Catalogue description Charles Edge and Charles A Edge, architects of Birmingham

Architectural drawings, plans and elevations

The drawings were loose on receipt, but were bound by the Library into four unwieldy volumes numbered as 412419-412422. These volumes have now been broken down and the material rearranged by project in chronological order. A number of the drawings are in poor condition, having been folded to fit into the volumes; it is hoped to repair and repackage the drawings during 1994. A list of the plans, made by the firm prior to deposit, has been placed on the d/file.

Charles Edge, fl 1820, of Birmingham, architect

Charles A Edge, fl 1866, of Birmingham, architect

Architectural drawings by CHARLES and C.A. EDGE of Birmingham, architects, deposited by Messrs. Ellis and Bunting

• Architects

Charles Edge set up practice in Birmingham in the 1820s, and became one of the leading architects in the city. He began as a designer in the late Georgian Grecian style, as the earlier drawings listed below demonstrate, but successfully transformed his style in line with the Victorian enthusiasm for Gothic Revival and Italianate designs. After the bankruptcy of Messrs Hansom and Welch in 1834 he was employed to complete the Town Hall, and a number of further drawings relating to this and later alterations to the Town Hall survive in the City Council records (BCC).

In the 1840s, Charles Edge was for a time in partnership with an architect called Avery (see MS 1446/36), and at the end of his career with another man called Steane (see MS 1446/49). By then, however, his son Charles A Edge, who had been his pupil, was the mainstay of the firm, and it was C.A. Edge who took over the practice in 1866; his father died the following year. Yeoville Thomason was another pupil of Charles Edge, and a small number of Edge's drawing will also be found among Thomason's papers (MS 1460/1-3). Charles A Edge developed, particularly towards the end of his career, an extensive practice in the building of large villas in the neo-Tudor style, mostly in the Blackwell and Barnt Green area, but including some infill development in the older suburbs of Edgbaston and Harborne.

C.A. Edge remained in business until around 1900, when he was joined in the partnership by H.A.R. Ellis, who shortly after took over the business. Ellis in turn took into partnership A.H. Bunting, who became the managing partner in 1924 when Ellis was appointed Docesan Architect & Surveyor to the diocese of Bath & Wells.

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