War Memorial in Coventry War Memorial Park

A War Memorial tower in Art Deco style, with stripped Classical detailing, built in 1925-7 to a design by Thomas Francis Tickner (1864-1924).

PLAN: the memorial tower has a square footprint and is set on a circular platform, which was rebuilt in 2011, and replaces the original octagonal shaped platform.

MATERIALS: the memorial tower is built of reinforced concrete and clad in Portland stone, with a stepped platform in granite.

EXTERIOR: the stepped tower is over 27m high. It has heavy buttresses to its corners, rising to ten tiers. Large, decorative bronze doors (restored in 2004) to both the east and west elevation, are set in plain chamfered Portland stone surrounds, and give access to the Chamber of Silence inside the tower. Each door contains, in relief, a full height cross with above it '1914-1918' and '1939-1945'. The north and south elevations each have a plain cross set on a stepped corbel with guttae. Below the cross on the north elevation is a circular wreath carved in stone, with the dates of both World Wars and the Coat of Arms of the City of Coventry below it. At the top of the tower burns an Eternal Light. The replaced steps of 2011, surrounding the monument, incorporate hand rails and an access ramp, and contain a bronze circle engraved with parts of Laurence Binyon's poem 'For the Fallen' and six bronze discs commemorating the Coventry service men who have been awarded the Victoria Cross.

INTERIOR: the Chamber of Silence inside the memorial tower, containing the Rolls of Honour, could not be inspected.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: there are four Portland stone pedestals, built in 1928 to support floodlights, standing in line with the corners of the memorial tower. Behind the pedestal north of the Memorial is a cast iron power supply junction box with decorative patterns and hinges to its door, which would supply the electricity for the floodlighting, and loudspeakers used on Armistice Sunday and/or other gatherings.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 18 January 2017.