The new Coventry Cathedral was consecrated on 25 May 1962, more than twenty years after the old cathedral had been destroyed in the bombing of November 1940.

The old building was not simply cleared away. Its ruins were left beside the new cathedral, keeping the evidence of war in view. That choice gave Coventry a clear post-war statement. The damage was not hidden, and the replacement did not pretend that nothing had happened.

The new cathedral was designed by Basil Spence. It was modern in form rather than a copy of the medieval building that had been lost. That mattered because the site had two purposes. It had to remember destruction, but it also had to serve as a living church.

The consecration made that plain. On 25 May 1962, the new cathedral was set apart for worship. It was not only a memorial to the bombing. It was a working cathedral beside the broken walls of the old one.

Coventry later became closely associated with forgiveness and reconciliation after war. The cathedral’s arrangement helped convey that meaning. The ruin remained visible. The new building opened beside it. The date marks the point at which memory and use were placed side by side and left there.