Highbury, Moor Green

History

Joseph Chamberlain made his money in screws and spent a good part of it here.

Built on screws

By 1874 Chamberlain had made enough from Nettlefold & Chamberlain to sell out and give his life to politics. In 1878, three years after the death of his second wife and two years after he was elected MP for Birmingham, he bought land at Moor Green, about 7 kilometres south of the town centre. The area had attracted rich Birmingham families since the late eighteenth century, people who wanted country air within reach of their businesses.

He named the house Highbury, after the north London suburb where he had grown up.

J. H. Chamberlain’s house

The architect was John Henry Chamberlain, a leading Birmingham architect and no relation. The house is dated 1879 and was built by John Barnsley & Sons of Birmingham. The Register of Parks and Gardens describes it as “more institutional in scale than domestic”, in hard red brick with terracotta and some applied timber framing, a style one historian called “a robust Venetian Gothic”.

The same spot, then and now

1888–1913

Today

Inside, the list entry describes an interior “of great richness”. A great hall rises through two storeys to a timber and glazed roof, with pink marble shafts, carved panels, tiles and a huge central brass gasolier. The former billiard room has a richly coffered and painted ceiling. The Chamberlain Highbury Trust names craftsmen including William Barfield of Leicester, John Hardman & Co. and Minton. A large extension was added in 1888.

Orchids and Jersey cows

Edward Milner designed the grounds in 1879, leading from terraces and lawns near the house to pleasure grounds and then meadows where Jersey cows grazed. Chamberlain took a close interest; in the later nineteenth century eighteen gardeners kept the place. His orchids were famous. The register counts fourteen glasshouses in 1896 and twenty-five by 1903. Around 1900–01 he added a Dutch garden, an Italian garden and a rock garden laid out to his own design by Pulham & Sons. By 1903 the estate had grown to just over 100 acres.

In 1888 Chamberlain married his third wife, the American Mary Endicott. Until his stroke in 1906 Highbury was the scene of great political and social gatherings. He died in 1914.

Hospital, home and park

From May 1915 to December 1917 the house was part of the First Southern General Hospital, and from 1918 an annexe of the orthopaedic hospital at Hollymoor. In 1919 his son Austen put the estate into trust as a hospital for disabled ex-servicemen. In 1932 the trustees gave house and grounds to the City of Birmingham, “for the benefit of its citizens”. Most of the grounds became a public park. The house became a home for elderly women until 1983, and from 1934 also held a small Chamberlain memorial museum. The glasshouses were pulled down and replaced by a dormitory block, Chamberlain House.

In 2016 the Chamberlain Highbury Trust was set up as an independent charity to restore Highbury and give it a sustainable future. It has begun restoring Milner’s landscape, and in 2025 it was awarded £2 million by the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the next phase.

What happened here?

Joseph Chamberlain lived here from 1880 to 1914 and entertained political allies and visitors on a grand scale. Later it was a military hospital (1915–19), a hospital for disabled ex-servicemen, and from 1932 to 1983 a council home for elderly women.