St Paul's Square, Birmingham

St Paul's, gbmapping|SP064874, is a church and a Georgian square in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, England.

t Paul's Church

Designed by Roger Eykyn of Wolverhampton, building started in 1777, and the church was consecrated in 1779. It was built on land given by Charles Colmore from his Newhall estate. It was the church of Birmingham's early manufacturers and merchants - Matthew Boulton and James Watt had their own pews, which were bought and sold as commodities at that time.

It is a rectangular church, similar in appearance to St Martin in the Fields, London. The spire was added in 1823 by Francis Goodwin. The east window has an important 1791 stained glass window designed by Benjamin West and made by Francis Eginton. It shows the Conversion of St Paul. Unusually it consists of two layers of glass, each painted on the inside.

The Churchyard and surrounding square are often the location of gatherings by small groups of teens on weekends, as it is away from overpopulated areas in the city used for the same urpose, such as St Phillips Cathedral (also known as Pigeon Park) and the canals.

The church is a Grade I listed building.

Organ

The church has excellent acoustics and has long given concerts. The first documented organ in St Paul's was built in 1830 by James Bishop. It was sited on the gallery at the west end of the church. Banfield enlarged the organ in 1838 including a new Swell division which was probably a replacement for Bishop's Swell rather than an addition. Bevington and Sons rebuilt and enlarged the organ in 1871 and again worked on it in 1897.

The organ was moved to its present location in 1927 by Conacher Sheffield & Co. and was extensively rebuilt. However, the organ case could not be accommodated in its new position unaltered. The wings had to be removed and are now joined together to serve as the screen facing the north gallery, along with some recycled pew doors. The side towers could not fit between the mouldings on the north arcade bases, so the entire case-front was raised so that the corbels of the side towers cleared the mouldings. This caused the side-tower cornices to conflict with the arcade capitals, so the cornices were removed.

Following war damage and the resulting weather-related damage, the organ was noted to be in a poor state by 1953, notably the Choir division was completely 'bombed out'. Hill, Norman & Beard remodelled the organ as a two manual and pedal instrument in 1964. This is the organ present today albeit with some additions to the piston system added in 1996. There are a mixture of mechanical and electro-pneumatic actions and soundboards of differing compasses. The pipework consists of some of the original Bishop ranks, some second hand pipework from Hill Norman & Beard's stock in 1964 and one partly new stop – the Great Stopped Diapason.

St Paul's Square

Built 1777-79 on the Newhall estate of the Colmore family. It was an elegant and desirable location in the mid 19th century. At the end of the 19th century the square was swallowed by workshops and factories, with the fronts of some buildings being pulled down to make shop fronts or factory entrances. Much restoration was done in the 1970s and many of the buildings are now Grade II listed (Nos 1, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12-14, 24, 35-39, 42a, 55).

The square is served by St Paul's tram stop.

ources

*"The Jewellery Quarter - History and Guide", Marie Elizabeth Haddleton, ISBN 0-9513108-0-1
*"Pevsner Architectural Guides - Birmingham", Andy Foster, 2005, ISBN 0-300-10731-5

* [http://www.saintpaulbrum.org St Paul's Church Website]
*IoE|217564|- (including photograph) St Paul's Church
*IoE|217565|- (including photograph) No 1 St Paul's Square
*IoE|217566|- (including photograph) No 3 St Paul's Square
*IoE|217567|- (including photograph) No 4 St Paul's Square
*IoE|217568|- (including photograph) No 5 St Paul's Square
*IoE|217569|- (including photograph) No 11 St Paul's Square
*IoE|217570|- (including photograph) No 12-14 St Paul's Square
*IoE|217571|- (including photograph) No 24 St Paul's Square
*IoE|217572|- (including photograph) No 35-39 St Paul's Square
*IoE|217573|- (including photograph) No 42a St Paul's Square
*IoE|217574|- (including photograph) No 55 St Paul's Square