• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

St Gabriel's Italian Church Deritend

Thylacine said:
Courtesy of Elliott Brown at flickr, here's a close-up of the Lopes' Chapel tower (sorry, campanile). Mr Brown states that the Grade II listed building was erected circa 1898-1900. He has other pictures on display. Is it possible to examine the Grade II listing on line?
Click to expand...

Hi I'm Elliott Brown from Flickr. I got my information from Heritage Gateway, which I posted a link to on my photos. https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=217288&resourceID=5

Listing Text:

HIGH STREET
1.
5104
Deritend B12
Former Church,
(part of premises occupied
by Dolphin Showers)
SP 08 NE 7/53
II
2.
Circa 1898-1900. Small brick built church but with considerable height to walls,
in a basilican-Lombardic style with good Arts and. Crafts brickwork. The principal
feature is the companile tower to the north-west corner, triple arcaded openings to
the upper stages defined by moulded and cut brick cornices; pyramidal pantile roof.
Similar roof cladding to main building with deeply moulded eaves cornice. Four
round arched lancets light the side elevation.

Listing NGR: SP0809986328
Click to expand...

I also referenced Wikimapia https://wikimapia.org/688639/Father-Lopes-039-Chapel

And a book I've got called Pevsner: Architectural Guides: Birmingham by Andy Foster

The former St Edmunds' Boy's Home was designed by Mansell & Mansell. Two simple brick bays of 1912 fronting Deritend, then a bedroom extension with a wooden casement window, and a five-bay block of 1913 - 14 with hipped roof. Set back, the chapel of 1913 in Early Christian style, above a ground-floor workshop. Not quite as impressive as Dixon's or Ball's work (e.g. St Basil) but with an impressive campanile, closely based on that of S Giorgio in Velabro in Rome. The interior has an inserted floor, but retains a rich painte timber roof with king-post trusses on big consoles.
Click to expand...
This next quote is from https://www.anchorinndigbeth.co.uk/walk-one-printer.htm

The next building is deceptive. It was formerly the St Edmunds' Boys' Home. Behind this is the architectural oddity [pictured to the left]. Featuring a fine Roman campanile, the structure was built privately as the chapel of a hostel for working boys by Father John Lopes. He was an Anglo-Catholic clergyman who in 1915, before the building was finished, joined the Church of Rome. The small basilican church was never used for services. Indeed, it has always served secular purposes.
Click to expand...
 
Welcome aboard Elliott, and thank you for your terrific photos and informative research. This Forum is, dare I say it, just up your street. Play up, play up, and play the game....look forward to all your future contributions.
 
Thanks. I was invited ages ago by Guilbert 53 but hadn't got around to joining. I like adding historical information to my pictures, as well as adding relevants tags to them.

It's a matter of finding relevant threads to the existing photos I've got on my Flickr.
 
Welcome to the BHF, Elliott. Thanks for being so generous with your pictures and information. I think you'll enjoy yourself here.
 
Dennis Williams said:
... Thylacine (wombatticus ferretus) ...
Click to expand...

Not that I really mind, DW, and I suspect you are only teasing, but the Thylacine is neither a Devil nor a Wombat (though both are close and beloved relatives of mine). The poor Tasmanian Devil has become an endangered species of late, whereas I am only extinct (yeah right!).

Believe it or not, there is a thread on wombats and their pre-Raphaelite connections.

Right ... back to Deritend.
 
I notice on the Heritage Listing for the Lopes Chapel posted by Elliott (#22) that the date is given as "circa 1898-1900". This doesn't tally with what we know of Lopes' life (post #18), which seems to me to imply a date closer to 1910. Is there any way to settle this?
 
Sorry, I should read more carefully before I post! Andy Foster's Birmingham Architectural Guide gives us the exact date (my emphasis): "Set back, the chapel of 1913 in Early Christian style, above a ground-floor workshop. Not quite as impressive as Dixon's or Ball's work (e.g. St Basil) but with an impressive campanile, closely based on that of S Giorgio in Velabro in Rome. The interior has an inserted floor, but retains a rich painte timber roof with king-post trusses on big consoles." [Elliott's post #22].
 
This only makes me want to see inside even more...there can't be many Italianate buildings of this quality, style and provenance in the UK, never mind Deritend. It needs restoring...
 
I realise its only anecdotal, but theres a section about Father Lopez, and that church in a book I recently read
'96 years a Brummie' Sorry, cant remember who wrote it, but I'm sure somebody on this forum will know.

iirc, it was used by nuns as a home for 'working young people' or something like that at one time.

If you cant find it, I might be able to borrow it again and PM you with a scan of the relevent parts.
 
Another Deritend old landmark. This time a pub (surprise, surprise). The Duke of Cumberland. Long gone now, but the factory link is fascinating and remnants of Fred Baker's still appear to be there, but not sure if it is still 'working'?
 
Yes, that's the wall on the left eli.

Interesting but rather sad photo of the old Fox & Grapes on corner of FREEMAN STREET. Never knew why they called it thus, something to do with freedom of speech do you think? I know this was the site of an old Baptist Ministry Building (see old 1731 map) so maybe named after one of the founders? And here's one I prepared earlier...notice it is supposed to have a preservation order on it? You can't trust anyone to play fair and behave in a civilised manner nowadays can you? Hope they renovate it.
 
Everything around it has been demolished.

There was supposed to be that city park, then plans for that HS2 happened.

Too many city centre sites have been demolished, then left for years without development. Such as that site on Bradford Street near the coach station.
 
col h said:
I realise its only anecdotal, but theres a section about Father Lopez, and that church in a book I recently read
'96 years a Brummie' Sorry, cant remember who wrote it,
Click to expand...

I think it was Tom Golding,talking about his mother, he also wrote 'The Brum We Knew.
 
Tried getting my own shots of Fred Baker this morning. Doesn't even look like a pub anymore.

30 Park Street.
 
It isn't. Sorry Eli, that was the point, I just wanted to show what it was before the developers moved in....and whether Fred Bakers was still viably trading from there. Sorry for the confusion in my original text. Whilst I am here and in Deritend, anyone know what this was before becoming a store that we used quite a bit when Mrs W was making curtains etc..
 
map_c_1889_new_canal_st_hope_and_anchor.JPG
This seems to be it, the Hope & Anchor
Mikje
 
At least they got this one right Mike. Hope & Anchor it is. There were quite a few Hope & Anchors in Brum at that time (McKenna lists 7). Is there a story to the name I wonder?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top