Colmore History Week Magazine - 2021

SUMMER 2021 | SPECIAL MAGAZINE

The jewel in the town WE LOOK AT THE WORK BEING DONE TO PRESERVE BURNE-JONES’ REMARKABLE STAINED GLASS AT BIRMINGHAM CATHEDRAL colmorebusinessdistrict.com SUMMER 2021 1

History Week Digital

New podcast celebrates heritage of the District Mike Mounfield

Sit back and let Colmore BID’s own Mike Mounfield take you on a journey through the ages of Colmore Business District in a brand-new podcast for History Week 2021.

In this special episode, we travel back to the beginning of the 18th century and the aptly named Age of Green Grass. We delve into the history of the Colmore Family, explore the nearby canal network and take note of the numerous medical institutions that once resided in the District.

Free to download here, the History Week podcast is perfect for listening at home or when you’re commuting.

To truly immerse yourself though, why not download it and have a walk round the District, taking in the sights to see exactly how the area has changed and continues to do so.

This podcast builds upon our popular video tours, which launched during History Week 2020 and can still be found over on our YouTube channel if you missed them.

Just click on the links below to watch.

TAP BELOW TO WATCH OUR COLMORE HISTORY VIDEOS

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SPECIAL MAGAZINE

T

hese days if we want to capture a picturepostcard scene or an arty architectural perspective we turn to our smartphone cameras for a quick snap and an Instagram update (hashtag ColmoreLife, please).

Of course, such technology was unheard of for 18th century art pioneer Samuel Lines who – from his Temple Row studio – used paper and pencil to create his own remarkable visual archive of Colmore Business District.

While the street layouts – and most names – of Lines’ day are unchanged, the buildings he sketched fronting them are long gone, replaced by the grand architecture we know and love today.

In this special magazine we highlight the work of Lines and fellow Birmingham artists Kate and Myra Bunce, who, as part of Birmingham School of Art, also played an integral part in the city’s artistic development during a time of extraordinary upheaval and political change.

The arts theme continues as we visit Birmingham Cathedral and perhaps the city’s most celebrated artist – Edward Burne-Jones – to look at the ongoing work conserving his stained-glass masterpieces.

Plans are being put in place to ensure the BurneJones glass is more visible, recognisable and a platform for faith and arts education in a digital world.

A few hundreds yards away from the Cathedral is Old Square. Once the most sought-after address in Birmingham, the history of Old Square is fascinating, reflecting as it does the changes ‘the town that became a city’ experienced as industrial and economic growth made their mark.

We hope you enjoy this History Week magazine.

Please visit the Colmore BID website or follow social media to find out more about the videos and podcasts that have been produced to go with it.

STACEY BARNFIELD ON BEHALF OF COLMORE BID

ON THE COVER

A close-up of an angel, with damaged face, from Burne-Jones’ Ascension stained-glass at Birmingham Cathedral. Full story: Pages 4-7.

2nd Floor, 37a Waterloo Street, Birmingham B2 5TJ Email: info@colmorebid.co.uk Tel: 0121 212 1410

Written, designed and produced by Edwin Ellis Creative Media SUMMER 2021

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Birmingham Cathedral Conservation project will breathe new life into one of the city’s arts, faith and cultural treasures... the Birmingham Cathedral Burne-Jones windows.

Catherine Hendrick reports

Divine Beauty: Celebrating the Burne-Jones glass 4

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Divine Beauty is a project which aims to conserve and celebrate the remarkable stained-glass windows at Birmingham Cathedral which are considered to be among the finest examples of Victorian stained-glass in the world.

They were designed by the Birmingham born Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones and made in the workshop of celebrated designer William Morris between 1885 and 1897.

The four stunning images, which are an inspiration to both artists and Christians, depict the Ascension, the Nativity, the Crucifixion and the Last Judgement.

The Ascension was installed in the chancel in 1885 and the Nativity and the Crucifixion two years later.

The Last Judgement was unveiled as a memorial window to Bishop Bowlby in 1897.

Burne-Jones, who was born nearby on Bennetts Hill and was baptised in the Cathedral, was so overcome when he caught sight of his first window in place that he offered to create the rest!

He recorded: “It was in the year 1885 that visiting my native city Birmingham I was so struck with admiration at one of my works in St Philips’s church (that) I undertook in a moment of enthusiasm to fill the windows on either side.”

He was paid £200 for each of his designs, which are considered characteristic of his later style.

The figures have elongated bodies with small heads in relation to their body length and designs which divide in two equal halves to depict an earthly and spiritual divide.

The windows are recognised for their vibrant colours, the life-likeness of the figures, their ability to tell a story and their inspiring and dramatic qualities.

A local heiress, Miss Emma Villers-Wilkes, helped pay for them in memory of her brother.

Emma came from a wealthy family who owned a successful local business, E.V. Wilkes, which made copper and pewter

Master at work: Edward Burne-Jones Picture courtesy Birmingham Museums

kitchenware. She was a regular worshipper at St Philip’s Church, as it was then known.

With her inheritance she paid for an expansion of the apse and Burne-Jones’ windows.

She took a strong interest in their subject matter and design – forbidding the inclusion of oxen in the final image!

In 2020 Birmingham Cathedral received support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for Divine Beauty.

It’s hoped conservation work will start next summer and take two years to complete.

Essential work will be carried out to remove the build-up of decades of dirt and debris and to replace the external protective grilles with a more sympathetic and bespoke alternative.

The Cathedral has already trialled some options for lighting the windows, which attract visitors from around the world, so that passers-by will be able to enjoy their beauty.

As well as preserving and enhancing them for future generations the conservation project will create opportunities for learning and engagement to allow the widest audience possible to enjoy these wonderful treasures.

The way the Cathedral shares information about the windows will be improved, with enhanced interpretation both inside and outside the building, events and an education Continued over the page

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Birmingham Cathedral From previous page

programme. The project will link with other sites in the city with a walking trail and tours.

There will be a new short film and opportunities for people to get involved, learn the history of the windows and the techniques by which they were made.

Birmingham Cathedral was built as the parish church of St Philip’s over 300 years ago.

The windows are some of the finest examples of Birmingham artistry and hold an important place in the life of the city.

During WWII they were removed courtesy of Birmingham Civic Society and placed in a slate mine in Wales for safekeeping.

The move showed remarkable foresight as the Cathedral suffered considerable damage from an incendiary bomb in October 1940.

Anna Pitt, Birmingham Cathedral’s Chief Executive, says: “The windows are an utter joy. To see the afternoon sun stream through as you listen to the choir in the Cathedral is a rich part of our city’s heritage and one we really want to share widely!

“One of the main aims of the project, aside from the conservation of the windows themselves, is to work with National Lottery Heritage Fund to increase engagement with them.

“We will have better interpretation of the windows available, in multiple languages and formats.

“We will also develop our existing programme of using the windows as a religious education aid, which we share not only with Christians but people of all faiths and none.

“The windows also tell a story of the development of the city of Birmingham, having been funded by a local woman.”

Find out more There is a dedicated website for the Divine Beauty project www. divinebeautyproject. com. Please follow @BhamCathedral on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram. #DivineBeauty, #DivineBeautyProject and #CathedralLife.

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‘The windows are an utter joy. To see the afternoon sun stream through as you listen to the choir in the Cathedral is a rich part of our city’s heritage’

Ascension

The Nativity

The Crucifixion

The Last Judgement

Reproduced with kind permission from Birmingham Cathedral / Alastair Carew-Cox

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Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

How museum staff are painstakingly packing away city collections during vital electrical upgrades It’s been a busy time behind the scenes at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

The museum is currently closed while essential electrical upgrade work of Birmingham’s Council House complex takes place. But before work could start thousands of paintings and historical objects have had to be safely packed away and protected.

In April, case by case, the lower level of the Industrial Gallery was swiftly emptied, while scaffolding was struck in the Round Room to safely de-install and lower the paintings.

By May some 2,000 objects had been packed and works that needed to remain in situ have been protected. This includes the iconic Jacob Epstein sculpture, Lucifer, who will keep a watchful, if crated, eye over the galleries while the electrical work takes place. The two-tonne bronze sculpture of Lucifer has kept watch at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery since 1947 welcoming visitors as they enter the Grade II listed building via the stunning Round Room.

While the first phase of the work gets underway in the 1885 wing (the galleries attached to the Council House), a further 30,000-plus items from the remaining 1912 parts of the building will also be moved into safe storage over the course of the year.

The work is needed to future-proof the building making it safe for staff and visitors while safeguarding Birmingham’s collections housed there for generations to come. The first phase will be completed in early 2022 in time for the Commonwealth Games.

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It’s oh so quiet at museum during works

Now you see me, now you don’t... Lucifer takes cover!

BMI selling offices to help fund facilities refurbishment

The Cornwall Street offices being sold by the Birmingham & Midland Institute

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery’s Industrial Gallery

The Birmingham & Midland Institute is selling two interconnected office buildings to help fund a major refurbishment of its Margaret Street base.

The Birmingham & Midland Institute is one of the city’s cultural hidden gems which has connections to Dickens, Chamberlain and the city’s pioneering Victorian leaders.

A registered charity, it continues to offer arts and literature lectures, exhibitions and concerts. The sale of the two buildings will enable the BMI to refurbish its Grade II*-listed building on Margaret Street, the Birmingham Library, conference rooms and lecture theatres.

The 93 and 95 Cornwall Street buildings are being marketed as one property for sale.

Daniel Parsons, Operations Manager, explains why the BMI is selling the offices.

“The Birmingham & Midland Institute, founded in 1854 and originally situated on Paradise Street, has been resident on Margaret Street since 1966, when it took over the building of the original Birmingham Library, which had become part of the BMI 10 years earlier.

“The two buildings now for sale on Cornwall Street were purchased and added to the building in 1972. While

the BMI has always been significant in the cultural life of the city, running programmes of events on a wide range of topics and managing the original Birmingham Library, renamed the BMI Members Library in 1966, the building has deteriorated over the years and is in need of refreshment, from decorating to the upgrading of facilities.

“With this in mind the Trustees took the difficult decision to sell the two Cornwall Street buildings to raise some capital to transform the remaining building to its former glory, whilst making it a topquality venue for events and activities.

The plans include extending the BMI Members Library to almost double the size, adding a wonderful ground floor café, and building a state-of-theart theatre. All of which will be fully accessible and built with sustainability at the forefront of the project. We aim to be entirely net carbon neutral within five years.

“The BMI staff and Board of Trustees are excited by their ambitious but achievable plan to regenerate the building in order to facilitate our plans for the Institute to continue and grow as a significant cultural centre in the region, and we are excited for the future of the organisation.”

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John Pemberton and Old Square

By Catherine Hendrick

A long-lost slice of Georgian grandeur 10

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It was once the most sought after place to live in Birmingham with a Georgian square elegant enough to match some of those feted in London and Bath.

The man behind the prestigious development, John Pemberton, was a local Quaker who made his fortune from ironmongery.

Old Square in Birmingham has been described as one of the first recognisably modern development projects in Birmingham.

Its story began in 1698 when Pemberton bought land which once belonged to the old Priory of St. Thomas and started to create what would become known as the Priory Estate.

With the help of the designer and builder, William Westley, the influential ironmonger created 11 new streets on land around Bull

The 1967 wall sculpture by Keith Budd depicting Old Square in its early days. Right: Old Square today

Street and Steelhouse Lane. Strict covenants were drawn up to make sure the area remained a select residential district.

The first plots had frontages onto Bull Street and the buildings included a Quaker Meeting House.

The development’s centrepiece was The Square, later known as Old Square, an exclusive development of 16 townhouses laid out around a landscaped garden.

Enclosed by iron railings and crossed by formal paths the garden was an area where well to do residents could walk and promenade.

“Buying a place on ‘The Square’, as it was known then, was a sure fire indicator of success in 18th Century Brum,” says Colmore Business District Projects Manager Mike Mounfield. “The development was a small residential estate around a classic Georgian square, the kind of development still preserved in cities like London and Bath and still occupied by the well-to-do.”

But Birmingham’s version would suffer a very different fate. Records show that buyers paid 20s. per yard frontage for some of the houses and up to 40s. in Bull Street.

One of the corner houses, originally known as ‘the Angle House’, sold for £420 in 1791.

By 1805 it had more than doubled in value to £970. Four new streets led into this exclusive residential area, Upper Priory to the north, Upper Lichfield Street to the East, Lower Priory to the south and an unnamed street to the west which later became the Minories.

Nearby were two other developments which would ensure the names of those behind the project wouldn’t be forgotten – Pemberton’s Yard and Westley’s Row.

John Pemberton initially lived at Number One, perhaps the finest house on the Square.

But after leasing land from a buckle-maker, John Hawkesford, he also built the handsome Bennetts Hill House as a family home.

In those days Bennetts Hill was just a hill with commanding views over the countryside.

The Square was inhabited by some of Birmingham’s wealthiest families.

Over the years its illustrious incumbents included the draper Richard Cadbury, father of the chocolate making Cadbury’s and Henry Bradford, a Quaker and property developer whom Bradford Street is named after.

Another Quaker and iron manufacturer,

Sampson Lloyd III, whose family went on to found Lloyds Bank, also resided there.

The literary legend and creator of the first definitive dictionary of the English language, Dr Samuel Johnson, was a regular visitor to The Square. He was an old school friend of Edmund Hector, a surgeon and doctor from Lichfield who lived there.

Despite its original grandeur and unlike the classic Georgian squares still popular in places like London and Bath, Birmingham’s version would eventually be swept away by development.

In the late 19th Century Chamberlain’s Corporation Street would carve a slice off the eastern side.

The Grand Theatre was built to the south and Lewis’s department store at the western end.

By the late 20th century what had been cultivated ornamental garden had become a roundabout surrounded by commercial buildings, the Georgian architecture long gone.

In the 1960s an underground shopping arcade, which was reached by subway, took pride of place.

Lower Priory to the south had become one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares - Priory Queensway.

Today the area has been transformed once again. The subway has been filled in and significant investment in commercial space has seen major refurbishments of the Lewis’s Building and Cannon House/Two Colmore Square.

All that remains of the original Georgian square is its name and a 1967 wall sculpture by Keith Budd which depicts scenes, events and people from its history.

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The Artistic District: Kate & Myra Bunce Newspaper journalism, fine art, metalwork, nothing was beyond the creative skills of the Bunce family. Catherine Hendrick finds out more Famed for romantic paintings of beautiful maidens and the male artists who founded it the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood could sound like the ultimate boys’ club.

But did you know Birmingham had its own Pre-Raphaelite ‘sisterhood’ who made their own mark in the art world?

Kate and Myra Bunce were the daughters of 19th century journalist and writer John Thackray Bunce, and his wife Rebecca.

Bunce was the editor of Aris’s Birmingham Gazette and the Birmingham Post during its liberal heyday.

He had a passion for art and won his first role as a reporter after writing a letter calling for Birmingham to have its own art gallery.

When Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery was eventually built he became a patron, as well as a supporter of the Birmingham School of Art, where his daughters would one day hone their skills.

The sisters were surrounded by art at their childhood home, Longworth, in Priory Road, Edgbaston.

But they must have shown an early talent of their own because Kate, who was born in 1856, first exhibited at the Birmingham Society of Artists at the age of just 16.

She was a painter and poet, inspired by the art and poetry of one of the original and most flamboyant members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Her painting The Keepsake (1898-1901) was influenced by Rossetti’s poem ‘The Staff and Scrip’.

In the 1880s the talented sisters, who were part of the Arts and Crafts movement, attended the Birmingham School of Art where Kate became a prize-winning student.

During that time renowned Birmingham PreRaphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones and the celebrated designer William Morris visited the school to inspire the next generation of artists.

Kate’s work, which was increasingly influenced by Burne-Jones and the PreRaphaelites, appeared in major exhibitions all over England, including at the Royal

The Life Class, Birmingham School of Art,1888. It includes many female artists, including Kate and Myra Bunce. Kate appears to be in the middle of the three seated women in the middle row on the right, with Myra seated alone, middle row, to the left of the picture Picture: Birmingham Museums

The Bunce family: A force of nature in the arts

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Kate Bunce’s Birmingham Civic Society blue plaque was unveiled at the church of St Alban the Martyr, in Conybere Street,

by The Rt Revd Mark Santer, the Bishop of Birmingham from 1987 to 2002, and The Lord Mayor, Cllr Ray Hassall, assisted by youngsters from the Ark St Alban’s Academy and Chandos Primary School Picture courtesy Birmingham Civic Society

Academy. Her colourful paintings often featured striking medieval women and religious imagery with strong figure drawing.

Myra, her elder sister, was born in 1854. She was also a skilled painter, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and one of her sketchbooks of landscapes is held by Birmingham Museum

and Art Gallery along with a watercolour painting called The Sitting Room. But she was best known as a metalwork designer who made jewellery and picture frames.

Birmingham School of Art was radical at the time in that it encouraged both men and women to create work in a variety of materials.

A page from Myra Bunce’s sketchbook

The Sitting Room by Myra Bunce

Melody (Musica) by Kate Bunce. Myra is believed to have been the model for the woman playing the lute All images courtesy Birmingham Museums digital archives

The Keepsake by Kate Bunce with frame by Myra Bunce

This is thought to have sparked Myra’s interest in metalworking.

The sisters complemented each other, with Myra making beautiful, ornate, metal frames for some of Kate’s paintings.

She created the striking gold-coloured surround for what is perhaps Kate’s bestknown work, Melody (Musica).

Myra is believed to have been the model for the young woman playing a lute and surrounded by apple blossom in the picture.

In later life the women turned their talents to creating murals and decorative pieces for churches. They include two reredos, ornamental screens covering the back walls of altars, for St Alban’s Church in Bordesley and St Mary’s Longworth in Oxfordshire.

While Kate painted the panels Myra created the hand beaten frames that held them.

A blue plaque was unveiled outside St Alban’s Church in 2015 by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham in honour of their work.

In 1919, the year her sister died, Kate created a war memorial for Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried, in Stratford upon Avon.

When Kate died in 1927 she was working on a painting of St Alban for a cathedral in Canada.

Until their deaths the sisters were inseparable and lived their entire lives together in Edgbaston.

Today their best known artworks, Musica and The Keepsake, which Kate painted and Myra made the frames for, remain together in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. A place where their father first introduced the family name to the world of art.

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The Artistic District: Samuel Lines Samuel Lines was an artistic force of nature, capturing and recording the changing town centre during the early days of the Industrial Revoultion

By Catherine Hendrick

Samuel Lines: The man who captured a changing town Right: Portrait of Samuel Lines

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He was a 19th century pioneer who helped transform art in Birmingham and left a unique visual archive of a town rapidly being changed by the industrial revolution.

Artist, designer and teacher Samuel Lines lived and worked at the heart of what would become the Business District and many of his fascinating drawings and paintings depict the area.

Take a moment to look around and you can still recognise some of the places he would have sketched not far from his doorstep at No.3 Temple Row West – while others have long gone.

A pencil drawing from 1821, entitled the ‘View from No.3 Temple Row West, Birmingham’, shows two people sitting on a rooftop looking out over the beginnings of modern day New Street. Behind you can see fields and a windmill.

In the same year Lines painted Birmingham from the dome of St Philip’s Church.

His detailed brush strokes show the church flanked by green fields while alongside smoke rises from a cluster of factories.

In another drawing from 1820, called The Old Wagon House, Temple Row West, a man unloads a horse-drawn wagon in front of what looks like a cottage.

It could be a painting of rural England and is a world away from the cosmopolitan home the area has become to some of the city’s finest buildings and restaurants.

Lines’ fascinating artwork, much of which is preserved in the Birmingham Museums Trust collection, also reveals how the Business District looked before the arrival of the Council House and Victoria Square.

In a painting titled ‘Birmingham Town Hall and Queen’s College’ you can see the pillars of the Town Hall behind an 18th century building known as Allin’s Cabinet of Curiosities which was demolished to make way for the Council House.

The foreground shows a bustling area with horses and carriages, traders and workmen, which would become Victoria Square.

Other intriguing drawings, such as ‘The Lawyer Whateley’s House at the corner

Ann Street, now Colmore Row

Town Hall and Paradise Street

View from a Temple Row rooftop to New Street

of Bennetts Hill’, capture the homes and workplaces of people who would have been the movers and shakers of what would become the Business District.

Lines was born in 1778 in the Warwickshire village of Allesley and was an early member of the Birmingham School of landscape painters.

Although his first job required little of his artistic talent as his working life began with him helping his uncle in agriculture.

In 1794 he moved to Birmingham where he won an apprenticeship as a designer to a firm of clockmakers and enamellers called Thomas Keeling.

His artistic skills also saw him employed as a sword blade decorator, designer and engraver

by Messrs Osborn and Gunby of Bordesley.

He learned to draw under the watchful eye of landscape painter Joseph Barber at his academy on Great Charles Street.

In 1807 Lines decided to open his own academy in Newhall Street, which was such a success that he was able to build his own house and drawing academy at No.3 Temple Row West.

There was no shirking for students. Classes began at 5am and if anyone was late legend has it that Lines went to rouse them himself!

Lines’ role as a tutor had a significant impact on the standards of craftsmanship and design across Birmingham’s industries.

A catalogue from the Great Exhibition in 1851 showed that at least 42 of Birmingham’s “most distinguished manufacturers” were trained at his academy.

In 1809 Lines was one of a group of local artists who founded a school of life drawing called the Birmingham Academy of Arts.

It would eventually evolve into the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) and Birmingham School of Art.

Site of his former home

The RBSA was highly influential in late Victorian times, especially within the PreRaphaelite and Arts and Crafts movements.

Some of the most significant figures in English art became members and its presidents included Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and John Everett Millais.

Lines also founded one of Birmingham’s most distinguished artistic dynasties, with three of his five sons becoming artists.

He died in 1863 and is buried in the graveyard of Birmingham (St Philip’s) Cathedral – a stone’s throw from the home and art school from where he made such an impact.

But his legacy continues. A blue plaque, erected by the Birmingham Civic Society to mark the 150th anniversary of his death, now adorns the site of his former home, which is next to where the Old Joint Stock Pub and Theatre now is. And the RBSA continues the educational activities he pioneered.

Click here for more of Samuel Lines’ remarkable sketches and paintings SUMMER 2021

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This Samuel Lines sketch of Ann Street (now Colmore Row) in 1823 from the top of New Hall Street shows the dome of St Philip’s in the distance, while the current view, below, shows how architectural styles have changed throughout the years

Then & NOW

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