Things to Do in Coventry, United Kingdom: Walking Guide

Looking for things to do in Coventry? This West Midlands city brings together medieval buildings, wartime memory, religious heritage and public art. Its most powerful landmark is Coventry Cathedral, where the ruins of the medieval church stand beside the modern cathedral built after the 1940 bombing. Neywo’s free audio guide for Coventry narrates 87 places across the city.

What to See in Coventry

Coventry Cathedral and its ruined predecessor

Coventry Cathedral is formed by two churches with a shared history. The ruined shell belongs to the medieval St Michael’s, a Gothic church that became a cathedral in 1918. It was largely destroyed during the bombing of Coventry on 14 November 1940, although its tower and spire survived, rising to 284 feet, or 87 metres.

The new Cathedral Church of Saint Michael was built beside the ruins between 1956 and 1962 and consecrated in 1962. Together, the old walls, surviving spire and modern building create a memorial to wartime destruction, while expressing rebuilding, peace and reconciliation. The cathedral also contains more than 160 Nail Crosses, each made with three nails from the original cathedral.

Lady Godiva in Broadgate

The Lady Godiva statue is one of Coventry’s best-known landmarks. Known formally as Self Sacrifice, the bronze equestrian sculpture was created by William Reid Dick. The figure stands on a Portland stone plinth in Broadgate, where the monument has become closely associated with the city.

Holy Trinity Church

Holy Trinity Church is a Grade I listed Church of England parish church. Its most striking feature is the doom wall painting above the chancel arch, which provides a powerful focal point inside the building.

Cook Street Gate

Cook Street Gate is one of Coventry’s rare surviving medieval entrances and the only surviving city gate through which a road still runs. It probably formed part of the defensive circuit during the second half of the fourteenth century. Of Coventry’s original twelve town gates, only Cook Street Gate and Swanswell Gate remain.

The gate was completed around 1485. After becoming derelict in the late nineteenth century, it was presented to the city by Sir William Wyley in 1913 and restored in 1918. Blocked doorways still show where entrances once opened onto the wall walk.

Greyfriars and Christchurch Steeple

The Greyfriars spire, also known as Christchurch Steeple, stands on the site of a former medieval Franciscan priory. The original monastic buildings disappeared during the English Reformation. The surviving spire later belonged to a nineteenth-century church destroyed during an air raid in the Second World War.

Today, the Grade II* listed spire connects Coventry’s medieval religious history with its later wartime story.

St Mary’s Church, Walsgrave

St Mary’s Church in Walsgrave is a Grade II* listed building whose history reaches back to a Norman chapel. A chapel stood at the site sometime after 1086 and was first recorded in 1221. The present church was originally built around 1300, although later changes may mean it was completely rebuilt in the late thirteenth or fourteenth century.

The building combines local red sandstone with later grey sandstone. Its tower dates from the fifteenth century, while medieval fabric, fourteenth-century windows and other medieval fittings remain inside. The font and a pillar capital, both carved from red sandstone, are the only surviving remains of the earlier Norman chapel.

St Osburg’s Church

St Osburg’s Church, also known as the Church of the Most Holy Sacrament, is a Roman Catholic parish church in Coventry city centre. Built between 1843 and 1845, it was designed by Charles Hansom and founded by Benedictines from Downside Abbey. The Grade II listed church stands at the junction of Holyhead Road and the Coventry Ring Road.

St Laurence’s Church

St Laurence’s is the Church of England parish church of Foleshill and a Grade II* listed building. Its tower includes features dating from the fifteenth century, giving the church a visible connection with its long history.

St Michael’s, Stoke

St Michael’s, also known as Stoke St Michael’s, is a Church of England parish church on Walsgrave Road, east of Coventry city centre. Its origins go back to the twelfth century, when it was founded by the Earl of Chester. It continues to serve the local community.

Other historic places and works of art

Coventry’s places of interest extend beyond its best-known landmarks. Cheylesmore Manor offers another historic building to seek out, while the Cemetery Chapel, Church of St John the Divine with its hall and bell tower, St Chads, Coventry Synagogue and Rabbi’s House, and St Mary’s Priory and Cathedral each add to the city’s varied religious and architectural heritage.

At the University of Warwick, 3B Series No.1 is a sculpture by Bernard Schottlander. Its title encourages close observation and a personal response to the work.

A Coventry self-guided walking tour with Neywo

Neywo offers five walking tours and one bus route in Coventry, with narration available in 11 languages. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule.

The walks include:

• Three Cathedrals and a Lady on Horseback: 1.26 km, 79 minutes and 8 narrated stops.
• Medieval Coventry: Almshouses, Spires and Gates: 1.62 km, 78 minutes and 8 narrated stops.
• Spon Street and the Post-War Stage: 1.67 km, 60 minutes and 6 narrated stops.
• Paxton’s Arboretum and the Charterhouse: 1.95 km, 58 minutes and 6 narrated stops.
• Earlsdon, the War Memorial Park and the Coat of Arms Bridge: 3.66 km, 77 minutes and 5 narrated stops.

The bus route, Route 17A: from the Cathedral to Holy Trinity, covers 9.2 km in 39 minutes and includes 10 narrated stops.

Download Neywo and explore Coventry at your own pace

Download Neywo’s free audio guide for Coventry to explore 87 narrated places across the city. Choose a walk or the bus route, start whenever you like and listen as each story plays when you reach the next place—with no group and no schedule.

Coventry is part of England in the United Kingdom.