Busts, statues and portraits in the Birmingham Council House

Inside of the Birmingham Council House you can find several busts, statues and portraits that belong now to the Birmingham Museums Trust. Seen near the main staircase from the double doors, and portraits in the corridor outside of the Banqueting Suite. Seen during the Birmingham We Are events of November 2018 and January 2020.

There is many civic artworks to see in the Birmingham Council House. As you enter the giant double doors from Victoria Square, you will pass several busts. Head up the main staircase, and there is a pair of statues halfway up. Then on the corridor on the first floor landing, you will find several portraits of important people in Birmingham's history, as detailed below.

 

Busts in the Council House

There is three busts near the bottom of the main staircase from the entraJesse Collings nce from Victoria Square. Including Joseph Gillott, Jesse Collings and John Skirrow Wright.

Joseph Gillott

This is a marble bust of Joseph Gillott (1799 - 1873) by Peter Hollins (1800 - 1886).
Gillott was a Birmingham pen manufacturer and patron of the arts. He made pens at the Victoria Works on Graham Street and Frederick Street in the Jewellery Quarter. You can see an exhibition of his works at The Pen Museum at The Argent Centre on Frederick Street.

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Jesse Collings

A marble bust of The Rt. Hon. Jesse Collings PC (1831 - 1920) by Albert Toft (1862 - 1949). Collings was a Liberal (later Liberal Unionist), and later served as Mayor of Birmingham, 1878-9, MP for Ipswich (1882 - 86) and Bordesley, Birmingham (1886 - 1918). There is also a portrait painted in 1885 in the Council House, by Jonahtan Pratt (1835 - 1911), but it is not it a public area to view.

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John Skirrow Wright

This is a bronze bust of John Skirrow Wright. It was cast by William Bloye, from a marble statue by Francis John Williamson. The original statue was made in 1883 and unveiled by John Bright MP in the Council House Square. The statue was joined by the statue of Joseph Priestley, and from 1901 that of Queen Victoria. In 1913, Priestley and Wright were moved to Chamberlain Place (now Chamberlain Square), so that Victoria could be joined by a statue of her son King Edward VII (by the sculptor Albert Toft). The statue remained in Chamberlain Place until 1951, when it was moved to storage (a new site was never found, the statue is now lost). However in 1956, a bronze copy of the bust was made by William Bloye, and was unveiled in the Council House in 1957, where it remains today.

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Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Heading up or down the main staircase in the Council House, you would see statues of a young looking Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

 

Queen Victoria

Victoria was born in 1819, and reigned from 1837 until her death in 1901. A marble statue by Thomas Brock was unveiled in Victoria Square (formerly Council House Square), 12 days before her death. It was later cast in bronze in 1951 by William Bloye. A new Sceptre was installed in 2011, to replace the old one that was lost.

In Birmingham, Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for the Victoria Law Courts, during her Golden Jubilee year of 1887. There was a Queen's College on Paradise Street named in her honour, which gained this status by Royal Charter (it was the original Birmingham Medical School founded in 1828). Now just a façade built in 1904 (the rear building demolished and rebuilt now offices).

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Prince Albert

Albert was born in 1819, and married Queen Victoria in 1840. He was Prince Consort until his untimely death in 1861.

In Birmingham, Prince Albert laid the foundation stone of the Birmingham & Midland Institute, on Paradise Street in 1855. It was moved from there in 1974 to Cornwall Street, where the Birmingham & Midland Institute is now based on Margaret Street. The old building was demolished to make way for Paradise Circus Queensway, Fletchers Walk and the Birmingham Conservatoire (which itself was later demolished in 2018). You can find a Grade II listed equestrian statue of Prince Albert in Queen Square, Wolverhampton, dated 1866 by Thomas Thorneycroft.

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Portraits in the Council House

There is five portraits to see in the corridor, just outside of the Banquetin Suite at the Council House. Including portraits of Peter Hollins, James Watt, Sir Josiah Mason, George Dawson and Joseph Chamberlain.

 

Peter Hollins

This is a portrait of Peter Hollins, Sculptor (1800 - 1886) by William Thomas Roden (1800 - 1886). Oil on canvas. He was an English sculptor who operated throughout the 19th Century. He was Vice-President of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists for 37 years. In Birmingham, he is known for sculpting the busts of Charles Lloyd (1831) for the Birmingham General Hospital, Felix Mendelssohn (1850) for Birmingham Town Hall and of William Congreve Russell (1853) exhibited at Birmingham Society of Arts. He also sculpted statues that used to be in Calthorpe Park of Robert Peel (1855) (now outside of Tally Ho!) and Thomas Attwood (1859) (currently in storage). Also a statue of Rowland Hill (1869) originally at the Birmingham Exchange, moved to the Birmingham GPO in 1874, and GPO HQ in 1891 (it was lost in storage during WW2).

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James Watt

This is a portrait said to be of James Watt (1736 - 1819) by Sir William Beechley (1753 - 1839) attributed. A Scottish engineer who partnered with Matthew Boulton to improve the steam engine.  He lived at Watts House, 17 Regent Place in the Jewellery Quarter from 1777 to 1790. He moved to Heathfield Hall in Handsworth where he lived until his death in 1819. His statue by Alexander Munro (1868) was in Chamberlain Square until 2015. The Boulton, Watt & Murdoch statue by William Bloye (1956), gilded in 2006, was on Broad Street until 2017.

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Sir Josiah Mason

This is a black and white photograph of Sir Josiah Mason (1795 - 1881). He was a Non-Conformist from a Kiddermister family. He established his first Almshouses in 1858 and an Orphanage in Erdington in 1868. He founded Mason Science College in 1880, which was in Chamberlain Place (later Chamberlain Square), next to the Birmingham Reference Library. This later became the University of Birmingham (which was founded in Edgbaston in 1900). He was knighted in 1872.

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George Dawson

This is a portrait of George Dawson (1821 - 1876). He was a preacher. He called for radical and social and politcal reform in Birmingham. In 1866 he gave a speech at the opening of the first Birmingham Central Library. His statue was in Chamberlain Square, which was sculpted in 1880 by Thomas Woolner. It is now in storage. At least one other statue was made of him at the time. There is also several busts, now at the Library of Birmingham and at the Birmingham Museum Collection Centre.

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Joseph Chamberlain

This is a portrait of Joseph Chamberlain (1836 - 1914) by Sir Oswald Joseph Birley (1880 - 1952). Oil on canvas. The great statesman was the Mayor of Birmingham (1873 to 1876), a Birmingham MP (from 1876). He served as the Leader of the Opposition (1906-07), Secretary of State for the Colonies (1895 to 1903). The Chamberlain Memorial was unveiled in his lifetime in 1880 in Chamberlain Square. The Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower was completed in 1908 at the University of Birmingham. There is also a Chamberlain Clock in the Jewellery Quarter from 1903 (removed for repairs in 2020, due to be returned fully restored soon). He lived at Highbury Hall on the Highbury Estate from 1880 until his death in 1914.

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Photos taken by Elliott Brown. Can be found on Twitter: ellrbrown