Handbook of Birmingham / Prepared for the Members of the British Association, 1886

by British Association for the Advancement of Science

The Municipal Buildings of the town, with the exception of the Town Hall, are nearly all of quite recent construction. First among these is the Council House in Colmore Row, near the top of New Street. This noble and commodious building was opened in 1878, and comprises a grand suite of reception rooms, a fine Council Chamber, semicircular on plan, offices for the Mayor, Town Clerk, Surveyor, Treasurer, Chief of Police and other officers, and a large number of committee rooms. The approaches, staircases and corridors are all handsome and spacious. The fronts are constructed of Derbyshire stone in the Italian style, the principal elevation towards Colmore Row consisting of an imposing centre, with porte-cocher, and wings. The tympanums of the pediments are filled with groups of sculpture, and the large arch over the portico contains some fine work in Mosaic by Salviati. The architect was Mr. Yeoville Thomason.

Art Gallery.—Adjoining the Council House, is the Art Gallery, by the same architect, which forms with it one block of buildings surrounding a quadrangle. This was opened last year, and is a series of galleries probably not excelled by any in England. The principal feature of the interior is a vast domed circular room, from which the other rooms are entered.

The Parochial Offices, in Edmund and Newhall Streets, by Mr. Ward, form a large and handsome block, containing the offices of the Poor Law Guardians, the Superintendent Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, &c.

The Galleries of the Society of Artists, New Street.—The principal room is circular, 52 feet in diameter, and there are several other rooms, which, with the fine Corinthian Portico, were completed in 1829. They have since been much improved and enlarged, and now form a very excellent set of galleries.

To describe properly the Educational Buildings of the town would require a volume; a few only of the principal ones can be noticed. The Grammar School, the oldest of them, has already been referred to. The Mason College, founded by the late Sir Josiah Mason, is a fine building of brick and stone in Edmund street, the first stone of which was laid in 1875, and the building opened in October, 1880. This institution comprises large and complete Laboratories for Chemistry, Physics, Physiology, Botany, and Engineering; four Lecture Theatres, and a very great number of class and other rooms of all sizes, suited to their varied requirements, the whole covering an area of about 2,500 square yards. The style of Architecture is that of the 13th century. The principal front in Edmund Street, of about 150 feet in length, is symmetrically arranged with a lofty centre and gabled side wings. The principal entrance in the middle of the front is a very large and deeply recessed moulded and shafted archway opening to a fine groined vestibule, the cross passages leading from which are also groined in stone. Over the entrance is a lofty double oriel beneath a gable, the terminal of which is a mermaid (the crest of Sir Josiah Mason), 122 feet from the pavement. The cost was about £60,000, including the elaborate and costly fittings of the laboratories. The whole of the buildings and fittings were designed by Mr. Jethro A. Cossins, Architect, of Birmingham.

The Birmingham and Midland Institute and the Free Libraries form one united group. The Institute buildings, by Mr. Edward Barry, were opened in 1856 by the Prince Consort. The completion of the design to receive the Reference and Lending Libraries was carried out by Messrs. Martin and Chamberlain; the whole has since been largely added to, the Lending and Reference Libraries have been rebuilt, and a new wing erected in Paradise Street, by the same architects.

The School of Art, also by Martin & Chamberlain, in Edmund Street, is in the very original modern Gothic style, almost created by the late J. H. Chamberlain, and practised with such great success by the firm to which he belonged. The School is perhaps the finest of their works, and possesses a rare grace and refinement in every detail. The arrangements for the convenience of masters and students are also excellent.

Board Schools.—Since the passing of the Elementary Education Act, in 1870, about thirty large Board Schools have been erected in the town, most of them by Messrs. Martin and Chamberlain, they are nearly all of great excellence and are ornaments to the town.

The Exchange, in Stephenson Place, was built in 1865, by Mr. Edward Holmes, architect, of Birmingham, and has since been considerably enlarged. It has a large exchange room on the ground floor, over a part of which is a room for assemblies. The building also contains a Restaurant, shops on the ground floor, and a large number of offices. The fronts, towards Stephenson Place and New Street, in a Gothic style, are lofty and imposing.