The Belgrade Theatre is a live performance venue in Coventry, England. It was the first civic theatre to be built in Britain after the Second World War and is now a Grade II listed building.

Venue: Belgrade Theatre
Town: Coventry, GB

The Belgrade Theatre is a live performance venue in Coventry, England. It was the first civic theatre to be built in Britain after the Second World War and is now a Grade II listed building. Coventry was the fastest-growing city in Britain between the First and Second World Wars. Its cramped medieval streets were becoming dangerously congested and overcrowded, and in 1938 the City Council appointed Donald Gibson to become the first city architect. The newly created City Architect's Department had ambitious plans, and the devastation of the Coventry Blitz allowed it more freedom to design an entirely new city centre. In 1955, Gibson resigned; extensive work had already taken place in the city centre, but a growing Coventry required further development. The person who took over from him, Arthur Ling, would be the designer of the Belgrade Theatre. Some versions of the overall plan for the city centre included three new theatres and cinemas, but during the 1950s it became clear that this would not be viable. There were still two pre-war cinemas operating in the city centre, and audiences were falling. It was decided that a single new theatre would be built on the corner of Corporation Street and Upper Well Street. The first steps of construction took place in 1952, when Coventry's twin city of Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now in Serbia), pledged a gift of beech timber to be used in the new theatre. It is after this city that the Belgrade is named. The Yugoslavian ambassador, Ivo Vejvoda, visited the construction site in 1957; during the same trip he also opened an exhibition of modern Yugoslavian art at the Herbert Gallery. In the same year, the Arts Council announced that they would give financial support to the City Council to equip the new theatre, which was going over budget. The Belgrade was officially opened at 8 pm on 27 March 1958 by the Duchess of Kent in a ceremony attended by many "civic personalities and representatives of the theatre world" including Sir Kenneth C