Sir Donald Gibson CBE: Coventry’s first City Architect
Gibson was Coventry’s first city architect. Appointed in 1938 at just 29 years old, he was regarded as a pioneer modern architect and his work made him one of the most influential architects of his generation.
Gibson was filled with a drive and enthusiasm to experiment and also a care for the way people should live. He believed that there was a great need for spaces in cities where pedestrians could move about freely and safely in precincts and arcades, and to progress from the idea that motor traffic and pedestrians must mix together in a shopping street.
By the end of the 1930s Coventry had outgrown its city centre. The population had become far greater than Coventry’s still largely medieval city centre and road system could cope with. It soon became clear that the only solution would be an extensive reconstruction but there was neither the legislation nor the finance available to make this a practical proposition.
The devastation caused by the November 1940 Blitz of Coventry created the opportunity that was needed to re-think and modernise the city centre and within a fortnight of the terrible bombings, the City Council had set up a re-development committee and along with powerful allies and devoted members, it was able to begin the drive to rebuild. Surrounded by a small dedicated team, Gibson’s grand scheme started to take shape for the redesign of the congested city centre.
Gibson requested that a symbol of the Aten, an aspect of the ancient Egyptian sun god, was to be carved on the reverse of the Queen Elizabeth monument pillar in Broadgate, alongside symbols of Coventry’s industries- scissors, teasel, a cap and a loom. Pharaoh Akhenaton worshipped the Aten and moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to Akhetaten (modern day Amarna) in the 1340s BC and created one of the world’s first planned cities. Akhenaton was one of the world’s first town planners, and Gibson took inspiration from the ancient city when formulating his radical redesign of Coventry.
This symbol representing the Aten is carved into the reverse of the column in Broadgate commemorating Princess Elizabeth’s visit to Coventry in 1948.
In 1955 Gibson left Coventry and his personal vision was never completed. He became County Architect in Nottinghamshire, where he worked on radical new building techniques. He then went on to a Knighthood and became, in effect, the Government’s senior architect, raising architectural standards during his tenure.
However, it is for his pioneering work in Coventry that he will be best remembered. It made him one of the most influential architects of his generation.