William de Lacy Aherne

Court Hey, Moseley

William de Lacy Aherne (1867/8 – 4 December 1945) was an English architect, notable for the design of a large number of houses in Arts and Crafts styles in the Moseley area of Birmingham.[1] His sons were the actors Pat Aherne and Brian Aherne.[2]

Born in Cheam, Surrey, de Lacy Aherne came from a family of devout Plymouth Brethren, a faith that he ceased to share in early adulthood .[2] In 1886 or 1887 he took a job as an architect's apprentice in Birmingham, where he worked for the King's Norton and Northfield Sanitary Authority.[3] His earliest recorded private commissions were in the King's Norton area and date from 1889, and in 1890 he was elected to the Birmingham Architectural Association.[4]

In 1898 de Lacy Aherne was commissioned to build a series of houses by his father-in-law, whose local contacts in the Moseley area were helpful to the rising young architect, whose work quickly became fashionable among the rapidly growing and wealthy professional middle class of the area.[5] From 1903 onwards he designed a large number of speculative houses in high-status Moseley roads such as Russell Road, Salisbury Road, Amesbury Road, Reddings Road and Oxford Road, financed either himself or in conjunction with local building firms.[6] Several of these houses, including 9 St Agnes Road and 110 and 112 Oxford Road are now listed buildings.[7] He was probably also the architect of Blackhill, the home of Birmingham Repertory Theatre founder Barry Jackson in the Malvern Hills.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Wood 2009, p. 567.
  2. 1 2 Wood 2009, p. 568.
  3. ↑ Wood 2009, pp. 568-569.
  4. ↑ Wood 2009, p. 569.
  5. ↑ Wood 2009, pp. 570-571.
  6. ↑ Wood 2009, pp. 572-573.
  7. ↑ Wood 2009, pp. 573-576.
  8. ↑ Wood 2009, p. 578.

Bibliography


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.