| Description | Birmingham's Quakers had been meeting at the same meeting house on Bull Street since 1703, and from the 1770s onwards, many felt that the building was no longer fit for purpose. As Birmingham had become more industrialised, creating more jobs, the city's population had increased, and this included an influx of Friends from other places across the country. Regular alterations and extensions to the building to accommodate a larger congregation took place from the end of the 18th century through to the 1850s, although proposals in 1806 for a new building were not taken up.
In 1853, an opportunity arose to purchase two houses in Old Square and a piece of adjoining land which backed onto the existing burial ground at the back of the meeting house from John Bottomley, a member of Birmingham meeting. The sale of the former Quaker burial ground in Monmouth Street to the Great Western Railway in 1851 meant that Friends had already accumulated funds at their disposal which they had been seeking to invest. In December 1853, Birmingham Preparative Meeting finally agreed that a new meeting house should be constructed and a Building Committee was established to identify the requirements of the Meeting, to assess the suitability of the land being offered for purchase and carry out the purchase, to obtain plans and specifications for the new building, to oversee its construction and to ensure that the building was furnished and equipped for use. It also launched appeals for additional funding.
Members of the Committee included Thomas Southall, William Nutter, G. B. Lloyd Junior, Edwin Lundy, William Southall Junior, Charles Pumphrey, Jeremiah Barrett, Benjamin Head Cadbury, George Baker and John Bottomley.
The new meeting house opened in 1857 with a seating capacity for 500. One of the houses purchased in Old Square was used by the Friends' Reading Society and the other was rented out. The meeting house was replaced again in 1933. |