conceal floodlights. The north elevation has a tall stone cross sculpted in relief, above a sculpted wreath and the dates of the…