Artrospektive

Pocket Number 23: St Mary’s Guildhall

St Mary’s Guildhall was closed for refurbishment and so I waited for it to reopen. During the wait, Coventry won its bid for city of culture. Then the Covid pandemic interlude happened. By the time the Guildhall reopened I found myself living in a different part of the country which made visiting Coventry rather more difficult. However, in May 2023 I continued where I left off, returning to Coventry to experience the Guildhall in all its post-renovation splendour.

St Mary’s Guildhall was built from the 1340s to 1420s by the prosperous Guild of St Mary and remains one of the best preserved medieval guildhalls in the country, miraculously avoiding the sort of destruction which befell the nearby cathedral when the 1940 German bombing raid flattened most of Coventry.

The Guildhall has a long and fabled past. Henry VI and his wife Margaret of Anjou were entertained in the Great Hall on their visits to Coventry and the hall housed the Royal Court and treasury during the War of the Roses in the 1400s.

During the English civil war in the 1600s, Coventry severed its close relationship with the (then) catholic crown and the Guildhall became the centre of operations for the Parliamentarian defence of the city.

Over the next few centuries it continued to hold a central role as the seat of Coventry’s local government and accommodated the City Council until the new Council House was constructed in the early 20^th century. These days it forms a key tourist attraction and is still used for civic functions and public events.

At the Guildhall’s ticket booth I encountered Marion who gave me an audio guide and the brochure which will go on the montage.

Inside the Guildhall, there is a well preserved medieval kitchen. Its thick stone walls house two hearths where meals fit to serve royalty used to be cooked in cauldrons and on spits over open fires. There is also a clever mechanism that allows steam and smoke to ventilate out from the ceiling without allowing rain in.

The Great Hall is home to the Coventry Tapestry commissioned for The Great Hall 500 years ago and still situated in the place it was made for. Marion pointed out that there was much to note on the tapestry and I have set out some of these observations in the gallery below: