The Archway of Tears at the City Hospital, Dudley Road, Birmingham
The Archway of Tears
The Archway of Tears at the City Hospital, Dudley Road, Birmingham
Birmingham Conservation Trust have secured funding to carry out an Options Appraisal on the Archway of Tears at the City Hospital on Dudley Road. This is the initial stage in a proposed larger project to restore the Archway of Tears – the entrance to the former Birmingham Union Workhouse.
The building was designed by J.J. Bateman and completed in 1852. It was here that people driven by poverty and circumstance arrived to be assessed for entry to the workhouse. Its evocative name reflects the sorrow suffered by new arrivals as families were split by gender and age to relevant living and working areas. Have a look at Ted Rudge’s website http://www.ted.rudge.btinternet.co.uk/workhouse.htm to read stories about the Workhouse.
We will look at ways to re-use the building in a sustainable way and we also will tell the story of the Workhouse in some way. If you or your family have any memories or artefacts you want to share with us, please get in touch.
The Archway of Tears project | Soho Neighbourhood Birmingham April 14, 2010
[...] to be used for, but also to learn more about its history. The Birmingham Conservation Trust is looking for funding and leading the project, but I hope we can help to support the work it is [...]
We’ve just written about this project on our blog and are really hoping to continue to support the work that you are doing. This is a really important building locally and historically. We would like to see it brought into positive use by the community.
Hello from Texas, I was born in Dudley Rd. Hospital in May of 1960. At that time period, was the Infirmary the only functional part of the Hosspital? I think it’s great that you are doing this project.
Hi Victoria
thank you for getting in touch. I think the hospital was extensive and included all departments as it does today. The former Workhouse had become the geriatric unit and was demolished in 1993, with the exception of The Archway of Tears. we are still working on ways to save this special place.
Thanks for that, Neil. I look forward to hearing more about what the local community is interested to see the building used for. We will explore all the options as we do the appraisal. We have to ensure that we have a long term sustainable use (which can change over time – thankfully it no longer need be a sad place) so that the building and its very special history is preserved for future generations.
myself my older brothers and sister and my younger siter all have conections with the city hospital site as we were all born there in the 50′s and 70′
i have recently found out through tracing my family history on the morral side
that my great great grandmother maryann morral was addmitted to the work house infirmary in 1901 due to the fact that there was nobody to look after her after her husband edward morrall died and she was also of feeble mind
i think it is a crying shame that the the archway of tears could possable be demolished and i think every effort should be made to try and save this wonderfull historic building for furture generations and also for the memory of the poor souls who where there through no fault of their own
Thanks for your message of support, Cecilia, and for sharing your sad story with us.
Birmingham Conservation Trust is working with the NHS and our partners to find a sustainable solution for this building – it has so many important memories for lots of people.
So glad Ive just found out this good news as I have a family connection to the workhouse.
My great great great grandfather Nathaniel Felkin served 15 years in the Royal Marines after seeing action in the French Wars and left in 1816. On his return home it seems that he was an inmate of the old Workhouse in Lichfield Street and was a stone breaker. By 1823 I have found him in the records as Superintendent of Stone Breakers earning 20 shillings a week. His wife Sarah was Launderess of the infant department.
In 1848 he was directed by the board of guardians and Mr JJ Bateman to gather 7 of the parish men to make holes in the field at Birmingham Heath and assist Mr Bateman the architect to ascertain the fitness of the land for the building of the ‘New Workhouse’ in Western Road.
The ‘New Workhouse’ was opened in 1852 and Nathaniel was appointed the Superintendent of Pauper Labour and assisted Mr Bateman in such jobs as finishing the drainage systems.
From the records I found and read about Nathaniel he sounded a very fair and caring man.he put it to the Guardians in 1849 that the indoor and outdoor paupers do cease work on the following Thursday as the day has been appointed a day of great thanksgiving on acount of the cessation of cholera in this county. I have many stories showing he was caring probably due to the fact that he used to be an inmate himself.
Nathaniel worked at the Workhouse well into his 80′s as the Guardians were happy for him to stay on as he ‘rendered good service’. He died in 1864 aged 86 of Senile Decay. The Guardians placed an obituary in the Birmingham Daily Gazette which read ……….
Felkin – on the 16th inst.in the 86th year of his age Nathaniel Felkin, who for nearly 40 years filled the office of Superintendent of Outdoor Labour in the parish of Birmingham.In which he rendered good service to the rate payers. He for several years served as a marine in the Royal Navy during the reign of George the Third, and was present at the Battle of Trafalgar and Several other engagements by sea during the French War.
Nathaniel was buried in All Saints Church just around the corner from the workhouse, it is not clear if he had a headstone or not but the church yard was cleared in the 1970′s and now is a housing estate which upset me as there is nothing to say that this great man who served his country all his life ever existed.
I am very proud to be his great great great grandaughter and to have found out about his life.
What a fascinating family history to have discovered. Many thanks for sharing it with us – it is a story of great hardship but also amazing fortitude and you are rightly very proud of your great great great grandfather. I am so glad that you have written about Nathaniel – his story tells us a great deal about the way the Workhouse operated and the good people who could end up there.
This is an inspiring story and one I hope we can tell again if we can find a way to save the Archway of Tears.
That would be fantastic !!
Great news I hope the archway is saved for future generations worked here as a voluntary worker in the early 1990s and was so sad to see this place destroyed and seemed such a waste at the time the admin block used to stand behind this
Hi how is the work to save the archway of tears progressing?it would be a great shame to see the building collapse due to neglect and finance.Surely something must be done,its part of Birmingham’s wonderful history.
We are still talking to the NHS, the Constituency Manager, the City Council and other agencies to negotiate a sustainable long term end use for the building.These projects always seem to take ages and I wish things could move faster, but we are still very much involved and moving forward inch by inch! Thank you all for your comments and interest – it gives us comfort that this building is valued by the people of Birmingham.