Opened in January 2024, the brand-new Hotel Indigo Coventry has an elegant barcode cladding of metallic blues. Shades that home in on Coventry’s history. Originally it was the blue tint of the city’s woven cloth that brought spectacular medieval wealth. Today that blue is celebrated in Coventry City’s sky-blue football shirts.
On the ground floor, recessed glazing, placed between those barcode columns, gives passers by glimpses of Cogs Bar and Restaurant. Quirkily, symbolically, the hotel blends two of Coventry’s icons for a welcome poster: a contemporary flame-haired Lady Godiva pedalling a push-bike.
Riding high after its 2021 reign as City of Culture, Coventry is pulling in visitors for business and leisure. Hotel Indigo, a mere two minutes’ walk from the Railway Station, is in pole position to welcome them.
Blitzed for 11 hours by the Luftwaffe on November 14th 1940, possibly as Hitler’s retaliation for an RAF bombing raid on Munich, Coventry led the way in phoenix-like urban regeneration with a ring road leaving the centre free for pedestrians.
The welcome
Friendly, welcoming staff are very proud of both their city and their new hotel, telling us about the hotel’s themes.
We are given a map of the city centre with major attractions pointed out.
The suite
Looking to Coventry’s traditions, the 101 rooms are designed around the three themes of The Spinning Wheel, Motor City, plus Re-imagination and Regeneration.
On the second floor, the theme of our suite is Motor City. Chequered-flag pillows, a gleaming motor grille on a small chest of drawers and a yesteryear advert for Coventry Cars all contribute. One collage displays colour swatches for an E-type Jaguar evoking nostalgia for a Golden Age of Motoring.
The Hypnos bed is dressed with Egyptian cotton linen. There’s high speed wi-fi and a 40” flatscreen television to watch from the comfort of a two-seater sofa.
The bathroom
A spa-inspired bathroom has a free-standing roll-top bath and separate rainfall shower. By the his-and-her units, each with a lit porthole style mirror, are Bramley toiletries.
The facilities
Tall light-giving windows invite passers by to join the crowd at Cogs bar for local ale or gin, maybe even something a little fizzy. In postmodern industrial style, the ceiling’s innards are exposed
For a restaurant with only 100 covers there’s impressive variety on Cogs a la carte menu. As guests order, a wine wall emphasises the variety of vintages on offer.
Diners watch as platters of charcuterie, breads and baked Camembert leave the open kitchen. They hear the drama of steaks – rump, rib-eye, fillet – sizzling and chefs shaking a pan-fried sea bream with chorizo, cannellini beans, cherry tomato, shallots, peppers. Meanwhile chefs check on the oven roasted lamb rump and the slow braised pulled beef. Throw in a superfood salad, roasted courgettes with couscous cous, burgers, as well as haddock and chips and it is a menu that offers something for everyone.
A well-equipped gym is open 24/7, God only knows what Coventry’s original bicycle manufacturers would have made of the high-tech exercise bikes
The location
Coventry is renowned for its third cathedral. Henry Vlll destroyed the first during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, 11 hours of Luftwaffe bombing destroyed the second, but a third cathedral was consecrated in 1962.
Boldly, Coventry decided to shelf the previous Gothic design and opt for Sir Basil Spence’s radical modernist design using steel and reinforced concrete with an arrow shaped spire soaring 90 metres towards heaven. Two charred timbers, that fell from the roof to form a Christian cross, inspired the building of a new building with the words “Father Forgive” leading the spirit of reconciliation.
Since 1939, the neighbouring Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, with free general admission, has been at the heart of Coventry’s dynamic cultural life.
Exhibits tell the story, or more probably myth, of Coventry’s most famous resident. In the 11th century. Lady Godiva’s husband promised he would only lower the tax burden on the people if his wife rode naked through the city centre. She agreed to do so, but decreed that the people should stay in their houses with windows shuttered. They all did, save for “Peeping Tom” who subsequently went blind. Nice story but without reliable historical documentation.
As Britain’s Motown, Coventry produced the country’s first car, a Daimler, in 1897. Initially, the Herbert Museum told the automotive story but when the collection grew too large, the Coventry Transport Museum was established.
Other nice touches
Two of Coventry’s traditional God cakes await us in our suite. From around the 14th century, godparents gave these triangular flaky mincemeat turnovers to their godchildren at New Year.
A taster of Peeping Tom gin is ready and there are chilled tonics in the fridge.
The cost
Room rates begin from £103.
The best bit
Decor and artwork at Hotel Indigo pay homage to Coventry’s heritage. Lifts are papered with newspapers from the golden era of the cycle trade.
Around the ground floor public areas black-and-white murals recall the early 1980s when Coventry became the birthplace of two-tone music. Four decades on from The Specials singing about a Ghost Town there is nothing spectral about today’s vibrant, buzzing city.
The final verdict
No need to send people to Coventry anymore. Now they flock to the city for its cultural heft.
Strategically positioned, in an eminently walkable city, Hotel Indigo, packed with contemporary comforts, is part of the next wave of imaginative regeneration to lift the city.
Disclosure: Our stay was sponsored by Hotel Indigo Coventry.
Michael Edwards
Michael Edwards is a travel writer from Oxfordshire, UK. Although Michael had his first travel pieces published nearly four decades ago, he is still finding new luxury destinations to visit and write on.
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