Radiorails
master brummie
Margaret Street. The traffic went in the opposite direction in my time, especially when alighting from the Dudley Road buses. It may be familiar to watchers of WPC 56.
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Birmingham School of Art/Birmingham School of Art & Design
- Thread starter Radiorails
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Margaret Street. The traffic went in the opposite direction in my time, especially when alighting from the Dudley Road buses. It may be familiar to watchers of WPC 56.
A few interior photos of the wonderful architectural features. And a close-up a some external features. The detail is superb. Viv.
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How it started out. Opened in 1885. Viv.
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Some past students (1900s). Viv.
Must have been very inspiring to be studying at the School when the Arts and Crafts movement was in full swing. A welcome return to craftsmanship and beautiful design. I’d happily sit and embroider the piece the young woman is working on in the second photo. And to be doing it in such a lovely building too. Viv.
Although a student at Birmingham College of Art for 4years in the late 60's I never saw the inside of this building. At that time it was the domain of the school of fine arts. There were several outposts all over the city until the new building opened at Gosta Green.My Pre-diploma year was spent at a school building in Cotteridge. Then moved to Gosta Green to study textiles.
How is the old building used now?
How is the old building used now?
Thinking back to the ‘Swinging Sixties’ some of the design themes were still looking back to the Arts & Crafts period then. Lots of William Morris wallpapers and furnishing fabrics. A visit to Liberty’s was a must do if in London.
Thanks for the interior photos of the college building Viv.It looks superb.
Thanks for the interior photos of the college building Viv.It looks superb.
A photo of a group of textile design students in 1967 working on different projects.The wall on the left has a display of experimental pieces of macrame. Remember all those beaded and knotted plant pot hangers? One of the things we did was to study old techniques for making textiles. Lacemaking, netting, hairpin lace, rag rugs, quilting, tie and dye, batik etc.
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jon wallsgrove
New Member
My mother, Nancy Stowe, attended the school of architecture within the school of art from 1940 to1950, with a 4 year gap from 1944 to 1947 when she worked for MI6 at Bletchley Park and other secret locations. Her creative skills as an architect were used to interpret the broken coded messages into actionable intelligence for Churchill and the generals. Does anyone else have knowledge about these links to Bletchley Park?
Hi Jon,
Your mother is on the Bletchley Park Roll of Honour:
NANCY EDWINA
STOWE
- Service - ATS
- Corps or Regiment - Int Corps
- Rank - L/Cpl
Summary of Service:
Bletchley Park, Block G, Room 108. Military Section, SIXTA, Liaison party with Hut 6.There's a photo too. https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/roll-of-honour/8758/
I hope you have been able to visit B.P. Wikipedia has a page on Hut 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hut_6
SIXTA produced traffic analysis of the origin, destination and frequency of enemy signals.
Hut 6 produced cryptanalysis of Army and Air Force Enigma.
B.P. had about 75% female workforce and there's increasing attention to their role. The site developed into a factory for producing intelligence with nearly 10,000 people working there by the end of the war.
I don't know about any connection to Birmingham Art School, but everything to do with B.P. was secret until 1974. Some people were suggested by tutors, others had connections or even solved one of the crossword puzzles and invited to apply. Your mother was ATS and in the Intelligence Corps. Was this before B.P. have you looked at her records?
If you know about which outstations your mother worked in I'm sure B.P. researchers would be interested.
Good luck in your search.
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Pamela Downing attended Margaret Street then her father secured an interview for her with the 'Foreign Office' and she was soon working in Hut 6.
https://www.morganfourman.com/articles/birmingham-college-of-arts-and-crafts-1939-41/
https://www.morganfourman.com/articles/birmingham-college-of-arts-and-crafts-1939-41/
just to add to above info there are also quite a few newspapers articles for nancy stowe/wallsgrove (married name) but i would think that jon already knows about these..
lyn
also lovely to see a photo of nancy on this link posted by stokkie on post 14
www.bletchleypark.org.uk
Roll of Honour
Find a Veteran by searching the Bletchley Park Roll of Honour, which lists all those believed to have worked in signals intelligence during World War Two.
www.bletchleypark.org.uk
jon wallsgrove
New Member
Thanks for this feedback. My mother was interviewed and recruited by Fred Winterbotham, who later wrote the first history of Bletchley Park. When BP closed she was posted to Wilton House near Salisbury where she continued her work for MI6. By coincidence, she had studied and sketched Wilton House in her architectural history lectures at Birmingham. I am writing a book on my parents' secret work - "Secrets at War's End - Bletchley Park to Addu Atoll".
The very best of wishes with your book on your parents' secret work. New books and articles about Bletchley are published all the time, but the continuation of similar work in the Cold War and after, is much less in the public domain.
i found the newspaper articles interesting.. one talks about nancy and husband designing and building their own house on the percy estate warwick and says how nancy knew from the age of 11 she wanted to be become an architect also mentions her father and grandfather were builders...most interesting...good luck with the book
lyn.
lyn.
Bill Berrett studied Architecture at Birmingham School of Art from 1950- 1955. His website is very informative.
https://billberrett.info/birmingham-school-of-architecture.html
He says it was the School of F R S Yorke and Freddie Gibberd in the pre-war years. Sir Frederick Ernest Gibberd CBE, RA had himself studied at Birmingham, he collaborated with FRS York in writing the influential The Modern Flat (1937). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Gibberd
https://billberrett.info/birmingham-school-of-architecture.html
He says it was the School of F R S Yorke and Freddie Gibberd in the pre-war years. Sir Frederick Ernest Gibberd CBE, RA had himself studied at Birmingham, he collaborated with FRS York in writing the influential The Modern Flat (1937). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Gibberd
jon wallsgrove
New Member
Thanks for the links. Bill Berrett's pages from his student work are fascinating. He clearly had exactly the same structures and history lectures in 1950 as my mother had in 1940. Her notebooks have the same notes and sketches in the same sequence. I knew about Freddie Gibberd. He was my mother's external examiner for her final RIBA Part 3 exams in 1950. By coincidence, I worked for Sir Freddie for 8 years in the 1970s and 80s. He used to tell wonderful tales of how he created his designs, and how he, Le Corbusier and all the other pioneers of the Modern Movement in architecture would tour the Mediterranean together before the war. Le Corbusier liked the whitewashed flat roofed Greek houses, whilst Freddie was inspired by the townscape of the Provencal hill towns. I guess this is what he inspired the students with in his lectures at Birmingham School of Architecture.
Thank you Jon. Your personal comments and recollections are informative. I did wonder if Freddie and Fred Winterbotham might have known each other? Fred Winterbotham must have seen or been told that architecture students could have the skills he was looking for. Do you think it is significant that Fred interviewed your mother personally, would he generally do this for potential MI6 recruits?