University Of Birmingham Lodge, Gates, Gate Piers And Wall

University of Birmingham Lodge, Gates, Gate Piers and Wall

A lodge, gate, gate piers and walling forming part of the University of Birmingham campus on Bristol Road, designed by Aston Webb and Ingress Bell and built between 1904 and 1909.

The lodge and walling are constructed of red Accrington brick laid in English Garden Wall bond with Darley Dale stone ashlar dressings. The pyramidal roof is of graduated green Westmoreland slates. The gates are of cast and wrought iron, and bronze lanterns with copper domed roofs sit at either side of the gateways.

The walling borders the roadside with the gates recessed and quadrants of walling at either side. The lodge itself is square on plan, of two storeys, with a rectangular walled yard to its east side.

Three gateways are set into the wall: a central gateway for road traffic, flanked by two pedestrian gates. The central gateway contains a single gate, hinged at the west, with short iron screens to either side. The coat of arms of the university in high relief is set in an arched panel on each side of the gate. Both vehicular and pedestrian gates have dog bars to their lower bodies. The stone piers are rectangular in plan with a dentilled band below the cornice. The pedestrian gates have moulded surrounds with prominent keystones, and octagonal electric lanterns crown their piers. The walling either side of the gates is ramped; elsewhere the pattern is uniform, with stone piers dividing the wall into bays. Four bays extend to the east of the gate recess and twelve to the west, though the wall formerly extended further west before later demolition. A balustrade with rectangular balusters runs along the top, finished with a simple cambered coping.

The lodge is set back to the north-east of the gateway, connected to the walling by a pair of wooden gates on its south side. The walling employs three rows of stretchers to one row of headers with flush bands of ashlar set throughout. All four corners have clasping buttresses, and the centre bay on the north, south and west faces projects.

The west (entrance) front is symmetrical with three bays. A doorway to the centre has an arched fanlight and is surmounted by an arched stone hood supported by carved brackets to the sides, with further plain brackets and a keystone above. The three-panel door is a later 20th-century replacement. Single-light windows flank the entrance, each with a moulded stone surround and transom; uPVC windows have been inserted into these openings. The first-floor dormer window has a moulded wooden surround with a segment-arched top, also containing uPVC windows. The roof rises to a central stack of cross-shaped plan.

The south front is similar but has no window to the left of centre at ground floor level, and a cross window of two mullioned and transomed lights at ground-floor centre. The north flank similarly has the right-hand bay blank and the left-hand bay containing a cross window. The east rear face has a central bay that does not project, but two projecting pilaster buttresses flank the central bay, which contains a single-light casement.

The yard walling continues the ashlar banding seen elsewhere on the building and encloses a single-storey structure housing a laundry, boiler room and coal store. Windows and doors to this yard building have been replaced in the later 20th century.

Interior

A central corridor at ground floor level leads to an open-well staircase at the rear with a closed string and ramped handrail. Doors throughout are plain four-panel or plank doors with diagonal bracing. A bathroom was inserted at ground floor level in the later 20th century, projecting into the open well. Fire surrounds that originally stood at ground floor level have been removed.

Historical Context

The lodge, gates and walling were conceived as part of the overall campus plan for the University of Birmingham designed by Aston Webb and Ingress Bell in 1900. The university had originated in 1880 as Mason College in Edmund Street, specialising in the sciences. It became Mason University College in 1898 and received its royal charter in 1900, when Joseph Chamberlain was appointed first chancellor. That same year, Lord Calthorpe donated 25 acres of land from his Edgbaston estate, and Andrew Carnegie donated £50,000 to establish a first-class modern scientific college modelled on Cornell University. Sir Charles Holcroft provided a matching sum. Though not all planned buildings were eventually constructed, the extensive scheme designed by Webb and Bell was approved in full. The campus was opened by King Edward VII in 1909. The lodge housed the gate keeper to the university campus. It does not appear on the 1904 Ordnance Survey map but is shown with its present footprint on the 1917 map. A bathroom was added in the later 20th century, and uPVC windows have been inserted into some openings, though original surrounds—whether wooden or stone—have been retained. Walling to the west of the gates was curtailed in the early 21st century and has been rebuilt on a new line to the north using original materials where possible.