Friends
Meeting House
Hill Street, Coventry
CV1 4AN
Clerk: Jo Hallett
Email: clerk@coventryquakers.org.uk
Meeting
for Worship every Sunday 10.30 am
Children’s Meeting 2nd, 4th and 5th Sundays
'Bring and Share' lunch second Sundays
The
Meeting House
How
to find us
Activities
Links
A brief History of Quakerism in the Coventry
area
| "Quakers believe that God speaks to everyone, and we worship God as equals. We sit together and try to find a peace within ourselves, which then seems to gather us into silence. We might be prompted to speak or simply listen to words which help us in our daily lives." | A young offender wrote this from Onley YOI - a local Prison. It is a good summary of Quaker worship, and what happens during one of our ‘Meetings for Worship’. Visiting this prison to take part in Meeting for Worship is one of the concerns supported by Coventry Quakers. |
Our Meeting House offers a base for our outreach and fellowship and is in walking distance of the city centre.
We offer our Meeting House for letting to organisations "with which we are in sympathy'?.
The main Meeting room is upstairs 24 ft x 36 ft and is suitable for about 100 people in theatre style.
The committee room seats about 8 and the library downstairs about 30 people. 
There is a kitchen equipped for provision of tea and light refreshments.
All rooms are heated by direct gas heating.
All the ground floor is fully accessible by wheelchairs with disabled toilet and ramps front and back. There is a stair lift to the first floor. See DDA assessment
The rear faces a pleasant garden with a large fenced lawn.
We have limited car parking for evening and weekend lets. We have five cycle securing holdfasts around the rear.
(Letting Secretary Tel. 024 7671 5019)
Enter the city centre at Junction 9 on the inner ring road (by Wickes and the fire station). Right at the end (second) traffic lights, along Corporation Street (by the Belgrade Theatre) and right up Hill Street (St John’s Church on corner). The Meeting House is on the left. Private car park (12 places) but vast public car parks adjacent. The best public car park is Belgrade Plaza and is accessible from the Junction 9 roundabout. (Unless you think you might be able to get into the Meeting House car park use this as you have to go back out the way you came in to the entrace off Juction 9!). The Meeting house is just across from the rear entrance.
From Pool Meadow bus station; walk along Fairfax Street, Hales St. and Corporation St and the Quaker Meeting House is behind the Belgrade Theatre.
From the Coventry Railway station; Leave by main entrance and bear left under the 'building archway' (main road entrance in to station). Take pedestrian underpass and across the green along Freeman's Walk (roughly in a straight line). At the end, bear right and then immediately take Greyfriars Road ('dual carriage way') on left and follow round, past IKEA on your left, until you reach St John's church (red sandstone) on corner of Hill Street. The Meeting House is
on the left. About 12 to 15 minutes walk.
Location Map (at StreetMap.co.uk)
There has
been a Quaker meeting in Coventry from the early days of the Society
of Friends (shortly after 1652).
George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers),
was born in 1624 in Fenny Drayton (then called Drayton in the
Clay), a few miles to the north. Coventry was his nearest major
city.
The site in Hill Street was purchased in 1668 as a burial ground
just outside the city boundary. At that time the Meeting House
was in Vicar Lane (now under the precinct), 
and
St John’s Church (A) on the corner near where Hill Street
gate was. Later, in 1898, the Vicar Lane building was sold and
a Meeting House (B) was built in Lower Holyhead Road at the back
of the burial ground. That site was sold in 1939.
The present Meeting House (C) dates from 1953.
View
from the top of the old Cathedral spire looking over the precinct
Vicar Lane (now completely disappeared) was just off the left
of the picture
(A) St John’s Church (corner of Hill Street)
(B) The old meeting house (behind the present one)
(C) Roof of present meeting house.
Coventry Quaker Meeting and its Members support many local organisations, which include:
Link Community Development www.lcd.org.uk/ and see report in www.tes.co.uk/2259533 - a wonderful story of results by a local school and a project we support.
Talking Friends - Putting 'The Friend' and other Quaker publications onto tape for the benefit of our visually handicapped talkingfriends.quaker.eu.org - several or us are involved as readers or in other roles.
St Andrews Free Church Home - www.standrewshouse.org.uk - taking care of our elderly people;
Emmaus Community in Coventry and Warwickshire; www.emmaus.org.uk - helping people to help themselves;
Norton House and the Cyrenians - the local open house for those who need it, we have established a lending library for their users;
Coventry Refugee Centre www.covrefugee.org/ we have established a lending library for their users;
Coventry Peace House Our input and and its work for refugees and asylum seekers;
Coventry and Warwickshire Mission in the World of Work now becoming WorkCare Coventry and Warwickshire www.workcare.org
The Quaker Tapestry. (Coventry Quakers did most of the work on panel C5 ‘Meeting Houses Overseas’) www.quaker-tapestry.co.uk
Coventry Churches Mailing - a distribution of leaflets and information to all subscribing local churches - more information;
Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. www.woodbrooke.org.uk
University of Coventry Centre for the Study of Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Sangam School www.sangamschool.org.uk - a school in a poor area of India that offers education to boys and girls and of all faiths, without it many would not get any education, many of Coventry Meeting are members of 'The Friends of Sangam Foundation'
University of Warwick - Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU) www.warwick.ac.uk/wie/wreru
Humanitarian demining; www.trellick.net/landmines
Churches Together in Coventry and Warwickshire
www.ctcw.org.uk which has a page concerning the Chapel of Unity. We are regular users of it and contibutors to the early Wednesday morning service.
Coventry Cathedral www.coventrycathedral.org.uk which has the Chapel of Unity in. We have also been very supportive of the Cathedral’s international work;
And individuals working and using their free time in many other roles!
Britain Yearly Meeting (Main Quaker web site) www.quaker.org.uk/
Warwickshire Monthly Meeting - Quaker meetings in Birmingham, Warwickshire and Coventry (our area) www.warwickshire quakers.org.uk
‘The Friend’ The weekly magazine for Quakers in Britain Yearly Meeting www.thefriend.org/
J & J Cash Ltd (Joseph, one of the Company’s founders and his wife Sarah lie in our burial ground) www.jjcash.co.uk/history.htm
Coventry the place to visit www.coventry.org/
Number
of times people have visited this web site since 27th March 2001:
Site created
by Stephen Petter
of Hamlet Consulting
Ltd, 27/3/01, Revised 2001-04-02
Filed as C:\data\webwork\spetter\covpm, accessed as www.coventryquakers.org.uk
which is held by UK2 where it has FWD to trythis.thenetzone.co.uk
on Portland Comms.
12/6/2002 To check accessibility. and 17/03/04 Last mod 8/10/05
For Webwmaster via the clerk email above
Members