Summary
A pair of semi-detached Arts and Crafts style houses by W Alexander Harvey and W Graham Wicks, built between 1911-1913, as part of a group designed for the Society of Friends in memory of Henry Stanley Newman and Anna Newman
Reasons for Designation
Nos 1-2 The Close are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural Interest:
* as a good example of the Arts and Crafts movement in suburban Birmingham;
* for their association with a nationally important local architect, who was responsible for a number of associated buildings;
* for the overall quality of the design, making use of traditional, decent quality materials and creating a successful cohesive design, with associated landscaping.
Historic Interest:
* the buildings have a strong association with Henry Newman, a nationally important figure with significant involvement in the Birmingham Quaker movement;
* similarly, the buildings have a strong association with the Cadbury’s, a prominent industrialist family, with notable philanthropic endeavours inspired by the Quaker faith.
Group Value:
* nos 1-5 and nos 10-11 The Close possess good group value by virtue of their construction as part of a cohesive designed scheme and their architectural similarities.
History
Westhill College was founded in 1907 by Quakers for teacher training. The Close was designed in its grounds as a complex of housing, constructed as a memorial to the life and work of Henry Stanley Newman and his wife Mary Anna Newman. Newman was a Quaker philanthropist who worked to establish the Friends Foreign Mission Association, and accompanied by Anna, undertook missions to India, Africa, Palestine, and North America. The couple also campaigned to end slavery in East Africa and established the Leominster Orphan Homes and the Orphans Printing Press to provide training for orphaned children.
The architects of The Close are W Alexander Harvey and W Graham Wicks. Harvey was a local architect who studied at Birmingham's Municipal School of Art and was largely influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement. He was appointed by George Cadbury aged just twenty to develop the model garden suburb of Bournville for the Cadbury’s employees. In 1904, he then began his own architectural practice partnered with Wicks, his nephew, which was based in the city centre.
The firm were responsible for a number of listed buildings including the Church of St Francis of Assisi (GII: NHLE 1253744) in Sandwell, 48 Selly Wick Road in Birmingham (GII: NHLE 1463621) and further afield, the Chapel at Bembridge School, Isle of Wight (GII: NHLE 1268494).
The 1912 planning documents for the complex indicate that approval for five houses was applied for initially. These later became nos 1-5. The application drawings indicate that the central property of the block, no 3, was designed and built for Mrs EH Cadbury, a member of the prominent local chocolatier’s family. The drawings also refer to future blocks, which includes nos 10-11 located on the opposite side of the close, and an unrealised block located at the western end of the complex, which presumably would have housed the missing nos 6-9. Later planning documents dating to 1914 refer to nos 10-11 as ‘Block 4’, as the plans are for the approval of that build, and still refer to the enclosing block as ‘future’. The drawings indicate that the arcade screen walls that link nos 1-5 were intended to be carried through the design of the complex, leading to the enclosure of the close.
The houses were later used as student and staff accommodation by the University of Birmingham but have been unoccupied for a number of years.
Details
A pair of semi-detached Arts and Crafts style houses by W Alexander Harvey and W Graham Wicks, built between 1911-1913.
MATERIALS: the houses are constructed primarily of red brick with some pale stone detailing and clay tiled roofs.
PLAN: the flanking houses are both L-plan and the block is connected with brick screen walls.
EXTERIOR: the houses are part of a wider complex of houses designed in the Arts and Crafts style and joined with pierced arcade screen walls.
The houses are two-storey, L-plan, with a long range and a projecting gabled range, a design which is mirrored in nos 4-5. Each is comprised of two attached dwellings. There are a total of six chimney stacks to the building, some partially external. These mirror the central house of the complex, with a mixture of straight stacks and coupled star section stacks.
The long range has four bays, with an off-centre door below a gabled timber porch providing the entrance to one of the dwellings. The entrance to the other dwelling is in a single storey porch with a tiled, cat slide roof, which is located at the corner of the long range and the projecting gable end. The ground floor windows have either flat-headed or segmental brick arches. To the projecting gable end, there are three ground floor windows; there is a large central window under a segmental brick arch, flanked by two narrow windows under flat-headed arches. Above, there is a mirroring large window with segmental brick arch. The remainder of the fenestration to the first floor is in the form of four dormer windows in tiled gables, with a single window immediately above the entrance on the long range.
To the rear of the building, there is similarly a long range, with a slightly projecting gabled cross wing. The long range is jettied, with a segmental bay window to the end of the range furthest from the cross-wing. The terrace below the jetty has partially been infilled with modern bricks. The built-out infill appears to have an entrance to the ground floor, flanked by two windows. This matches the original adjacent bay which has the same entrance. To the cross wing, there is a ground floor window below a segmental brick arch, with smaller window above under the eaves. There are four flat-roofed dormer windows to the long range.
The boundary of the two dwellings is demarcated by a timber panel and support adjacent to the infilled bay of the ground floor.
INTERIOR: the principal door to both of the properties leads into a large hallway. From the hallways, a timber staircase with surviving balustrade leads to the first floor. There are surviving elements of historic architrave in the hallways of the houses and leading into the other ground floor rooms. The ground floor doors appear to have been replaced with modern fire doors.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the houses are connected to no 3 by a brick screen wall. The walls are built into the fabric of the adjacent buildings and are topped with hipped clay tiles. The walls have unevenly spaced arches.
