GeoGraph - photograph every grid square

The Civic Hall was designed by H.W. Weedon and opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 25 May 1962, en route to the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral. As the Borough's first purpose-built cultural venue its large and small auditoria witnessed events ranging from symphony concerts to boxing fights. A new Council Chamber - to replace the one in Poplar Road, now SP1579 : Bar Censa, Solihull - and civic offices were later built alongside. Pevsner thought the plans "far from promising aesthetically". The hall was privatised in 1982 and the whole suite of buildings was razed in 1998 to make way for the Touchwood Centre, a shopping and leisure complex which opened in 2001 and ironically perpetuates the name of the historic Touchwood Hall which had been obliterated by the town centre redevelopment of the 1960s.