Grotto in the garden of 101 Bristol Road

Birmingham, B5 7TX

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

A Gothick grotto, probably built for James Guest, a merchant, in the early-C19. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1481524
Date first listed:: 06-Sep-2022
List Entry Name:: Grotto in the garden of 101 Bristol Road
Statutory Address:: Birmingham, B5 7TX

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1481524
Date first listed:: 06-Sep-2022
List Entry Name:: Grotto in the garden of 101 Bristol Road
Statutory Address 1:: Birmingham, B5 7TX

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Birmingham, B5 7TX

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Birmingham (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SP0660785118

Summary

A Gothick grotto, probably built for James Guest, a merchant, in the early-C19.

Reasons for Designation

The early-C19 Gothick shell grotto within the garden of 101 Bristol Road, Birmingham is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural Interest: * As a rare example of a Gothick shell grotto within a small-scale domestic garden setting; * For the remarkable survival, and high quality of the unusual surface treatment, incorporating shells, animal bones and teeth.

Historic Interest: * For illustrating the development of the fashion for grottos within private gardens and pleasure grounds by the early-C19.

History

The earliest grottoes were shrines built over sacred springs in ancient Greece, followed by Roman temples dedicated to water deities or surrounding public fountains. Grottoes were revived by Italian Renaissance architects and the fashion reached Britain in the early-C17. Their popularity peaked in the C18, but continued into the C19 and C20, with many grottoes created in landscaped parks and gardens.

In 2021, a Gothick-style grotto was uncovered in the garden of 101 Bristol Road in Edgbaston. Development started along Bristol Road from around 1814, gradually transforming land previously in agricultural use. The 1827 Edgbaston tithe awards describe the plot of land now forming 101 Bristol Road as ‘pleasure grounds and plantation’ occupied by James Guest, a merchant. There is a structure identifiable on the tithe map roughly in the location of the present grotto.

By 1888 the site was occupied by a large house called Oaklands and a collection of buildings was present along the north edge of the garden. Oaklands was demolished in the 1930s and replaced by the current two houses by Peacock and Bewlay at 101 and 101a Bristol Road. The grotto was uncovered by the owners of 101 Bristol Road in the summer of 2021 as they were clearing the garden prior to selling the house.

Details

A Gothick grotto, probably built for James Guest, a merchant, in the early-C19.

MATERIALS: The grotto is constructed of red brick faced with blast-furnace slag, shells, animal bones and teeth impressed into cement.

PLAN: the structure is D-shaped in plan with a flat front elevation and semi-circular rear wall.

DESCRIPTION: the grotto is Gothick in style and has a pedimented front with two, pointed-arch windows flanking a central ogee-arched door. The window and door surrounds are dressed with shells and animal teeth. The pediment sits above a shell frieze and features a central star-burst motif and three short obelisk pinnacles to each corner. Only the lower part of the rear, semi-circular wall survives. Its inner surface features low-level panels framed by sheep or cow vertebrae and decorated with shells. This wall also features slots suggesting that there may have been a fitted bench around the back wall. Fragments of a timber door are suggested to survive. The roof is no longer present.

Sources

Books and journals
Foster, A, Pevsner, N, Wedgwood, A, The Buildings of England: Birmingham and the Black Country, (2022), 379
Websites
Jackson, H, In praise of the grotesque: Shell Houses and Grottoes, accessed 23 March 2022 from https://www.londongardenstrust.org/features/grotto.htm
Other
Molyneux, N, Notes on Oaklands (unpublished), August 2021

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.