page_title: William Harris (Birmingham Liberal)
section_title: Architectural career
hierarchical_section_title: William Harris (Birmingham Liberal) / Architectural career
caption_attribution_description: English: The "Old Bank" (now a branch of HSBC), corner of Chapel St and Ely St, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Built 1883 for the Birmingham Banking Company: designed by Harris, Martin and Harris of Birmingham, with reliefs of Shakespearean scenes by Samuel Barfield of Leicester.
context_page_description: William Harris was a Liberal politician and strategist in Birmingham, England, in an era of dramatic municipal reform. On his death, he was described by one obituary-writer as "one of the founders of modern Birmingham". J. L. Garvin called him "the Abbé Sieyès of Birmingham"; and Asa Briggs "a most active and intelligent wire-puller behind the scenes". He was dubbed the "father of the Caucus", the highly organised and controversial Liberal party machine that had its origins in Birmingham, but was afterwards introduced at national level to the National Liberal Federation. He served as the first Chairman of the National Liberal Federation from 1877 to 1882. By profession he was an architect and surveyor; and he was also a prolific journalist and author.
context_section_description: Harris was articled to a Birmingham architect, Isaac Newey, at the age of 15. On completion of his articles in 1847, he established his own architectural practice. He was the first architect in Birmingham to practise as a quantity surveyor, and came to specialise in this branch of the profession.
  In the late 1850s, he entered into a professional partnership with John Henry Chamberlain: it was short-lived, but the two remained friends, and in later life Harris would marry (as his second wife) Chamberlain's widow.
  In 1876 he began a partnership with Henry Martin, and in 1879 these two were joined by Harris’s son, Arnold Elsmere Harris (1854–1929), the firm subsequently practising as Harris, Martin and Harris. Two notable commissions were, in 1881–84, an extension to the headquarters building of the Birmingham Banking Company in Bennetts Hill, Birmingham; and, for the same company in 1883, the "Old Bank" (now a branch of HSBC) in Stratford-upon-Avon, which was decorated with 15 terracotta panels of Shakespearean scenes by Samuel Barfield (1830–1887) of Leicester. The Old Bank is described by Chris Pickford for the Pevsner Architectural Guides as "Stratford's best Victorian building". Martin left the partnership in 1889, and William Harris retired in 1895.
  Combining his professional expertise with his enthusiasm for municipal reform, Harris served from 1877 to 1908 as clerk to the Birmingham, Tame and Rea District Drainage Board, at a time of major investment and improvement in the infrastructure of drainage and sewage disposal in Birmingham.
  He was a founder-member of the Birmingham Architectural Society in 1850, and was afterwards active in its affairs.
caption: The "Old Bank", Stratford-upon-Avon, built 1883
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