Superb pics Viv. I love this building and it's history.
Allow me to add a little about St Philips from t'net for extra flavour....The first shot is the best IMHO, showing from the right, Waterloo St and Christchurch and the Town Hall at the end, then Temple Street, then Needless Alley and New Street Station in the distance, and lastly Cherry Street and St Martins in the distance...plus magnificent views of the Back of Rackhams....(ahem)......
During 18th century Birmingham became one of most populous towns in England. At a time when national population increased by 14%, the population of Birmingham increased by 900%. In 1550 St Martin’s, Birmingham parish church could conceivably accommodate most of the population of 1500 people. But by 1750 Birmingham had 24 000 inhabitants and by 1801 some 74 000. This was particularly galling for the rich inhabitants of the town who, despite their wealth, were unable to rent pews in the parish church.
There were also problems burying the dead. The small churchyard was full almost to overflowing. William Hutton wrote:
‘A considerable hill had arisen . . . so that the dead are raised up . . . and instead of the church burying the dead, the dead would, in time, have buried the church.’ The town was expanding northwards beyond New Street and the High Street in an area that became known as High Town. In 1708 the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry obtained an Act of Parliament to set up a Commission, made up of wealthy local landowners, to build a new church. The site for the church, agricultural land known as Horse Close or Barley Close, was sold at a favourable price by members of the related Inge and Phillips families, hence the dedication. At that time the site was beyond the built-up area of the town.
St Philip's Church was designed by Thomas Archer and built between 1711 and 1725. It is one of only a few churches in the English baroque style and one of the smallest cathedrals in England. Archer had visited the great cities of Europe as a young man and was one of a small number of architects who interpreted the baroque in an English setting. Construction started in 1709 and the church was consecrated in 1715, although lack of funding meant that the tower was unfinished. The church was built in locally-made brick and faced with calcareous limestone from the Archer family's own Rowington quarries on their Umberslade estate. It is thought that much of the timber also came from the Archer estates.
Under the parliamentary act the church when consecrated became a parish church taking its parish out of that of St Martin’s.
At the suggestion of Sir Richard Gough of Edgbaston Hall, King George I donated £600 to complete the tower in 1725. The gilded boar's head weathervane derives from the Gough family crest in recognition of Sir Richard ‘s efforts to get the tower completed. At the time of its building the church was surrounded to the north and west and east by fields and orchards. These would soon make way for the elegant town houses of the wealthy were moving from the lower part of the industrial town.
William Hutton, in his 1783 History of Birmingham, wrote of his first impression of the church when he arrived in Birmingham:
"When I first saw St. Philip's, in the year 1741, at a proper distance, uncrowded with houses, for there were none to the north, New-hall excepted, untarnished with smoke, and illuminated by a western sun, I was delighted with its appearance, and thought it then, what I do now, and what others will in future, the pride of the place. If we assemble the beauties of the edifice, which cover a rood of ground; the spacious area of the church-yard, occupying four acres; ornamented with walks in great perfection; shaded with trees in double and treble ranks; and surrounded with buildings in elegant taste: perhaps its equal cannot be found in the British dominions." Wonder what he'd have made of it now...after popping in for a swift half at the Old Joint Stock....
View from St Philips Tower 1851
St Philips Church North Prospect
St Philips Westley's East Prospect
Temple Row 1858
Birmingham 1731
