Alternative Townscapes Nᵒ.1: The Town Hall That Wasn't

How the Town Hall might have looked if John Fallows had won the
competition to build. Fallows came 2nd in the competition.

GUEST ARTICLE: By Anthony Peers, author of the book Birmingham Town Hall, available to buy now. See below.

The Triennial Musical Festival of October 1834 was celebrated in a big way. Held every three years since the 1760s, the by now internationally renowned festival had had to be cancelled two years on the trot. After a five year wait this highly popular society event was eagerly anticipated. There was a sound reason for the postponement of the festival: It had taken much longer than originally anticipated to construct the new venue in which the evening concerts were to be performed. There had been much criticism in the press about the delays in the building process. Hampered by strikes, crippling budgetary constraints and challenging issues with stone procurement the project’s architects and their contractors had worked themselves to the bone, eventually succumbing, in spring 1834, to bankruptcy. That the necessary remaining works were undertaken in time to render the building fit to hold the October Festival was something of a miracle.

The fact is things could all have turned out even worse had the Streets Commissioners, the unelected body of townsmen who commissioned the building, not been quite so sharp in relation to the project funding. Although it appears that not one of them had any experience in building contracts, most members of the committee – which was charged with choosing the design for the Town Hall, appointing the architect and setting the budget – were in trade and thus well versed in striking a bargain. First up they held an architectural competition. Although their offering of £100 for the winner was far from generous, the competition for this prestigious project attracted as many as 70 entrants. Having eventually chosen their preferred design the Streets Commissioners more than got their money’s worth from the competition through asking the winning architects (for there were two of them, working in partnership) to amend their design to incorporate elements seen in some of the other submissions. Such sharp practice and tight-fistedness by the client continued through the course of the contract.

With the architects and the contractors all but ruined by the Streets Commissioners’ unflinching parsimony, it is all too easy to see these, the town’s forefathers, as the villains of the piece. However, these men were acting on behalf of the people. The funds required for the construction of the Town Hall had to be raised through a public rate - the budget had to be tight. From our early 21st Century perspective it is interesting to reflect on the thought that if the Town Hall had been commissioned by a less commercially savvy client the ‘pride of Birmingham’ would almost certainly never have been commissioned, let alone seen through to completion.

The architectural competition itself was fraught with potential pit-holes about which the Streets Commissioners successfully negotiated their way. One, a classic of such competitions, was the temptation to fall for the ‘too good to be true’ submission. Evidence that this ruse was tried on in the Town Hall competition can be observed in Birmingham’s Central Library where the full set of competition drawings, executed by the Birmingham based John Fallows, are archived (see below and top). Producing designs for an impressive and highly decorative building - which patently could not have been built within the specified budget - this architect chanced his arm, clearly hoping that the competition assessors would be so won over by his beautifully produced presentation drawings that they would disregard all other submissions. The Streets Commissioners’ native instincts won out : Comparing this impossibly grandiose design with the other (pared back) proposals, they smelled a rat – in no way would Fallows’ submission be realisable within the budget. Recognition of the fact that they were indeed mightily impressed with Fallows’ submission can be seen in the fact that this architect was awarded the second prize in the competition.

Interior of the un-built Town Hall designed by John Fallows

Had the Streets Commissioners fallen for Fallows’ enticing ruse it can only be imagined that the outcome would have been failure and disappointment. The process of constructing the Hansom and Welch designed Town Hall may have been accompanied by delays and disasters but the building was, eventually, completed. This magnificent temple of a building stands as a testament to the collective civic spirit of the people of Birmingham, the Streets Commissioners’ thrift and the ‘never-say-die’ graft and determination of its youthful architects.

Cover photo by James Davies/English Heritage

You can discover much more about the fascinating history of Birmingham Town Hall in my recently released book. Published by Lund Humphries, it is a hardback measuring 26.2 x 23.2 x 2.8 cm. The book’s 100,000 words are generously illustrated with nearly 300 images, the majority of which are reproduced in colour. The RRP is £30.00.

Buy on Amazon.

Fallows' submission drawings are courtesy of Birmingham Library and Archive Services.

Town Hall, Guildhall and Joseph Hansom



The Town Hall in 1834

Joseph Hansom, with his partner Edward Welch, won the competition to build the Town Hall out of 67 applicants in 1831. The hall is one of the most iconic of Birmingham's buildings and its history has been traced by a number of writers. Those who have read any history of Birmingham will probably be aware of how Hansom had grossly underestimated the costs of building, and that as he had borne the entirety of the financial commitments, he was declared bankrupt before completion (and the hall had to be completed by Charles Edge). In the early 1830s though, Birmingham was teeming with political radicalism, and Joseph Hansom, influenced by Robert Owen's ideas, was part of the wider socialist movement. We do not know whether the Town Hall was built by builders in co-operatives, there were a large number of builders working on the building, but with Hansom behind the project it would have been built with the aspirations of socialism, which marks it as an important building.

Although he went bankrupt, the Town Hall was not the last of Joseph Hansom’s Birmingham commissions; in 1833 work began on the Operative Builder’s Guildhall. The Guildhall was initiated by Birmingham’s Builder’s Trades’ Union (the Operative Builder’s Union) who wanted a building for meetings, lectures and for education.* The idea was that the builders themselves would erect buildings as co-operatives without the need for the masters. Hansom, being a socialist, was a keen advocator of co-operatives. The objective of the builders trade unions was ‘to give permanency and efficiency to the efforts of the working builders to obtain secure sufficient wages and full employment for every member of their body’ and also 'to provide [...] schools for instruction in all the branches of the art of building' as well as 'a good, sound, and practical education for their children’.* There was also the desire to offer 'provision for times of illness or accident, and a comfortable retirement for the aged and infirm'.* The larger businesses and employers saw the Operative Builder’s Union as 'a direct threat to private property and capitalist enterprise', and initiated a counter-attack on those workers involved by refusing to employ them.*

The day the first stone of the Guildhall was laid there was a procession; 'bands of music, flags, banners, &c., were seen moving in all directions towards the scene of action. After parading the principal streets, amidst throngs of spectators, [...] the procession proceeded to the site of the intended building in Broad Street'.* The building was seen as part of 'the commencement of a new era in the condition of the whole of the working classes in the world'.* The excitement and optimism would be short lived though. The aim had been to raise the funds for the Guildhall from donations from the Builder’s Trades’ Unions but they suffered from organisational weaknesses and funds that were earmarked for the building of the Guildhall were used to support strikers in other towns.* In 1834 the union collapsed as did the plans for the Guildhall, which was only ever half built, but the ideas and operatives were mainly absorbed into the wider radical movements of the time.*

NOTES
** With thanks to Alex Lawrey who first let me know of this aspect of the Town Hall's construction. You can visit his site: http://www.builtheritageresearch.org/
* References available on request.

Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.12: Public Buildings and a New Urban Awareness

King Edwards' School

From the Georgian period there was a rise in the number of public buildings in English provincial towns, but also more architectural awareness in designing these buildings to achieve a specific image for the town. Architectural styles were moving from the vernacular to the classical; earlier buildings were often simply designed or appropriated preceding buildings.* In Birmingham pre-eighteenth century institutions, such as the grammar school and the prison, were housed in older buildings. The school building was the old Guild Hall and thought to date from at least 100 years beforehand, and the prison used the old Leather Hall, a remnant of Birmingham’s once famous market in leather.* Both of these institutions were re-housed in the early 1700s, though only the school moved to a custom built building.  It was not till later in the century that the town’s public buildings were designed to emit prestige and to be focal points within the urban landscape.

Two of Birmingham’s first public buildings were the Market Cross and the Welsh Cross which stood at the two opposing ends of the High Street by the first decade of the eighteenth century.  They provided modest market cover which consisted of a lower arcade with a room above for public meetings and, in the case of the Welsh Cross, a guard room. These buildings were small, understated and had quite general functions, and both had clocks, which was advantageous when the majority could not afford their own timepiece. King Edward’s School on New Street though (above), built only a few years later, was constructed on a much grander scale. It consisted of a central part set back from the street with two wings decorated with a cornice and surmounted by an elegant balustrade. The urns were added in 1756. The central tower, with another clock, rose in four stages topped with a cupola, decorated with Corinthian columns at the first stage and a niche at the third stage containing a statue of Edward VI.* The school needed to be larger to accommodate the pupils, but the building had been designed to be a focal point, using classical influence to promote grandeur and encourage esteem.

Blue Coat School
Workhouse
General Hospital

~Three eighteenth century public buildings.~

Over the rest of the eighteenth century there were three main public buildings erected, the Blue Coat School (1724), the workhouse (1733) and the hospital (1765-79), all of which were built for the poorer of society and constructed in a similar Palladian style. All were also extended later in the century to accommodate a continued growing need for them. Each had a central pediment with simple, austere and imposing facades which could be confused as Georgian country houses, in fact, William Hutton stated as much about the workhouse.* All of these buildings, though, were relatively un-ornamented and from the beginning of the nineteenth century the architectural style of Birmingham’s public buildings can be seen to change. William Hollins’s public offices on Moor Street (1807) were criticised for the ‘unnecessary use of classical ornament for so utilitarian a building’,* but neoclassical design was predominant in Birmingham for the next 30 or 40 years.

~Into the nineteenth century.~

From the late eighteenth century a transition can be seen as to who public buildings were built for, and this is more predominantly the middle classes. The library (1799), Public Offices (1807), News Room (1828), Society of Arts Building (1828), and Town Hall (1834) are all assertions of a middle class presence. Classical ornament became more overt, symbolising perhaps the prosperity and prestige of the town and its people. The Society of Arts building was a prominent example of the neoclassical style, with its protruding portico supported by Corinthian columns overhanging New Street's walkway. The library, which was later extended, had originally consisted of a central bowed entrance with decorative fan lights, and a single bay either side divided by Doric pilasters on the lower floor and Ionic on the upper. By far the grandest neoclassical addition to Birmingham’s landscape though was the Town Hall. The design was by Hansom and Welch, but due to them going bankrupt part way through building, completed by Charles Edge. The building had been designed after the temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome, and had a rusticated base topped with Corinthian columns, and would have towered over the surrounding buildings. It was built to house Birmingham's renowned musical concerts, plus events, public dinners and large town meetings; Charles Dicken's talked here, Mendelssohn performed, and Queen Victoria was received at the Town Hall when she visited in 1858. It was the central status symbol of culture in the town.

The construction of public buildings promoted the prestige, prosperity and aspirations of the town. Over the period covered here architectural awareness developed, as well as an appreciation of the town landscape as a whole. Most of the public buildings constructed in the early part of the nineteenth century were designed by Birmingham based architects but national competitions were held for the designs, some receiving 50 or more entries, as it was important to get the best design to make the right statement about the town. Buildings also became more specialised and different kinds of buildings were needed for varying functions required in the growing town. Many of these functions had been developed by the growing middle classes, for leisure and entertainment, for education (both of themselves and the poor), and as methods of regulating and, sometimes, ordering the growing town and its people.

MAIN PUBLIC BUILDINGS OF THE PERIOD
---------pre eighteenth century
King Edwards Free Grammar School on New Street in mid 1500s, rebuilt 1707 and in 1833-1838 (demolished 193)
Prison in the Leather Hall on New Street in 1600s (or earlier), demolished 1728, newly built at Bridgewell House near Pinfold Street in 1733, extended into Peck Lane in 1757, new building on Moor Street in 1795 (all demolished)
---------eighteenth century
Old Cross near the Bull Ring in 1702 (demolished 1784)
Welsh Cross near Dale End by 1706 (demolished 1803)
Blue Coat School on Temple Row in 1724, enlarged and refaced in 1794 (demolished 1935)
Workhouse on Lichfield Street in 1733 (Aston had a workhouse from 1700), infirmary wing added in 1766, labour wing added in 1779, moved to Winson Green in 1852 (both demolished)
Court House (or Court of Requests) on High Street used a house built in circa 1650 from 1752 (demolished)
Protestant Dissenting Charity School on Park Street in 1760 (demolished)
Hospital on Summer Lane between 1765-1779, wings added in 1790 (demolished)
Asylum for the Infant Poor on Summer Lane in 1797 (demolished)
Library on Union Street between 1798-1799 (demolished 1899)
--------nineteenth century till 1858
Public Office on Moor Street between 1805-1807 (demolished)
General Dispensary on Union Street in 1808 (demolished 1957)
Deaf and Dumb Institution on Calthorpe Street in 1814 (?)
Infant School on Ann Street in 1823 (demolished)
News Rooms on Bennett’s Hill in 1828 (demolished)
Society of Arts on New Street in 1828 (demolished)
Town Hall on Paradise Street in 1834
Market Hall on High Street from 1828-1835 (demolished 1962 after bomb damage in 1940)
Queens College on Paradise Street from 1843-1845 (re-fronted 1904)
People’s Hall of Science on Loveday Street in 1846 (demolished)
Poor Law Offices on Paradise Street in 1854 (demolished)

NOTES
* References available on request. Also see, Peter Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance: Culture and Society in the Provincial Town 1660-1770 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991)
Images courtesy of Birmingham Library and Archive Services.

Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.38: Samuel Lines Captures the Bustling Centre (Victoria Square As It Was)

The Town Hall and Queen's College, painted c. 1848 by Samuel Lines Senior

Samuel Lines painted a number of topographical pictures of Birminghm. He produced the above in about 1848, but, at that time, would not have called this area Victoria Square, as it is called today. At this time Victoria was on the throne, but this space by the Town Hall became Victoria Square in the year the Queen died, 1901, when a statue of her was erected near to where it still stands today. The statue was perhaps erected here as when she visited Birmingham as Queen in 1858 she would alight from her carriage in this open area and enter a purple canopy of velvet into the Town Hall.

In Samuel Lines's painting, the area is a busy thoroughfare, just as it is today; the open space was formed naturally at a place where six streets met,* and the atmosphere of this bustling area was described in 1825:

'The junction of these streets is one of the most pleasing and lively spots in the town. An open space, receiving into one focus the radiation of six ways, there is a continual succession of objects; and being the centre of a busy manufacturing district, the throng of artizans [sic] leaving their several workshops, at the hour of One, and hurrying to their meal, has a particularly animated ans cheerful effect; especially in this time of plentiful employment.'**

Samuel Lines filled his painting with a selection of animated characters; there are cheeky schoolboys, workers grouped together chatting, an older man and a boy sitting under the lampost looking at a book, a genteel couple in a fine carriage (the lady turns towards the viewer), beggars, peddlars, a soldier in his smart red coat, a black or Asian man in orange and turquiose robes, and two workers carrying a huge urn among mant more. You can also see how the arches of the Town Hall could be walked through as two genteel ladies, dressed to impress, promenade through with a small dog. The size of these arches compared to the pedestrians beneath is very telling; the Town Hall would have been the largest building in the area by far (the church had a taller spire, but that was slim), it was a massive block of a building and must have felt huge to the inhabitants of the town. The ladies walking beneath are much smaller than they should be compared to the actual size of the arches, so Lines must have subconciously felt this a large building to make such a mistake.

Find out more about the buildings depicted in the painting below.
 

1) The wall of Christ Church
2) Corbett's Temperance Hotel, run by Joseph Corbett
3) Terraces built in about the 1760s
4) Queen's College (see below)
5) More terraces in the distance (see below)
6) The Town Hall
7) Druggist's shop, run by Samuel Wilson Suffield

Reconstruction using photographs, postcards and illustrations, of Queen's College and the buildings further along (unfinished) on Paradise Street, circa 1851, by Jenni Coles-Harris.

NOTES
* The six streets were Ann Street, Congreve Street, Hill Street, New Street, Paradise Street and Pinfold Street.
** References on request.

Street By Street: A Short History of Ann Street

You can request this illustration with the numbers written underneath and a list of 1851 census entries for each of these numbers.

Birmingham was first surveyed in 1731 and a map of the town was drawn up (see map here). The line of Ann Street existed, but it was called New Hall Lane, and stretched more-or-less along the line that Colmore Row covers today. Ann Street is now, again, part of that whole road now named Colmore Row, but when houses were first built it was a seperately named road. Building work on the north side began in the late 1740s and the road was then called Bewdley Street (the first mention of it being named Ann Street was in 1777*). The houses, originally on the outskirts of Birmingham, would have been dwelling houses then later converted into shops as the town grew around. The south side was slower to develop as it was on the site of the gardens of Bennett's Hill House, though some building took place in the 1780s. It was probably due to its proximity to the Bennett's Hill gardens as the town grew up all around that it became affectionately known also as Mount Pleasant at the same time as being called Ann Street.



Ann Street (Mount Pleasant) in 1774.

Between 1794 to 1817 a hay market was held on Bennett’s Hill (the hill that was there before the street that took its name), till it moved to Smithfield Market.* In 1805 building work began on the new free church called Christ Church at the bottom corner of the gardens of Bennett's Hill House, where Ann Street met New Street. In 1818 the lease of Bennetts Hill House and its gardens expired and the land attached began to be sold off and built upon with two new roads cutting through it, Bennetts Hill and Waterloo Street. At this time many of the houses on the south side of Ann Street (which may have been more makeshift) began to be replaced.

In 1834 the Town Hall was built, but the bend in Ann Street meant that people walking down the road to the Town Hall from the St. Philip's area were deprived of a fine view of the new building. Almost immediately there were plans to remove all the buildings from the bottom end of the street and straighten the line so that there would be a much better framing of the Town Hall. Eventually, the council decided that a new set of public offices should be built on the land, and they had bought up all the leases, finally building the Council House on the site in 1873, which occupies the site today. There are no buildings from the Georgian or Regency periods surviving on the north side of Ann Street (now part of Colmore Row), but some later examples do survive on the south side.

At the time of the 1851 census most of the original houses from the 1740s and 1750s were still standing on the north side of the street, though the houses between number one and about number twelve had been replaced in the late 1820s or early 1830s as they had become quite delapidated, probably by Richard Blood who had built himself a slightly finer house at numbers seven and eight, though he had moved out by 1851 (see illustration of street below). Numbers 25 and 26 had also been rebuilt at a similar time, and may have been the site of a dilapidated property described in 1796, the premises of silversmiths Bishop and Waterhouse. The property was owned by Misses Mary and Elizabeth Steen and next door to Joseph Hepinstone (actually spelled Heptinstall), who ran a file manufactory that was still being run by his family till the building was demolished. The Misses Steen requested a number of renovations to their property including the ‘roof of [the] warehouse to be raised one storey [...] a new pair of Elm stairs out of the middle shop into the top shop, to take down the summer house in the garden and build a new necessary, New Door to the present Necessary, [...] New shutter with oak curb and Hinges to the cellar window [...] paint all the woodwork on the outside twice over with good oil and colour’, and all this ‘in a proper manner and with good Materials’.*

The summer house was a remnant of when all these premises had large gardens and is a reminder of a time before the area was built up with manufactories like Heptinstall’s, warehouses and courts of houses. The comment about the middle shop and the top shop is also interesting, the 'shops' would have been workshops rather than in the sense that we would use the term. The addition of the requirement of quality work suggests a propensity for shoddy building work. There is no follow up to whether the work was carried out as the two ladies wished, but considering that it was probably one of the two buildings that were demolished, it probably wasn't carried out as well as they may have hoped.

Using the 1851 census we can gauge how the street was being used at the time. The north side was mainly shops with the families running them living above; some families had a single servant and others had none. If you required something for dinner, there was a fishmonger and a game dealer, but also two confectioners who would also supply you with cakes as well as savoury dishes such as pies. There were three premises involved in making furniture and other general shops. Some of the premises weren't lived in and were being used as offices, such as the house agents and the new buildings at 25 and 26. The Register Office was at 15 Ann Street, run by the registrar, Henry Knight. The Knight family lived at the house, where they had lived for several years, and it was probably in the front room where marriages would take place and births and deaths could be registered. There were three pubs, all on the north side, the Town Hall Tavern, the Bell & Candlestick (briefly known as the Cole Hole) and the Old Bricklayer's Arms.

Behind the north side of the street were six courts, four of which were lived in. Some of the courts had names, such as court 5 which was called Humphrey's Court, probably after the builder. In 1845 a survey of 202 Birmingham courts was conducted, including the four in Ann Street; all the courts examined suffered from either disrepair or poor drainage or both, and one court was considered in the opinion of the surveyor to be ‘disgraceful’,* though which one it was is not mentioned. It is not useful to make generalisations about the state of the courts, all were different and some houses were more comfortable than others, though many did suffer neglect. The alley entrance to the left leads to court 6 which was the only one of Ann Street's courts to be photographed.

Before we move to the south side of the street, one building in particular is worth noting, and that is the crenellated house on the corner. In 1851 it was Bryan's pastry shop and confectioner's, but the town collectively seemed to remember one of its previous incarnations; that of Allin's Cabinet of Curiosities and his 'Multum in Parvo' shop. It was probably the Allin family that had originally commissioned the property and the three next to it back in the mid 1700s. Opposite the crenellated shop was Christ Church (see picture below), the wall and railings of which took up about a third of the south side of Ann Street.



Watercolour of part of the north side of Ann Street, with Christ Church in
the foreground. Painted in 1873 by A. E. Everitt.

The majority of the houses on the south side were unoccupied, they were offices for solicitors, accountants, an architect (originally Thomas Rickman, but on his death by his partner Mr. Hussey), and metal merchants. Those living in the houses were clerks to the businesses or live-in housekeepers. The whole side of the street had been built from the early 1820s, probably because the lease of Bennett's Hill House had not allowed the building of permanent premises, so only when that lease expired could proper building work begin. The use of the two sides of the streets shows the beginnings of a change in how the buildings in the central parts of Birmingham were occupied, buildings were less and less becoming homes and being used as offices instead, with the previous occupants moving out to the suburbs. Another building on the south side of the street that had people living in it was the school which had been Birmingham's first infant school. The school had had a residence for the school master built attached to it, but on the 1851 census this is being lived in by one of the teachers and a housekeeper.

Overview for Ann Street
The houses on Ann Street were not quite as elegant as some of those on nearby streets for the well-to-do such as Paradise, but they were never-the-less built for and inhabited by the wealthy inhabitants of Birmingham, but those with slightly less money to spend. They would have all originally, most likely, been dwelling houses, and had large gardens at the rear, and there was originally a water source, possibly a stream, that ran through the gardens.* By the late 1700s we discover that some of the properties are being used as manufactories, such as Heptinstall's file manufactory and the silversmith's next door. At the same time as this, courts of new houses were being built behind the original ones, and new groups of poorer residents moved in. Although some of the courts behind were not well maintained, they were not the worst in the town. In the mid to late 1820s (possibly into the early 1830s) many of the more run down houses were replaced, and this period may have revamped some of the more tired parts of the street. The building of the Town Hall in 1834 would have helped to produce a thriving area around Ann Street and the other nearby streets. This can be seen on the 1851 census by the wide range of shops and trades that Ann Street supported.

Ann Street in Maps

On the 1731 map Ann Street was part of New Hall Lane, the grand house, New Hall, could be reached via the tree lined carriage-way (seen top right). Bennett's Hill House and its walled garden can be seen on the other side of New Hall Lane. *This map segment has been rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise for ease of comparison.*

By 1750 the street was now called Bewdley Street, and was beginning to be built on (you can see an illustration that includes most of these buildings at the bottom of this post). The gardens of Bennett's Hill House have been extended with tree lined walks, and the road to New Hall is now being build upon.

By the time of the 1778 map the street is beginning to be called Ann Street, as well as its other name; Mount Pleasant. The south side is still to be built upon, but the north side is fully built up. The properties still have their large gardens, and you can see their position opposite Bennett's Hill which explains why the street was known as Mount Pleasant.







NOTES
* References available on request.
To find out more about Ann Street click on the label below.

Tour of Kings Norton & Northfield: Middleton Hall and the Manor of Middleton

Middleton Hall stood on the corner of - what is now - Woodlands Park Road and Bunbury Road, its land being the site now taken up by Redmead Close. Middleton Hall Road was named after the hall, stretching from Pershore Road to the hall itself, but is a relatively modern addition, being constructed in about 1870. In 1871 about three families lived along it and it was called Middleton Hall Lane.

The area around the Hall, including the Tenants estate, was part of Northfield until the 1920s. The parish of Northfield was anciently divided into several parts; the manors of Northfield and Selly (or Selley), and later Weoley, as well as the sub-manor of Middleton (later Haye and Middleton), and Middleton Hall was the manor house of Middleton. Middleton was the youngest of these sub-manors, with both Northfield and Selly being mentioned in the Domesday Book, but Middleton was formed in the latter part of the twelfth-century. It is thought to have been named after its position half-way between the villages of Northfield and Kings Norton.

Within Middleton were several farms including Rowheath Farm and Hay Green Farm; barns of the former surviving off Selly Oak Road and converted into housing. Middleton Hall itself had a sizeable farm attached called Middleton Hall Farm, which stretched along - what is now - Woodlands Park Road, out along Northfield Road, and down Popes Lane behind the Bunbury Road.

The Sub-Manor of Middleton
Ralph Paynel was the first known holder of Middleton in the late 1100s, and gave 'the land of Middletune and lahaie' to Bernard Paynel. 'lahaie' was later recorded as 'Le Hay', and was probably the Hay Green area.

In the 1200s the owners of Middleton took their name from the lands. John de Middleton was first mentioned in 1273, and the Middleton family held the lands until about the mid-1400s. After this, Middleton passed through the hands of several families.

Throughout the early centuries of Middleton's history there is no mention of a hall, although there would have been some form of manor house on the lands, most likely on the Woodlands Park Road/Bunbury Road site, which was near the roads running between Northfield and Kings Norton. This would have been a prime position to take goods to market, and to move around the rest of the manor.

Middleton Hall
The first known mention of 'Middleton Hall' was as 'Middleton Hall Farm' in 1596, when it was occupied by Henry Cookes. This was probably the timber-framed building which survived until the early 1800s, and was possibly moated, as traces of a moat were discovered during its demolition, but no archaeological survey was conducted so any evidence is now lost.

One hundred years after Cookes, the interior of Middleton Hall is brought to life through an inventory drawn-up after the death of its then occupant, Robert Fox. Fox was described as a 'yeoman', a gentleman farmer, and occupied Middleton Hall from at least 1684 till 1698, although in 1684 he would have been about 50 years old so he, and his wife Barbara, had probably been living there for several decades previously.

Fox's inventory shows that Middleton Hall had six rooms downstairs and five upstairs. Downstairs was a hall, parlour, kitchen, cheese chamber, back house and buttery. The back house had a malt mill, so was used for brewing, and the other rooms are pretty self explanatory. The parlour contained '2 looking-glasses' and the hall a 'brass candlestick' which were expensive items for the time, showing the wealth of the family. The five rooms upstairs all had beds in them, but some would probably have been used for entertaining guests, especially the chamber over the kitchen, which would have been warmer as it had a fire (meaning it had a brick chimney, another expense). This room also contained a 'closet of books', again showing a family of wealth as well as literacy (see Fox's full inventory here).

Middleton Hall probably bore several similarities to Selly Manor, which was moved from its original location in Selly Oak to its present site in Bournville Village between 1914 and 1916. Like Middleton Hall, Selly Manor was originally a manor-house, both were timber-built, and both a similar size, although Middleton Hall was possibly a little larger (although both probably had several additions made to them over the centuries). But the best way to get a sense of what Middleton Hall was like at this time is to visit Selly Manor (visit details here).

In 1789, the occupant of Middleton Hall was William Henshaw, another yeoman running the farm as well as residing in the house. His diary for that year survives, and outlines the maintenance of the farm from winnowing grain and sowing peas, to helping 'Cherry' the cow give birth (other cows were called 'Kurley' and 'Prat'). His story will be added in the farm section, below.

Henshaw's diary suggests that he struggled financially, and in the 1790s Middleton Hall Farm was bought by George Attwood, a wealthy ironmonger, and grandfather of Birmingham's first Member of Parliament, Thomas Attwood (whose statue was at the rear of the Town Hall, presumably to be replaced after the current works are finished). Attwood cared less about farming, and more that the land contained mineral deposits. He still owned the Hall in 1840, which was tenanted out to Robert Thornley.

It was perhaps Attwood, or one of his tenants, who remodelled Middleton Hall sometime in the first half of the nineteenth-century. The historian Leonard Day states that the front was 'encased in brick, which gave the Hall the external appearance of a gentleman's residence in the Victorian style'. Because the old building was beneath, the brick encasement (see below) gives a sense of the shape of the timber-framed Hall.

Click to enlarge.

Photo: Sketch of Middleton Hall from a, now lost, photograph; showing the Victorian re-build from about the early 1800s.

The 1911 census noted that the Victorian Middleton Hall had twelve rooms (excluding workrooms, landing, hall, closets and bathrooms), so had been slightly extended from its 1690s predecessor.

The Hall was demolished in 1952.

MAPS OF MIDDLETON HALL

1880s, click to enlarge.

1900s, click to enlarge.

1910s, click to enlarge.

1930s, click to enlarge.

1960s, click to enlarge.

Victorian Photo Album Nᵒ.1: Queen Victoria's Visit (Paradise Street)

Held at Birmingham Archive.

This wonderful image, one of the oldest photographs depicting Birmingham, was taken from Paradise Street on 15th June 1858: the day that Queen Victoria first visited Birmingham. It depicts some of the Georgian remnants of the street, a little row of brick residential houses on the left. Next to them is the brand new (begun in 1855 and completed in 1860) Birmingham and Midland Institute rising a little higher and topped with a Union Jack. It had been designed by Edward Middleton Barry. Local newspapers reported that the Institute was 'prettily ornamented with wreaths and festoons of artificial flowers-displayed with much taste, and arranged so as not to interfere with the beautiful architecture of the building itself'.**

Next along the street is the Town Hall, a late Recency (begun in 1833) building crowned with the flag of St. George and, possibly, adorned in laurels. It is the only building in the photograph which survives today. Facing the viewer is Christ Church, a rather unloved Regency addition to the top end of New Street, and where a platform had been built for school children. Seats could be purchased and a choir of children sang as the Queen alighted from her carriage outside the Town Hall. As she stepped down there was a canopy made from purple velvet and then herself and Prince Albert were escorted into the Town Hall for a ceremony, and then proceeded to Aston Hall where there were more festivities.*

The visit of Victoria was a massive event for Birmingham.

People flocked from all around just to try and catch a glimpse of the Queen. Windows and rooms that were on Her Majesties route were rented out and you can see people in the windows of Paradise Street, and a small boy on a man’s shoulders. The papers for weeks previously had been filled with chatter about the visit, with adverts for flags, banners, flowers and plants for sale, special foods and lamps (the festivities would go on late into the night). The platforms erected for people to stand and view were later used for dancing. 

I wonder if the photographer captured the moment of the Queen’s arrival. They would have realised that she was nearing by the sound of the crowds and been able to ready themselves in anticipation. The fact that some people are walking away from the Town Hall would suggest not, though. 


NOTES
*From Illustrated London News, 19 June 1858, a transcript of which can be found at http://birminghamuk.net/history/
**From Birmingham Daily Post, 16 June 1858, available at Birmingham Archive.
Image courtesy of Birmingham Library and Archive Services.

Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.50: Paradise Lost (Paradise Street)

'Red Brick Paradise'- Paradise Street, c. 1850, with the Town Hall, Christ Church and Queen's College.

The title of John Milton's epic poem from 1667, 'Paradise Lost', seems perfect in name, if not in theme, for the changes that will occur around Birmingham's Paradise Forum over the next few years. The controversial, but undeniably iconic Central Library will be demolished, along with the atrium of Paradise Forum inside, and the hidden concrete cave of Paradise Place will disappear as well. The developers are calling the proposed plans for the dramatic transformation of the area simply 'Paradise'; which makes me think of all the lost Paradise's, since the name was first used in the 1760s.

Trade card for Brown and Hardman of Paradise Street.

GEORGIAN & REGENCY PARADISE

The first of Birmingham's 'Paradise's' was one of red brick Georgian refinement and "the residence [...] of several highly respectable professional gentlemen, as well as the establishments of some eminent merchants and manufacturers".* As with elsewhere in Birmingham, even some of the finest streets contained manufactories and workshops; Birmingham's own idea of 'paradise' being a hive of industry, but with a face of refinement. In the 1820s the top of Paradise Street (now part of Victoria Square) was described as "one of the most pleasing and lively spots in the town [...] there is a continual succession of objects; and being the centre of a busy manufacturing district, the throng of artisans leaving their several workshops, at the hour of One, and hurrying to their meal,has a particularly animated and cheerful effect, especially in this time of plentiful employment".* Sounds quite a bit like the area today!

This (image below) is that area at the top of Paradise Street in about 1848, with the 'throng of artisans', as well as all manner of others.

The Town Hall and Queen's College by Samuel Lines, c. 1848.
Find out more about this painting here.

VICTORIAN PARADISE

Birmingham's Victorian library, which faced the Town Hall

The Victorian 'Paradise' replaced the red brick one with grand Gothic, Italiante and neo-Classical buildings, one of the most prominent being the complex of the Birmingham and Midland Institute and the Public Library*. The Paradise the Victorian's produced here was one of free (or at least affordable) learning for all, with the BMI providing education and evening classes for Birmingham's working people, and the library next door offering over 50,000 (by 1879) books to be lent. This was a period of civic pride, of creating buildings of cultural significance for more than just the town's elite. This is perhaps an idea that should be reverted to, in this time of massive cuts to Birmingham's libraries and other cultural institutions.

LATE 20th CENTURY PARADISE

In the 1960s Paradise spread round the corner; the old Victorian library was knocked down and John Madin's new Central Library built nearby with a concrete garden behind called Paradise Place. This Paradise of the late 20th century is the one that I remember growing up in Birmingham, one of grey lines and rugged angles. And this Paradise is truly 'lost'; it leads nowhere and entices no-one, so nobody ever finds it except by accident or if they know it's there. There is a lot written about this development and the general failure of the Brutalist vision of the 1960s, including here.

Paradise Place by Chris Whippet

The word 'ironic' is often used when describing the name of
Paradise Place.

21ST CENTURY PARADISE

The new development encompasses more of the original Georgian Paradise Street than the Central Library complex did, so is a truer 'Paradise' in the spatial sense than ever before. But is it the right way to go? It is probably a daft question to ask, because the area is on the verge of being demolished, but I cant help agreeing with many others that the space could be something amazing.

Paradise Place at the back of Central Library, Birmingham.
Taken May 2012.

NOTES
* designed by Edward Middleton Barry in the 1850s (though completed by other architects) and rebuilt after fire by Joseph Henry Chamberlain in the 1880s

Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.27: Suffield's Druggist Shop (Corner of Congreve and Ann Street)

Section of Samuel Lines Senior's painting of the
area by the Town Hall in the late 1840s, with
insert of Samuel Wilson Suffield's druggist's
shop window. The full painting is on display
in the Birmingham History exhibition at BMAG.

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the difference between the apothecary and the druggist was subtle. Apothecaries had originally been spicers and/or grocers, but had split to form their own guild in London in 1617. The apothecary would be trained to some degree and would also visit and treat patients, whilst the druggists would just prepare and dispense medicines. In the early 1800s the apothecaries argued that they should have control of making up medicines and tried to get an act passed in Parliament; the druggists won the day though, when in 1815 the Apothecaries Act kept control with the druggists. The apothecary's role has developed into that of our GP's and the role of the druggist can be seen as to have evolved into our modern chemists, but confectioners can also trace their ancestry back to druggists and apothecaries as many modern sweets have developed from medicines. In fact, the bright colours and alluring jars of an old-fashioned sweet shop shout-out "apothecary shop" more than any branch of Boot's Chemist.

Find out more about Birmingham's historic health and wellbeing, here.

In the late 1840s, artist Samuel Lines captured the druggist's window of Samuel Wilson Suffield's shop, which was situated near the Town Hall.** Suffield had run his business at the castellated shop from around the late 1810s (before Suffield the shop was run by William Allin as a tailor's and cabinet of curiosities, you can visit this shop here). The druggist, or apothecary, would display their skills by mixing chemicals to produce vivid colours which would then be placed in large glass jars in the shop window; you can see them on display in Suffield's window in the close-up above.

Some suppliers were unscrupulous and mixed drugs with cheaper, and sometimes dangerous substances in order to make more profit. It was often hard to control these practices as imported goods could be tampered with before they arrived in the hands of even the wholesale druggist. Suffield seems to have had some trouble with one such supplier: D. Carr and Co. The article below, from June 1828, describes how he had to replace his entire stock from the 'most respectible houses' obviously after some unmentioned incident. What is interesting, though, is that it lists in some detail, a selection of some of the products that he supplied and their cost, and shows how the druggists work intertwined with making chemicals for cleaning.

 

Inside a Druggist's Shop

 

Image of an apothecary from The Book of Trades or Library of Useful Arts,
Part I, printed in 1804.

Druggist's drawers from a Hall Green shop, in the collection of
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery.

.

NOTES
The BMAG website is here.
Another Birmingham apothecary touched upon is in my post: Pratchett's Bull Ring, and another briefly in 'I have forever quited Birmingham'
** Samuel Wilson Suffield went bankrupt in 1844, I have been unable to discover whether he continued in business after bankruptcy. The druggist shop was definitely closed by 1849 when the Bryan family opened their coffee, pastry and confectionery shop in the building.

Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.36: Samuel Lines - From the Dome of St. Philip's

There are a number of topographical paintings of the absent landscape of Birmingham, but this one by Samuel Lines Senior gives one of the best impressions of the town as the perspective is taken from a central position outwards, rather than looking towards the whole town from a distance. It was painted in about 1821, and although it is not a panorama (as discussed in this previous post) as it does not go round 360 degrees, it is panoramic, in the sense that it is an elongated field of view like that captured by a wide angle camera-lens. Perhaps Lines was inspired by some of the cityscapes that could be visited in actual the Panorama on New Street (see E below), which encouraged him to produce this vista of Birmingham's own townscape. For his vantage point Lines took the highest point of the town, which happened to accommodate the church of St. Philip's and that building's large dome, and pointed himself south-west. This was in the direction of one of the newer parts of the town, an area that had expanded from the Medieval district from the 1750s onwards. At the fore of the image can be seen the graveyard attached to the church, and the buildings, some still very makeshift, of Temple Row, one of which was Lines's own house which he had built when he had started to do well as a drawing instructor.  In the close-up, below, some of the buildings and landmarks have been pinpointed, and you can follow the proceeding links to find out more.

A to E are along New Street
A) Is the Theatre, by the time of the painting, the Theatre Royal.
B) Next to the theatre was Portugal House, a grand Georgian town house, at the time of the painting divided into two properties with a distillery attached.
C) Just over the street is the original Georgian cottage Post Office, which had at its rear...
D) The Post Office yard where the Royal Mail coaches would arrive from 1812.
E) Is the Panorama, where 360 degree actual size paintings were shown.
F & G are in what is now Victoria Square
F) Is Christ Church, the interior of which can be viewed by following the link.
G) Is placed just to the left of the flag that topped Allin's shop, nicknamed The Flag as it always flew the Union Jack. The Town Hall was later built near this spot. In the distance, behind the 'G', is the Canal Offices on Paradise Street.
H) Is the walled garden attached to Bennett's Hill House, the house just out of view on the right. All the green land in that area was the original Bennett's Hill, and had been protected from building work by a clause in the 120 year lease for the house and land. The lease had expired in 1818 and not long after Lines's painting the whole are was built up with two new roads, houses, shops and other businesses.

View from 3 Temple Row West (Samuel Lines's house) drawn by Lines.
The drawing gives a similar view of the Theatre and Portugal House
as the painting and may have acted as inspiration. To climb on the roof
and look the growth of Birmingham must have fascinated Lines. 

To see all posts including Samuel Lines Senior's work click here.

NOTES
The painting and drawing are owned by BMAG and the painting is currently on display in the Birmingham History Galleries.
http://www.bmag.org.uk/new-birmingham-history-galleries

Birmingham Printers Nᵒ.4: Thomas Aris & the Gazette Offices

Plate D from Bisset's Directory,
showing High Street, including the
Aris's Birmingham Gazette offices.

Thomas Aris was a London stationer and printer who came to Birmingham in about 1740 in order to set up a printing business, including publishing a newspaper in the town. It was not the town's first newspaper. Thomas Warren had printed The Birmingham Journal from 1732 which continued till 1743, but the paper that Aris set up, The Gazette, or Aris's Birmingham Gazette, was the dominant paper of Birmingham over the eighteenth-century. Also, Aris's Gazette survives, whereas there is only one known surviving copy of Warren's Journal.

Aris was not the only Londoner to see the potential for a newspaper in the provincial town of Birmingham. Richard Walker, who had been printing The Warwick and Staffordshire Journal from his offices in London's Fleet Street from 1737, tried to make the move to Birmingham at the same time as Aris. Aris had picked a spot on the High Street, in the centre of the printing area of Birmingham and where the early booksellers were situated, but had to wait for the lease of the previous occupier, a linen draper called John Hunt, to expire. This stalled him until Michaelmas 1741, and Walker took the opportunity to move to Birmingham and begin his venture. The two papers were printed in the town for about three years, but Aris was successful out of the two, and he absorbed Walker's paper into his own in 1743. Aris's Birmingham Gazette came out every Monday, and included London and local news, as well as an array of adverts.

The premises that Aris took over was 99 (98 before number changes) High Street, and part of a line of buildings that stood near the alley leading to the Swan Hotel. All these buildings were rebuilt in about the 1680s, and the frontage to Aris's offices, along with the Swan one side and Richard Pratchett's druggist's shop the other, can be seen in Bisset's Directory (see above and below).

The printing offices of Thomas Aris Pearson, 1800,  passed
through the family from Thomas Aris. On the left is the
apothecary shop of Richard Pratchett, and the right,
the Swan Hotel.

Through the door of Aris's premises was probably to the bookshop, noted by William Hutton in 1749 as one of only 'three eminent booksellers' in the town; the others being Thomas Warren and Francis Wollaston. Sir Lister Holte of Aston Hall would certainly have agreed, as he shopped there for books and stationary in the late 1740s, purchasing nearly £20 worth in just over a year. Holte purchased almanacs, memorandums, and books such as Virgil and Le Clare's Architecture, as well as stationary: quires of gilt paper, red ink, sticks of black wax, marbled paper, and 300 coats of arms. Aris also printed a range of books himself (see books Thomas Aris printed), including music engraved by Michael Broome, who had various roles at St. Philip's church, such as training the choir, and composing music for psalms. Broome was also particularly skilled in engraving the music that Aris printed. In 1787, after Aris's death and the business was run by Pearson & Rollason, it was announced in Pye's Directory that the shop stocked about 30,000 books in different languages.*

Thomas Aris died 6th July 1761 at his home at Holloway Head (see it here) shortly after he had retired from the trade, but the business continued as a family affair. It frequently changed hands, though, due to the sudden death to one or another partner. The hands of which the business went through is very complex, but succinctly, Richard Pearson & Samuel Aris Junior (Thomas Aris's brother-in-law and nephew through his brother Samuel) took over after Thomas Aris's death. When Richard died in 1769, Samuel Aris carried on with Ann Pearson (Richard's widow), until Samuel died in 1774. Between 1775 and 1790 books from the press bear the imprint Pearson and Rollason, the latter being James Rollason (son of Noah who had been in partnership with Samuel Aris Senior with the Coventry Mercury), the former probably being Ann (who died in 1779), and later a Thomas Pearson, as 'Thomas Pearson' is the imprint in books after James Rollason's death in 1789. In 1799 Ann Pearson's son, Thomas Aris Pearson takes over briefly, till his own death in 1800, and he was still occupying the shop in the image in Bisset's Directory.

After the Aris's

In the early 1800s the site was run as a bookshop and printing establishment by Beilby and Knott, and later just Knott, who also produced fancy and marbled papers at their manufactory in Bordesley. Knott was still occupying the business in 1836 when the Swan Hotel was put up for sale.

The image below shows the 'Aris's' building on the right in about 1841, one-hundred years after Thomas Aris first inhabited it. It was still known as Aris's but was being run by Hall, with his name adorning the top.

High Street in about 1841.
The central building with the two pillars was the Market Hall, and the church on the
left was St. Martin's, with the open Bull Ring area in front.
The statue of Nelson, near the church, can still be seen in Bull Ring today.

Other Printers: Nᵒ.1 Thomas Unwin; Nᵒ.2 Henry Butler (a printer of ephemera rather than books); Nᵒ.3 Thomas Warren.

~FINIS~

NOTES
* John Money, Experience and Identity: Birmingham and the West Midlands 1760-1800 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1977). 
Joseph Hill, The Bookmakers of Old Birmingham: Authors, Printers and Booksellers (Birmingham: 1907).