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Shawbury Grove, BIRMINGHAM, B12 0TX

This is Shawbury Grove, a development of flats in the Highgate area of Birmingham.

An OS cutmark on a roadside wall on Darwin St; originally levelled at 111.66m above Ordnance Datum Newlyn.

Highgate Park is just out of shot to the right with the Paragon Hotel straight ahead. This is now a smart hotel, but was originally opened in 1903 as a lodging house, called Rowton House, offering relatively decent accommodation predominantly for Irish labourers. S. Lilley & Sons Ltd on the left is a long-established family firm specialising in brass lampholders and lighting accessories - keeping Birmingham's reputation for metal bashing alive.

Open space, with trees, paths and play area. City centre buildings in the background.

There are few green spaces in central Birmingham, and Highgate Park, which is well used by local people, comes as a pleasant surprise. The castle-like structure to the right is Rowton House, built in 1903 to designs by Harry Bell Measures. Rowton Houses were built in British and Irish cities in a programme founded, and funded, by the philanthropist Lord Rowton to provide cheap and sanitary lodgings for single working men. The Birmingham Rowton House offered bed cubicles for 6d per night and could accommodate 819 men. The workhouses.org.uk site has articles on Rowton Houses https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Rowton/ and on the Birmingham house https://www.workhouses.org.uk/RowtonBirmingham/ . It was refurbished in the 1990s as a modern hotel, but had closed by 2022 when this photo was taken.

A Gothic Edwardian building, originally known as Rowton House Hostel in honour of the philanthropist Lord Rowton (Montagu William Lowry-Corry), and dating from 1903-05 when it was built to house mainly Irish workers in Birmingham. Six such hostels were built in London; this one is the only known Rowton House outside London, although similar establishments were built in Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle upon Tyne. For the princely sum of one shilling (per week) a man had the use of his own cubicle/room, wash facilities and a dining hall, with a variety of other services such as shops, tailoring, a barber's stall etc on the site. Grade II listed https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101343317-parkview-house-nechells-ward & https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1343317 in 1982.

Rather lumpen red brick behemoth, its dourness no doubt attributable to it being built as a lodging house for working men (Rowton House). By Harry Measures, 1903-05. Grade II listed. It was the Paragon Hotel, but is now Rowton Hotel. See also Image

Looking north west.

An OS cutmark on the SE-facing side of a terrace of houses on Darwin Street; originally levelled at 120.039m above Ordnance Datum Newlyn.

Postbox No. B12 1412. See Image] for postbox.