Romantic Ruins Gallery

Roofless church AA44_00568

St John's Church, Waterloo Road, Lambeth, Greater London. Interior view of the bomb damaged remains of St John's Church, showing the east end, June 1941.
St John's Church was originally built in 1823-4 to designs by the architect Francis Bedford. It was one of four churches built in Lambeth in the Greek Revival style. The church was damaged by bombs during the Second World War. It was later restored and designated as the Festival of Britain church in 1951.
The negative of this image was destroyed in 1968

© Historic England Archive

Planning a new Cathedral JLP01_08_045789b

CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL, BAILEY LANE, COVENTRY. A view of Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh with the architect Basil Spence and Provost Howard, standing in the ruins of the old cathedral beside an architectural model, on the day of the foundation stone laying ceremony for the new Coventry Cathedral.
This image was catalogued as part of the Breaking New Ground Project in partnership with the John Laing Charitable Trust in 2019-20

© Historic England Archive. John Laing Photographic Collection

Cathedral construction and Coventry JLP01_08_058197

COVENTRY CATHEDRAL, PRIORY STREET, COVENTRY. A view from the spire of the Cathedral Church of Saint Michael, looking in a north-east direction over the construction site of the new Coventry Cathedral, with the ruins of the old cathedral in the foreground and the city of Coventry beyond.
The photograph shows the construction of the new Coventry Cathedral, designed by Basil Spence in 1951 and constructed between the mid-1950s and 1962. It replaced the ruined Cathedral Church of St Michael which had been badly damaged by bombing in 1941. The photograph was taken to show progress on the construction of the cathedral including the concrete roof and the construction of the Chapel of Unity which was now at roof level

© Historic England Archive. John Laing Photographic Collection