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Carpenter Road, Edgbaston - Royal Institution For The Blind

ChrisM

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Staff member
For over a hundred years from 1852 the Royal Institution for the Blind (as it was eventually called) occupied large, custom built premises in Carpenter Road, Edgbaston - no. 52 in the 1940s. Can anyone confirm the precise location of this building please? My current suspicion is that it was on a plot of land near the junction with Ampton Road, now occupied by modern houses; but I may well be wrong.

Thanks.

Chris
 
Thank you, everyone, for that. Great information.

Not that it is likely to fascinate anyone very much.... but I will explain my interest in this important building (of which there seems to have survived little information, at least online).

First, it was the digs of Home Guard men from all over the country who were attending courses at the Street Fighting School in Bristol Street, 1942-1944. (Sorry, yawn, yawn!)

Second, my great-uncle had some, perhaps even significant, involvement with it. Maurice Jacob Myers (1874-1933) was educated at King Edward's School, then in New Street of course, from around 1885 to 1890 and later trained elsewhere as a "Typewriter", (typist/stenographer). Some time after April 1891 he emigrated to New York and earned his living there as a Stenographer. This somewhat exotic change of location perhaps mirrored the adventurous spirit of his own father who had set off from Birmingham to California as a nineteen-year-old in about 1851, in order perhaps to cash in, a little late, on the Gold Rush, and returned in 1859. Later in New York Maurice suffered total blindness, said to be the result of a firearms accident. Returning to Birmingham, he obtained assistance from the Blind Institute and became a noted Braille shorthand and typewriter operator. On one occasion he took dictation from the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) during an exhibition in London. In 1918 he joined Midland Societies for the Blind as an organiser and canvasser. In 1933, he was being driven by friends on a fishing trip to Worcestershire, when the car in which he was travelling was in collision with another. He was taken to the Cottage Hospital in Halesowen where he died from his injuries.

My Great-Uncle Maurice, whom I never met....

Chris
 
It seems that the General Institute for the Blind in Birmingham had its first annual meeting in 1848 and it was described as Islington House, Broad Street. By 1855 in was described as Carpenter Road, Edgebaston.

This is from the Illustrated London News in 1853 and may be the building?

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Thanks for the additional information.

An image of my great-uncle and his stenography machine. Dated probably in the 1910s, or a year or two later. Location unknown, very probably not the Institution.

Chris

MauriceMyersStenographyMach.jpg
 
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In the 1930s there was a journal called "The New Beacon" which served the interests of the blind nationally. This obituary from 1933 indicates the close relationship which Maurice Myers had with the Birmingham Royal Institution for the Blind in Carpenter Road. Just to link one individual, amongst so many others, with that fine, now lost building........

Chris
MJMobit1.jpg MJMobit2.jpg
 
No 113 seems to be listed, certainly 1845-55, in directories as being occupied by John Lord. Cannot find any association of someone with that name to the blind. He is probably the John Lord of John Lord & Co , merchants of Friday Bridge. The house was sold with him in residence in 1845 (below). He is stated then to have a lease till lady day. Possibly the 1855 date is out of date information , though have not come across information that out of date in directories before
Aris Birm Gazette 18.5.1845.jpg
 
Thanks very much for that, Mike. The whole story of the Birmingham Institute for the Blind is a wonderful example of Victorian charity. It makes you wonder at what the position would have been for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of local children (and some adults) who had the great misfortune to be blind in the second half of the nineteenth century, without this sort of work done by Birmingham residents with money and a sense of social responsibility. A huge organisation - at one stage there were no less than 1250 teachers who would give tuition in people's own homes, over and above all the care given to residential pupils. The full document on which this magazine article is based is available online. (I can't provide a link because of the way the BRIB's website set up but do a Google on - "150 years of progress" birmingham blind - to find it).

The Carpenter Road, Edgbaston premises were occupied by the Institution for just over a century from the early 1850s before a general transfer to Lickey Grange. It looks a fine building (see Pedrocut's post earlier in this thread), built especially for the purpose. I think it may have become a BBC HQ later, before eventual demolition. Now the two acres are covered with nice modern houses. I wonder how many people who live in them realise that lying under their foundations are the bit of Birmingham history and a century of good work which transformed so many lives which otherwise would have been miserable.

Chris
 
Sorry, this is more than a bit off-topic. (But there is a bit of commonality: music, my great-uncle's involvement and the fact that my brother was a Brummie as well!)

The history of the Birmingham Institute mentions a great emphasis on music. Not surprising, I suppose, but the suggestion is that there was a high degree of attainment. Bearing in mind that my brother and I shared a great-uncle who was closely involved with the Institute for decades, was at one stage an employee and may also have been a resident makes it a bit of a coincidence that Graham spent many months at its opposite number in Milan.

One of the big differences was that the Milan version was far more grandiose – as you would probably expect – with marble everywhere and that, unlike Carpenter Road, it wasn't taken over wholly by the Army during WW2. My brother (in the Royal Artillery) wrote of his experiences there in the summer and winter of 1945 as follows:
The Regimental Headquarters were housed in the rather imposing Insituto dei Ciechi (Institute for the Blind). Immediately above its main entrance was a large balcony onto which our Regimental Office opened by means of French doors. Some of the civilian residents were still in occupation, and nearer the back of the building was a spacious Concert Hall, complete with auditorium and its own organ. There were several grand pianos in various parts of the building and it was most enjoyable to listen to the playing of these sightless pianists, some of whom seemed to be accomplished musicians of professional standard. In front of the facade, adjoining the street, was a courtyard, enclosed by railings and with imposing iron gates. A pair of 25-pounder guns were displayed prominently, gleaming with polished brass work and surmounted by the Union flag......

This is an image of it at the time, taken by my brother. The guns, which had no doubt been in action only a few months previously, now bulled up so much that you could see your face in them.......

Milan6.jpg

And in more recent times.

Milan1.jpg

About 10 years ago I did my best to penetrate it on a wintry afternoon. It was still clearly going strong then. Didn't get beyond the foyer but managed to get a glimpse into the concert hall where rehearsals were taking place; and took a picture of the grand main staircase up to my brother's offices.

Milan2.jpg

If we try and imagine the Carpenter Road equivalent, I wouldn't be too surprised if it was all a little bit less opulent than this (to say the least). I wonder how the background of the two establishments compare – was the Italian one similar in terms of being the product of Victorian good works? And was it as effective as the Brummie equivalent clearly was? How good it would be if further images of the Carpenter Road premises were to resurface.

Chris
 
The Carpenter Road building in November 1968 when in the care of the BBC.

Chris

bb0061.jpg

(Sources: Phyllis Nicklin, Birmingham University - Department of Extramural Studies and ePapers Repository)
 
Below is a piece on the Institute from the Birmingham historian Magazine. March 2001

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Wow, this is really interesting. A friend and I used our lockdown walks to go to various local cemeteries and then find out what we could about some of the people commemorated on the headstones there. Mary Badger is buried at Holy Trinity Church, Lickey and was one of the people we were researching. Thank you.
 
Welcome nstanley. What an interesting addition to your walks ! If there’re any findings you want to share please feel free. A quick search will list any existing threads for you. Viv.
 
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