Greek Orthodox Church, Westwood Heath Road, Coventry

Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 16 Sep 2021

The flags of Cyprus, the United Kingdom and Greece can be seen flying outside the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Transfiguration. The church was open to the public on a Heritage Open Day. Tours of the church building were taking place and, in St. George's Hall, the red brick building visible to the right behind the church, could be seen a display on the history of the church and the Greek Cypriot community and another on the history of the Westwood Heath area by the Westwood Heath History Group. For the website of the church see here https://greekchurchcoventry.org/index.html , for the website of the history group see here https://westwoodheathra.wixsite.com/website . According to the church display, the first Cypriot migrants arrived in Coventry in the 1930s. At that time Cyprus was a colony of the British Empire. Increasing migration in the 1950s and 1960s led to the establishment of a Greek-language supplementary school and a Greek Orthodox church, which worshipped in Church of England churches. In 1977 the community acquired a Victorian school building in Westwood Heath. This was consecrated as an Orthodox church in 1978. It has since been extended, while classrooms for the Greek school have been built along with St George's Hall as a community venue https://greekchurchcoventry.org/about-us.html . The site overlooks the Warwickshire countryside beyond the city. The church itself has the rectangular shape and rows of wooden pews of a western church building, but there is no mistaking the Orthodox character of the painted icons on the walls and on the iconostasis, the screen which divides the sanctuary with the altar from the main body of the church.

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