King Edward the Sixth Grammar School, New Street, Birmingham.

King Edward the Sixth Grammar School, New Street, Birmingham.

History
In 1832 Charles Barry won a competition to re-build the school on its New Street Site. The school was expanding fast due to Birmingham's increasing importance in the commercial world.
In 1833 the main drawings for the school were completed and in 1835 Barry met Pugin and asked him if he would help him produce drawings for the interior of the school.
An Act of Parliament had stipulated that the costs for the school were not to exceed �30.000, this led to problems. The Governors of the school insisted on the use of the best Darley stone, and labour costs rose due to trade union activity.
One contractor resigned and another died, and more money had to be sought. However the resulting building was a masterpiece, although it only remained a monument to Victorian Gothic for one hundred years.

Interior
Pugin designed the interior furnishings for Barry, most notable of which was the Headmaster's chair called 'Sapientia (wisdom). This stood at one end of the hall and the Chief Master taught lessons from this large imposing throne which had a desk with a canopy combined, with a rail around it.
The word Sapientia was carved into the wood of the canopy. Pugin is also thought to have designed the roll of honour boards and the chairs for the school.
When the school was pulled down these works of art were moved to the schools new site, including an upstairs paneled corridor which was dismantled and re-built, it is now used as the school chapel.

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This original work was created for the World Wide Web by Victoria Farrow, with the support of the Pugin Society. It was constructed by Mike Farrow of Channel Business Internet Systems.