Mick Hartley

Outside the former home of architect Sir Basil Spence, in Canonbury Place. 

Sir Basil must have looked out of his window many times, perhaps while designing Coventry Cathedral, and thought to himself: hmm, what's the point of being a top architect if I can't even get my own house and garden in order? Physician, heal thyself! As soon as I finish this wretched cathedral I must get round to smartening up the courtyard here. What it really needs is a gnome, fishing in that pond. Maybe even two gnomes; one each side. No no, what am I thinking – not two fishing gnomes. One's plenty. Have the second gnome pushing a wheelbarrow. And a third, leaning on a spade. Ooh I love gnomes, me! And a little windmill. Must have a little windmill…

Thus did Sir Basil dream. But, sadly, he never got round to making his dreams a reality. The world, and the demands of a successful career, intervened. And so the courtyard remains today, preserved as he left it: a neglected testament to what could have been.