Coventry: from ghost town to City of Culture
Coventry: une ville fantôme devenue capitale de la culture
La ville de Coventry, capitale de la culture en 2021.
Au Royaume-Uni, la ville de Coventry a mauvaise réputation : entièrement détruite par le Blitz lors de la seconde guerre mondiale, ayant souffert de la désindustrialisation et de la crise économique, elle est souvent dépréciée et moquée par les Britanniques. En 2021, elle sera cependant Capitale de la Culture Européenne. Quels projets pour redorer le blason de cette voisine de Birmingham ?
In 1981 the Specials mourned that as post-industrial demise gripped Coventry it was becoming “like a ghost town” where “Bands won’t play no more/Too much fighting on the dance floor.” But 40 years on, the city can expect more bands, theatre, performances, poetry and art than at any other time in its history when it becomes the UK city of culture in 2021.
2. “People are straightening their collars and brushing themselves down,” said the Specials bassist Horace Panter, who insisted the city had come a long way since the band’s anthem to urban decay. “There’s a bit of an underdog vibe here, but scratch beneath the surface and there’s a fierce pride in the city – even if it doesn’t always show.”
WHY COVENTRY? 3. Now Coventry would have a chance to shout about it, said the Brookside creator Phil Redmond, chair of the city of culture judges’ panel. “Sometimes you need a visitor to come along so you can see your own city in a different way,” he said.
4. Coventry saw off stiff competition, pitching itself as a vote for the future (the average age of Coventry residents is 33, seven years younger than the national average) and filling its bid team with a diverse crowd of young people cannily backed up by a range of local businesses.
5. Coventry Cathedral looms large in the city. Sir Basil Spence’s modernist masterpiece morphs seamlessly into the evocative ruins of the neighbouring St Michael’s Cathedral, destroyed during the blitz. While St Michael’s stands as a permanent memorial to Coventry’s darkest hour, its postwar replacement after the second world war became a symbol of reconciliation.
6. Speaking to the winning bid team at the council’s offices – housed in the mock Tudor civic building built at the start of the 20th
century – Redmond said it was “time to cash the cheques”.
7. “We know these are challenging times and we can’t rely on the public purse,” he said. “But we also know that every pound invested in culture brings a return. Culture is part of the answer post-Brexit. That’s your prize, that’s what you have to go after.”
8. The arts minister John Glen said the city’s potential was one of the reasons behind its victory. “If you look at the success of Hull, it has been transformational in the sense of civic pride, but also how people view culture and the arts,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what your background is – everyone can benefit from the city of culture.” 9. Those who have been working at the cultural heart of the city could barely contain their elation at the news. Roger Medwell, chair of the Transport Museum, said he hoped the prize would make Coventry into the destination it deserved to be – not just somewhere to pass through on the way to somewhere else. “The M45, the M1 the M6 – people go to Birmingham, but they don’t see Coventry,” he said.
"OUR PARENTS DIDN'T LIKE THE WAY THE CITY WAS REBUILT" 10. “I think part of the problem is our parents didn’t like the way the city was rebuilt after the war,” said Medwell. “But it’s a wonderful city, it’s a city of fairness and fair play – and it needs to be put on the map.”
11. Stand still long enough in Coventry and someone will tell you it was the home of the
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