William Bidlake

William Henry Bidlake (May 12, 1861 - April 6, 1938) was an English architect, a leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement in Birmingham and Director of the School of Architecture at Birmingham School of Art from 1919 until 1924.

Several of Bidlake's houses in the Birmingham area were featured in Hermann Muthesius's book "Das englischer Haus" ("The English House"), which was to prove influential on the early Modern Movement in Germany.

Life and career

Bidlake was born in Wolverhampton, the son of local architect George Bidlake (from whom he received his earliest architectural training), and educated at Tettenhall College and Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1882 he moved to London where he studied at the Royal Academy Schools and worked for Gothic Revival architects Bodley and Garner. In 1885 he won the RIBA Pugin Travelling Fellowship for his draughtsmanship, which enabled him to spend 1886 travelling in Italy.

On returning to England in 1887 Bidlake settled in Birmingham where he set up in independent practice and, from 1893, pioneered the teaching of architecture at the Birmingham School of Art. Famously ambidextrous, his party trick was to sketch with both hands simultaneously.

Bidlake designed many Arts and Crafts-influenced houses in upmarket Birmingham districts such as Edgbaston, Moseley and Four Oaks, along with a series of more Gothic-influenced churches such as St Agatha's, Sparkbrook - generally considered his masterpiece.

In 1924, Bidlake married a woman over twenty years younger than himself and moved to Wadhurst in East Sussex, where he continued to practice until his death in 1938.

Major built works

* College of Art, Balsall Heath, Birmingham (1899) IoEgrade|217426|II*
* Garth House, 47 Edgbaston Park Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham (1901) IoEgrade|217028|II*
* St Agatha's Church, Stratford Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham (1901) IoEgrade|217658|I
* 100 Sampson Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham (St Agatha's Vicarage) (1901) IoEgrade|217588|II*
* St Andrew's Church, Oxhill Road, Handsworth, Birmingham (1907-9) IoEgrade|217487|I
*St Mary's Church, Wythall, Worcestershire. Roof and stair turret (nd). "The Buildings of England: Worcestershire", Nikolaus Pevsner, 1968 p338 ]
* St Oswald's Church, Small Heath, Birmingham (1892-9) IoEgrade|217563|II*
*St Thomas's Church, Stourbridge. Apse (1890), north chancel screen (nd). "The Buildings of England: Worcestershire", Nikolaus Pevsner, 1968 p268 ]
* Woodgate, 37 Hartopp Road, Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield (1900) - built for himself IoEgrade|216570|II
* Emmanuel Church, Wylde Green, Sutton Coldfield (1909) IoEgrade|216550|C

References

ources

*Foster, Andy. "Pevsner Architectural Guides: Birmingham". Yale University Press: New Haven & London, 2005 ISBN 0-300-10731-5
*Crawford, Alan (ed.). "By Hammer and Hand: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Birmingham". Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 1984 ISBN 0-7093-0119-7