Ten endangered Victorian buildings
Normally ‘Top Tens’ are celebratory, but there is something both sad and inspiring about the Victorian Society (VicSoc)’s annual list of the most threatened buildings from the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Inspiring because the buildings that feature in the list are often stupendous. This year’s list includes Icknield Street School, Birmingham: an astonishing architectural fantasy in brick and tile the colour of a robin’s breast, with multiple gables and steep-pitched roofs tumbling around a slated Rhenish spire bristling with subsidiary spirelets.
The school, which opened in 1883, is one of several designed by Joseph Chamberlain, who set out his manifesto in clear terms: he wanted his schools to inspire pupils by being the best-looking buildings in their neighbourhoods. The designs, for all their aesthetic appeal, are also functional: the big windows lighting tall airy rooms and the central tower (rising in three stages separated by wooden louvres) are all designed to maximise sunlight and circulate fresh air.
The school and its adjacent headmaster’s house are listed Grade II* and are owned by Birmingham City Council. The ground floor is used as a Hindu temple, but blocked gutters and missing roof tiles – the usual culprits – are causing damage to the roof and walls. The building has great potential, says VicSoc President Griff Rhys Jones, because ‘the school is in a convenient location and the potential for repurposing is clear’.
