Visions of Coventry's Post-War Future

Organised by Coventry City Council, the ‘Coventry of The Future Exhibition’, held in the city’s Drill Hall from 8th - 20th of October 1945, envisioned city architect Donald Gibson’s plan for the ‘future Coventry’: an ‘efficient and beautiful setting… where proper emphasis is given to questions alike of traffic, housing, industry, recreation and amenities' (Gibson, 1945). Encompassing themes ranging from housing to central re-development, the exhibition sought to illustrate various proposals for the physical reconstruction and planning of the city in the wake of the Coventry Blitz.

This event will use archival documents to examine the plans, designs and prototypes put forward by the exhibition. It will consider how such materials evoke the desire to create a modern, ambitious urban centre to express the optimism of a country emerging from the Second World War. As such, this session will offer an insight into Coventry’s post-war future – a future which offered Coventrians the promise of a better tomorrow.