The Old Windmill on Spon Street has walls that don't meet at right angles, floors of stone, and is reputedly built around the trunk of a tree. It's a 15th-century inn, thought to be the city's oldest, with up to seven cask ales, cider, and a cheeseboard much recommended. Locals call it Ma Brown's, after Ann Brown, who held the licence from 1940 to 1967 and would not allow gambling on the premises. Folk musicians play on Sunday afternoons.
Spon Street is the reason to come this side of the ring road: a run of medieval timber-framed buildings, some native to it and about ten relocated here under a 1967 preservation scheme that earned it the description "the newest ancient place in England." Weavers and dyers settled here from the 12th century. The dyers worked outside the centre because of the smell.
Turmeric Gold, at number 166, has served Indian food since 2001: the 2 Way Jalpiazi chicken masala, coconut chilli chicken, tandoori.
Everything in Coventry bends around one night. On 14 November 1940 the Luftwaffe gutted the medieval cathedral of St Michael's, leaving only the tower, spire and outer walls; the ruins were kept as a garden of remembrance, with "Father Forgive" carved into the sanctuary wall. When Basil Spence was chosen from over 200 architects in 1951, he was the only entrant who insisted the ruins be kept and a new cathedral built beside them in matching red sandstone, the two forming one church.
St Mary's Guildhall survived the Blitz; its undercroft holds a café called Tales of Tea, below the Coventry Tapestry, made around 1495 and still in the spot it was made for. In Broadgate, Godiva rides in bronze, and a nearby clock sends an animated Godiva out on the hour, watched by a Peeping Tom.
East of the centre, FarGo Village fills a former factory with makers, vintage stalls and street food. Twisted Barrel Ale brews on site — largely vegan, kegs stacked between the tables — and runs tours on the last Saturday of the month. In the same place is Gourmet Food Kitchen, a chef's table for twelve run by Tony Davies, where dinner might be celeriac velouté with Lincolnshire Poacher rarebit, duck with cherry sauce, then cheesecake.
The indoor market is circular and has stood on the same site since 1958, mixing fruit and fish stalls with zero-waste refills. The Transport Museum is free and holds the largest collection of British road transport anywhere, including ThrustSSC, the first car to break the sound barrier.
Coventry gave the world 2 Tone, the ska-and-punk sound of The Specials, whose "Ghost Town" spent three weeks at number one in 1981, a lament for a city losing its factories. You can trace it at the 2-Tone Village in Ball Hill.
The station sits just outside the ring road, with trains to London Euston in a little over an hour. Earlsdon, a mile and a half southwest, is the leafy former watchmaking suburb where Frank Whittle was born; it has delis, independent bars and the craft beer at Nextdoor.
Coventry Godcakes — triangular pastry turnovers slit three times for the Trinity — were once hawked in the streets on New Year's Day and given by godparents to godchildren with a blessing. Almost nobody makes them now.
