Coventry
Visited Wed 21 Jun
Justifiably famous edifice by Basil Spence. Few 1960s buildings have commanded such widespread affection. Coventry is all about reconciliation and forgiveness and explains how this is precisely what the cross of Jesus is about; many cathedrals I've visited present the cross as simply a "symbol of hope" with no explanation of how the gallows can symbolise optimism!
What I didn't know was that the present building is Coventry's third cathedral. The one so famously destroyed in the Blitz (on the left in the pic above) was the former parish church, made a cathedral only in 1918. The nearby Benedictine Abbey, now completely vanished, was the cathedral for the Diocese of Coventry & Lichfield until the Reformation, when the bishop's throne was transferred to Lichfield.
[Extra note on the interface between architecture & theology: As a former boss of mine points out, the "new" 1962 cathedral is long and thin and solidly "Catholic" in its design, unlike the rounder or squarer and admirably "Reformed" modern R.C. cathedrals of Liverpool, Clifton & Brentwood (& no doubt Middlesbrough but I couldn't get in!). They gather round the Lord's table; we get our binoculars out and watch the performance. Just as C of E cathedrals seem to need lanterns, so they apparently have to be places for spectating, not sharing. Still, at least Coventry dares to abandon the otherwise ubiquitous pointed arch, unlike Guildford or Liverpool!]