Historic Coventry Trust and Pet-Xi are excited to be hosting a special jubilee picnic in the recently-revived Lady Herbert’s Garden.

As part of this weekend’s platinum jubilee, Historic Coventry Trust and Pet-Xi have invited some fantastic local charities to join us on Sun 5 June for a city centre celebration. For this special community gathering we are proud to be providing over 200 free picnic boxes by Esquires to local organisations, including: Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre, Carriers of Hope, Together in Action and Dogs Trust.

We’ll also be enjoying live music on the lawn, keeping it Coventry with the The Ac30s Ska and Rocksteady Band, hosted by BBC CWR’s Sandra Godley.

The public are warmly invited to join the festivities in the garden from 2pm to enjoy the live music and round off the jubilee long weekend in Lady Herbert’s Garden. 

Lady Herbert’s Garden was developed in the 1930s by Sir Alfred Herbert, a local industrialist famous for his charitable works in Coventry. Sir Alfred designed the garden for his wife Florence, aka ‘Lady Herbert’, to be a ‘haven of peace and floral beauty’ in the city centre. Sadly, Florence died just one day before the official plans were approved to build the garden, so she never saw it finished. However, Alfred made sure that she would always be remembered by using her initials ‘FH’ on all the original gates and railings, as well as on the weather-vane atop Swanswell Gate. 

Recently, Historic Coventry Trust have been working with Coventry City Council and volunteers to carry out extensive new planting in the garden, inspired by the original 1930s planting plans. With the new planting nearly complete Lady Herbert’s is looking lovelier than ever, restoring Sir Alfred’s vision of a thriving green space in the city centre for the people of Coventry to enjoy.

Bring a picnic and pop down to Lady Herbert’s this Sunday, we look forward to seeing you!