Views and Prospects Nᵒ.3: The East Prospect of Birmingham by William Westley (1732)

It seems apt that the first post for the new look should be about the East Prospect of Birmingham which has been used for the top image of the blog. It was made by William Westley in 1732, who also produced the 1731 map of Birmingham, so the two relate to each other nicely.

The prospect shows a thoroughly modern town, filled with brick (and they would have been red brick) buildings; a brand new church in the fashionable Baroque style (St. Philip's) on the highest point; and neat, uniformed streets in the 'new' town right of the church, including the new 'Square' built for the wealthy, and a modern innovation in early Georgian urban planning. It was Westley that produced this image as it was a view that his family's fingerprints were all over. His father, William Westley Senior, had worked on St. Philip's (the architect was Thomas Archer) and had built some of the surrounding streets (one was called Westley's Row); he was probably the man behind the 'Square' too. The Westley's had designed refinement and modernity into the fabric of the town, and were now promoting it in the beautiful East Prospect, and the map produced the previous year.

In a central engraving Westley dedicates the prospect to his 'Worthy Patrons' Thomas Archer and Henry Archer, Thomas of course being the architect of St. Philip's. The engraved stone is flanked by symbols of Birmingham's industry and refinement; a palette and mechanical devices on the left, and musical instruments on the right. The town is also described:

“BIRMINGHAM, a Market Town in the County of WARWICK, which by the art and industry of its Inhabitants has for some years past been render’d famous all over the World, for the rare choice and invention of all sorts of Wares and Curiositys [sic] in Iron, Steel, Brass &c. admir’d as well for their cheapness, as their peculiar beauty of Workmanship [...]”

The description of Birmingham's wares as 'curiosities' was the spark of my PhD thesis at the University of Birmingham,* and is referring to Birmingham 'toys' (small metal items NOT children's toys) and trinkets that were highly desirable commodities of the time. The poet William Shenstone, who lived at Leasowes in Handsworth near Birmingham, was a great lover of these toys, and noted 'I have often viewed my watch, standish (inkstand), snuff-box, with this kind of tender regard; allotting them a degree of friendship, which there are some men, that do not deserve'. Birmingham was already renowned for these items, and became even more so over the next century, becoming known as the 'Toy-shop of Europe'. Birmingham was supplying everything modern and fashionable, and Westley is showing the actual space of the town as the same.


A CLOSER LOOK AT THE PROSPECT

Below you can see Digbeth, a street that shot out south-east from Birmingham, and led to the neighbouring village of Aston, over the River Rea. To the left is St. John's chapel which served the community that huddled along the river, using the waters for tanning leather and powering mills and forges. St. Martin's is the church with the tall spire, still standing today, but rebuilt completely. To the left of St. Martin's is the moated manor house, which was the seat of the old 'de Birmingham' family, a remnant of the town's mediaeval history. The old Birmingham estate can be seen rolling towards the horizon, with Edgbaston Church a dot in the distance (far left).

Digbeth 300 years ago. 1732 Prospect & 1731 Map of Birmingham, by William Westley

Below St. Philip's can be seen on the hill, and the area around was being slowly filled with brand new houses for the Birmingham elite, whose wealth was growing rapidly as the town's trade in luxury wares expanded. One of these was Westley's Row which was near the Square (see pointing finger), which was frequented by Samuel Johnson, among other notable persons of the time. In the foreground is a stretch of the River Rea not on the map, and it is nice to see a party fishing on its banks, especially as the Rea here today flows morosely under the streets along brick culverts.

St. Philip's and the Square. 1732 Prospect & 1731 Map of Birmingham, by William Westley

Portraits Nᵒ.3: The Mystery Sitter

Painting in the BMAG collection. Original painting is hung in the
Best Drawing Room at Aston Hall.

When BMAG (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) received this painting in 1979 they had no idea who it was of or whom it was by. After some research it was thought that it could be by the Birmingham based artist James Millar, and the sitter being the surveyor, William Westley the younger, due to the portfolio with the image of St. Philip's church conveniently protruding from the leaves. BMAG would love to find any evidence that this is indeed William Westley, or to prove any different conclusion, so if anyone has any information, please let me know.

There are a few problems with this portrait being both of William Westley and by James Millar, as although Westley was alive when Millar was painting, he would have been an elderly man. Westley was born in about 1700, and Millar (born in about 1735) began his painting career in about 1763. The sitter does not seem to be a man in his 60s or 70s, which would cast some doubt on the pairing. But perhaps the painting was commissioned after Westley's death, possibly based on an earlier portrait, to show Westley in his youth.

Another anomaly is the drawing of St. Philip's itself; Westley produced a north prospect of St. Philip's church in 1732, but the drawing in the portfolio looks like the engraving of the north of the church produced by architect and architectural writer, Colen Campbell, for his Vitruvius Britannicus which was published in three volumes between 1715 and 1725 (see left). Campbell himself died in 1729, and had no relation to Birmingham apart from visiting and writing about the Baroque St. Philip's church. The architect of the church itself, Thomas Archer, died in 1743 aged 75.

A historian of fashion would serve well in dating the dress of the young man which would help in discovering if the painting was painted in Millar's time. James Millar painted many portraits of Birmingham's inhabitants, including John Baskerville, John Freeth and Francis Eginton, but perhaps we may never know who is sitting in the painting staring back at us, with their connection to, what is now, our cathedral.

Architects (& Builders) Nᵒ.6: The William Westley's (c. 1675-c. 1731 & c. 1700-c. 1779)

Image of St. Philip's church and surrounding area, with the Square set
into the top left corner. 1732.

William Westley senior, c. 1675-c. 1731, carpenter & joiner. William Westley junior, c. 1700-c. 1779, surveyor.

There were two William Westley's, a father and son, both working in Birmingham from the early 1700s.* Most people that we may call architects today were at this time seen as craftspeople, craftspeople who utilised their skills for the designing and building of houses. The elder Westley was a carpenter and joiner who worked on some of the wooden flooring at St. Philip's during that churches construction between 1711 and 1725.* It is thought that he also designed the three storey houses near the church, which can be seen in the distance past St. Philip's church (image above) and the houses of the Square that were begun in 1713, and were part of Birmingham's first planned estate.* It is probably his son who produced the image above as there is some evidence that William Westley senior died in 1731,* unless it was published after the father's death.

It also was most likely William Westley junior who produced Birmingham's first map in 1731, which included his father's built work. The family owned land between Dale End and Steelhouse Lane, the area known as the Priory Estate (the original site of St. Thomas's Priory), and William Westley senior was probably responsible for a number of properties in that area, especially in Westley Row (later Westley Street, then London 'Prentice Street, now demolished). Due to the early period in which these two men worked the information on the built work is sparse, but there is still more information to be gleaned.

1731 Map of Birmingham

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE A LARGER IMAGE OF THE MAP
Colour adaption below and also found at Map Seeker
1731 Map of Birmingham by William Westley (probably junior)

It is thought that William Westley (senior) was the designer of much of the Priory Estate, which was an area in the north-west of the town built up in the early Georgian period; this is likely as a street within the area was named Westley Row (as seen on map). The Priory Estate was Birmingham’s first planned estate of houses, the centre-piece of which was a grand square (possible also by Westley), all of which would have displayed the new fashions in street and house building. Urban planning was new in the towns and this can be perceived as the usage of the houses in the Square was restricted, there was a certain amount of uniformity to the houses, and certain areas were built up as a coherent whole. It was probably a certain amount of family pride that encouraged the production of this, Birmingham’s first map; the Westley’s had had a hand in the changing landscape and preserved it through this and a number of prospects that Westley produced at a similar time.

Westley dedicated the map to Edward Digby and William Peyto (Esq.s) who were Members of Parliament for Warwickshire (this was long before Birmingham had any of its own MP’s). This plate is a later copy, as can be determined from the addition of the text ‘in the possession of Theoph. Richards in the year 1789. Nephew to Mr. Westley’. The man mentioned in Theophilus Richards, who is one of the notable Richards family that resided in High Street for many years and whose gun-making business still survives today. The map contains two written sections which read;
On the left: “In the Year 1700, Birmingham Contained 30 Streets, 100 Courts and Alleys, 2504 Houses, 15032 Inhabitants, one Church dedicated to St. Martin & a Chappel to St. John & a School founded by Edward 6th also 2 Dissenting Meeting Houses.”
On the right: “The Increase of this Town from 1700 to ye Year 1731~ is as follows: 25 Streets, 50 Courts and Alleys, 1215 Houses, 8254 Inhabitants, together with a new Church, Charity School, Market Cross, & 2 Meeting Houses. for a further account see [illeg.]”

The map depicts the relatively newly built St. Philip’s church still on the outskirts of the town; in the same area is the grand New Hall, and also off New Hall Lane (but unmarked) id Bennett’s Hill House and you can see the elegant gardens marked at the rear of the house. Much of the top end of what is now New Street is still being used as cherry orchards, as is much of the land (as Walker’s orchard) where Corporation Street now runs, and Corbett’s bowling green also sits adjacent to here. The original moats can be seen encircling the old parsonage of St. Martin’s and the buildings that were the seat of the De Birmingham’s. You can also find a number of industrial landmarks including Lloyd’s slitting mills and Kettle’s steel houses.

The 1731 map is unusual as it was drawn with west at the top, which makes it a little more difficult to compare this with later maps. For this blog I have turned the 1731 map 90° so that north is at the top and edited the street names so that they can be read the correct way up, but I have left all other landmarks as they were. I have also included the map in its original form for its own value.