Coventry Blitz the 1950s, designed by the architect Basil Spence. Spence (later knighted for this work) insisted that instead of re-building the old cathedral it should be kept in ruins as a garden of remembrance and that the new cathedral should be built alongside, the two buildings together effectively forming one church. The use of Hollington sandstone for the new Coventry Cathedral provides an element of unity between the buildings. The foundation stone of the new cathedral was laid by the Queen on 23 March 1956. It was consecrated on 25 May 1962, and Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem", composed for the occasion,
Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65 at Perry Green, Hertfordshire. Moore made a larger and reversed version of the sculpture, "Mirror Knife Edge 1977" or "Knife Edge Mirror Two Piece" (LH 714) – which is 5.34x7.21x3.63m or about 17.5x23.7x11.9 feet and weighs about – which was commissioned for the entrance to I. M. Pei's east wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The work is carefully cleaned and conserved each year to maintain the distinction between its shiny and patinated surfaces, as the artist intended. The second cast of "Knife Edge Two Piece" is located in Abingdon Street Gardens, also known as College