Nos 10-11 The Close

Summary

A pair of Arts and Crafts style houses by W Alexander Harvey and W Graham Wicks, built in approximately 1915, as part of a group designed for the Society of Friends in memory of Henry Stanley Newman and Anna Newman.

Reasons for Designation

Nos 10-11 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, albeit unfinished, 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 20 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 Arts and Crafts style houses by W Alexander Harvey and W Graham Wicks, built in approximately 1915.

MATERIALS: the houses are constructed primarily of red brick with some pale stone detailing, clay tiled roofs and some vertically hung tiles to the first floor.

PLAN: the pair of houses are L-plan on form, with an additional rear wing extending from no 11.

EXTERIOR: The principal façade is orientated southwards, forming a close with nos 1-5. The long range of the building features an off-centre double height porch with a centrally located door under a segmented brick arch and a single window above; below the upper floow window is a small, pale stone engraved with the initials A.F.T. To the outermost bay at the eastern end of the building, the upper floor of the building is covered with vertically hung clay tiles; within this is another window. The remainder of this section of the building is comprised of three bays, two with wide windows to the ground floor and the final bay has the entrance to no 10 within a single storey porch, abutting the junction of the L-plan. The porch and the two bays all feature a catslide roof. Within the roof, there are two gabled dormer windows and another is located above the porch on the return of the building.

At the rear of no 10, at the western end of the block, there is a single arch within a pierced screen wall. This is located behind the single storey block, creating a small courtyard, which is enclosed with a modern, single-storey garage block. There is a similar courtyard to the side of no 11 enclosed with a brick wall with a porthole.

The property has a total of five chimney stacks: one is located to the rear cross wing, and the remainder are evenly divided amongst the roof of the L-plan section. Two of the chimney stacks are coupled star section stacks, with a brick string course and dentil detail; the others are straight stacks, although with the brick string course and dentil.

INTERIOR: the principal door to both properties leads to a small, internal lobby, with a secondary timber door leading to the hallway of the houses. From both of these hallways, a timber staircase with surviving balustrade leads to the first floor. There are surviving elements of historic architrave in the hallways of both houses and leading into the other ground floor rooms. The ground floor doors appear to have been replaced with modern fire doors.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: protruding from the eastern end of the building is a brick screen wall. The wall is built into the fabric of the building and is topped with hipped clay tiles. The walls each have three arches, some unevenly spaced. It is likely that it was intended to adjoin another, unfulfilled dwelling to complete the group.

Sources

Books and journals
Ballard, P, Birmingham's Victorian and Edwardian Architects, (2009)
Foster, A, Pevsner, N, Wedgwood, A, Birmingham and the Black Country, (2022), 432

Websites
Biographical Dictionary of British and Irish Architects, 1800-1950, accessed 02/05/2024 from https://architecture.arthistoryresearch.net/firms/harvey-wicks

Other
Birmingham Archives, Planning Reference 26139
Birmingham Archives, Planning Reference 27919

End of official list entry

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