Volgograd Place is named after Coventry's twin city of Volgograd in southern Russia. The twinning was established in 1944, when Volgograd was known as Stalingrad, and both cities had very recently passed through the fires of war in resisting Nazi Germany. The city of Coventry suspended the twinning relationship indefinitely in 2022, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The building that this mosaic SP3379 : Mosaic detail in Cov Centre. decorates was originally the Locarno ballroom, hence the jolly design. The artist was Fred Millet.