On Jordan Well in Coventry city centre, the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum is one of the West Midlands’ most visited cultural venues, drawing more than 300,000 visitors in 2010 alone. The building combines a museum, art gallery, records archive, learning centre, media studio, and creative arts facility under one roof, and is run by Culture Coventry, a registered charity that relies on donations, shop sales, and venue hire for its income.
Origins and the Herbert Name
The gallery takes its name from Sir Alfred Herbert, a Coventry industrialist and philanthropist who donated £100,000 to the city corporation in 1938 to fund the construction of a purpose-built gallery and museum. Plans were drawn up by Albert Herbert, a Leicester architect and cousin of Sir Alfred, and work began in 1939. The Coventry Blitz interrupted construction, leaving only the basement complete, and post-war rebuilding priorities further delayed progress. New plans were prepared in 1952 by the same Leicester firm, Albert Herbert & Son, and in May 1954 Sir Alfred laid the foundation stone himself, contributing a further £100,000 to the project. He died in May 1957, and the museum and gallery was formally opened on 9 March 1960 by his third wife, Lady Herbert.
Refurbishment and the Luca Giordano Canvas
A two-phase refurbishment began in 2005, with the first phase funded by £3 million from Coventry City Council, Advantage West Midlands, and the European Regional Development Fund. During this work, a large painting by the seventeenth-century Italian artist Luca Giordano – measuring 3.02 by 5.83 metres – was considered too large and fragile to move. It was boarded up in place in 2005 and uncovered again three years later when the second phase was completed. That second phase cost £14 million in total and included a new entrance on Bayley Lane. The refurbished Herbert reopened in 2008, having been part of Coventry’s cultural scene since the original 1960 opening.