Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva stands in Broadgate, Coventry, as a bronze equestrian statue on a Portland stone plinth. The work is known as Self Sacrifice but most call it the Lady Godiva statue. It was commissioned in 1936 by local businessman William Bassett-Green and completed by sculptor Sir William Reid Dick. Reid Dick worked through the Second World War to finish the full-scale model. After the war the statue was cast and placed on a plinth designed with influence from Sir Edwin Lutyens. The statue shows Lady Godiva riding naked to protest her husband’s taxes. The plinth carries lines from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem Godiva and a dedication from Bassett-Green. It was unveiled in 1949 by Peggy Z. Douglas, wife of the American Ambassador. Originally facing south, the statue was turned west in 1989 when Cathedral Lanes Shopping Centre was built. A canopy once covered it but was removed in 2008. Visitors find the statue in the open space of Broadgate surrounded by city buildings. The bronze figure of Lady Godiva on horseback draws attention day and night. The plinth’s inscriptions can be read close up. The setting links the medieval legend to modern Coventry life. The Grade II* listed status recognises its cultural importance.