# William Bidlake

William Henry Bidlake MA, FRIBA (12 May 1861 – 6 April 1938) was a British 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 englische 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 (1830–1892) from whom he received his earliest architectural training. He attended 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 (the latter then in Warwickshire and absorbed into Birmingham in 1974), along with a series of more Gothic-influenced churches such as St Agatha's, Sparkbrook – generally considered his masterpiece.
He was an associate, member, treasurer and then, from 1902 to 1938, Professor of Architecture of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists.
In 1924, Bidlake married a woman over twenty years younger than himself and moved to Wadhurst in East Sussex, where he continued to practise until his death.
Bidlake died in 1938 and is buried in an unmarked grave in Handsworth Cemetery, Birmingham. In 1909 he had designed the cemetery's chapel, which became a Grade I listed building in 1982.

## Major built works

* St Thomas' Church, Stourbridge. Apse (1890), north chancel screen (nd).
* The Dene, 2 Bracebridge Road, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham (1895–1896), Grade II listed
* Woodside, 51 Bracebridge Road, Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield (1898) – built for himself
* 17 Barker Road, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham (1898), Grade II listed
* St Oswald's Church, Small Heath, Birmingham (1892–9), Grade II* listed
* 18 Dora Road, Small Heath, Birmingham (1899), Grade II listed
* College of Art, Balsall Heath, Birmingham (1899), Grade II* listed
* St Patrick's Church, Salter Street, Hockley Heath, Birmingham (chancel) (1899), Grade II* listed
* Woodgate, 37 Hartopp Road, Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield (1900) – built for himself, Grade II listed
* Garth House, 47 Edgbaston Park Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham (1901), Grade II* listed
* The Hurst, 6 Amesbury Road, Moseley, Birmingham
* Emmanuel Church, Sparkbrook Birmingham (1901)
* St Agatha's Church, Stratford Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham (1901), Grade I listed
* 100 Sampson Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham (St Agatha's Vicarage) (1901), Grade II* listed
* St Winnow, 22 Ladywood Road, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham (1902), Grade II listed
* Bishop Latimer Memorial Church, Winson Green, Birmingham (1904)
* The Knoll, Glebe Road, Oadby, Leicestershire (1907), Grade II listed and Stables, Grade II listed
* St Andrew's Church, Oxhill Road, Handsworth, Birmingham (1907–9), Grade I listed
* St Matthew's Church, Shuttington, Warwickshire (restoration) (1908–1909), Grade II listed
* St Mary's Church, Wythall, Worcestershire. Roof and stair turret (nd).
* Emmanuel Church, Wylde Green, Sutton Coldfield (1909), Grade II* listed
* Gates and four sets of gate piers to Handsworth Cemetery. (1909), Grade II listed
* Lodge to Handsworth Cemetery (1909), Grade II listed
* Mortuary Chapel, Handsworth Cemetery (1910)
* St Clears, 79 Farquhar Road, Birmingham (1914), Grade II listed
* Sparkhill United Church, Stratford Road (1932–3)