To give this lovely building its full name, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, situated in Edgbaston at the University of Birmingham. It was opened in 1939 by Queen Mary, the grandmother of our present queen and was designed by Robert Atkinson, ...
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The clock tower of Birmingham council house Here’s a view of Old Birmingham with New Birmingham looking over its shoulder. The clock tower of the Council House was added with the grand entrance of the Museum and Art Gallery in 1885 to the ...
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Mitchells & Butlers War Memorial, Cape Hill It is Remembrance Sunday this weekend. Many war memorials were built in the 1920s to mark the huge loss of life in the Great War. The pale grey limestone obelisk was a familiar pattern for these ...
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Coleridge Chambers, Corporation St This must be the most brightly coloured building at the end of Corporation Street by the Victoria Law Courts and Methodist Central Hall. It’s Grade II listed and was built in 1898 for the Birmingham Mutual Sick Benefit and ...
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Cathedral Church of St Philip in Birmingham If the heat gets too much for you today, comfort yourself with this chilly view of St Philip’s Cathedral from 3rd March 2018. Not even a pigeon to be seen. St Philip’s was built in 1715 as ...
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Bishop Asbury Cottage, Great Barr It’s a tiny brick cottage, built c.1700 and used as a family home until the 1950s. It was home to Francis Asbury between 1746 and 1771. You probably don’t know his name but millions know him as Bishop Asbury, an Englishman ...
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This smart blue and gold clock stands near the Kings Head pub at Bearwood. One hundred years ago it stood on the opposite side of the Hagley Road. How did it manage to cross the road? I would like to say the ...
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Alton Ellis In my post on the Lozells and East Handsworth Heritage Trail, I mentioned the area’s rich musical heritage. The diversity of Handsworth has helped to nurture an amazing variety of musical talent down the years: the jazz of Andy Hamilton and ...
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Discovering Birmingham’s extensive collection of beautiful terracotta buildings. Red, bold, ornate and beautiful…these are some of the words which spring to my mind when I see the striking Victoria Law Courts on Corporation Street built in 1891. For me, it is the material which provides the ...
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I couldn’t continue my intermittent Arts and Crafts series without mentioning Bournville, the model village cum garden suburb that Pevsner describes as “perhaps the fullest expression of Arts and Crafts ideals” in Birmingham. On a personal level, I have a strong connection ...
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