William de Lacy Aherne (17 April 1867 – 4 December 1945) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, notable for designing many

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

houses in the

Moseley Moseley is a suburb of south Birmingham, England, south of the city centre. The area is a popular cosmopolitan residential location and leisure destination, with a number of bars and restaurants. The area also has a number of boutiques and ot ...

area of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Family

Born in

Cheam Cheam () is a suburb of London, England, south-west of Charing Cross. It is divided into North Cheam, Cheam Village and South Cheam. Cheam Village contains the listed buildings Lumley Chapel and the 16th-century Whitehall. It is adjacent to tw ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

to William Aherne (b. 1841) and Emma Paterson (b. 1842), de Lacy Aherne came from a family of devout

Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and non-conformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where they originated from Anglicanism. The group emphasizes ...

, a faith that he ceased to share in early adulthood. He married Annie Louise Thomas (1872 – 1942), daughter of William Thomas (1841 - 1901) and Mary Louise Wright (1847 - 1912) in 1898 and they had two sons- the actors Pat Aherne and *

Brian Aherne William Brian de Lacy Aherne (2 May 190210 February 1986) was an English actor of stage, screen, radio and television, who enjoyed a long and varied career in Britain and the United States. His first Broadway appearance in ''The Barretts of W ...

- and a daughter. When he died on 4 December 1945 he was living at 25 Ladbrooke Road, London.

Career

In 1886 or 1887 he took a job as an architect's apprentice in

, where he worked for the King's Norton and Northfield Sanitary Authority. 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 The Birmingham Architectural Association (BAA), known between 1933 and 1967 as the Birmingham and Five Counties Architectural Association, is a professional association of architects based in Birmingham, England, and affiliated to the West Midlands ...

. 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; his work quickly became fashionable among the rapidly growing and wealthy professional middle class of the area. 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 by himself or in conjunction with local building firms. Several of these houses, including 9 St Agnes Road and 110 and 112 Oxford Road are now

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. He was probably also the architect of ''Blackhill'', the home of

Birmingham Repertory Theatre Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre c ...

founder Barry Jackson in the

Malvern Hills The Malvern Hills are in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern. The highest summit affo ...

Selected works

*Ford House, Castle Road, Kenilworth 1896 *Court Hey, 25 Chantry Road, Moseley, Birmingham ca. 1901 *House, 9 St Agnes Road, Moseley, Birmingham 1906-07 *Two houses, 110 and 112 Oxford Road, Moseley, Birmingham 1906-07 *Two houses, 37-39 Poplar Avenue, Bearwood, Birmingham 1908 *House, 40 Reddings Road, Moseley, Birmingham 1908 *The Grey House, 28 Amesbury Road, Moseley, Birmingham 1908 *Three houses, 30-34 Amesbury Road, Moseley, Birmingham 1908 *Five houses, 42-50 Reddings Road, Moseley, Birmingham 1908 *House, 40 Sommerville Road, Sutton Coldfield 1910 *Three houses, 189-193 Russell Road, Moseley, Birmingham 1911 *Three houses, 42-46 Wake Green Road, Moseley Birmingham 1911 *House, 54 Sommerville Road, Sutton Coldfield 1911 *Inverblair, 52 Sommerville Road, Sutton Coldfield 1911 *Richmond, 50 Sommerville Road, Sutton Coldfield 1911 *Siviter House, 17 Ludgate Hill, Birmingham 1912 *Five houses, 78-86 Eastern Road, Wylde Green, Birmingham 1914 *House, 187 Russel Road, Moseley, Birmingham 1914 *House, 179 Russell Road, Moseley, Birmingham 1915 *House, 55 Russell Road, Moseley, Birmingham 1915

References

Bibliography

* Architects from Birmingham, West Midlands People from Cheam 1867 births 1945 deaths {{UK-architect-stub