Bingley Hall

Harking back to them olden days, I remember my Dad taking me to Bingley Hall, ostensibly to get out of mom's way, but I now suspect to nip into the Cambridge round the corner. All manner of crazy implements and 'must have' gadgets that never worked as the man demonstrated when you got them home...odd music hall acts like Sid Millward and his Nitwits and the Morton Frazer Harmonica gang. All gone now of course, subsumed by the ICC...but not forgotten..well not by me...

This is the version according to Wiki, but far from turning up first in 1760, as they allege, Hill's Map of 1553 clearly shows it up and running....Wikid isn't always accurate...right, enough gab...

Bingley Hall‬

Bingley Hall in Birmingham was the first purpose-built exhibition hall in Great Britain. It was built in 1850 and burned down in 1984. The International Convention Centre now stands on the site.
The precursor of Bingley Hall was an "Exhibition of the Manufactures of Birmingham and the Midland Counties" in a temporary wooden hall built in the grounds of, and attached to, Bingley House on Broad Street in central Birmingham (which once belonged to banker Charles Lloyd and was visited by Samuel Taylor Coleridge) and opened on 3 September 1849 for visitors to the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival. This exhibition was visited by Charles Darwin, and also on 12 November by Prince Albert and may have contributed to his ideas for the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace.

Bingley House was built about 1760 as Byngas Hall and was the home of James Farmer, whose daughter married Charles Lloyd. The house and its land were bought by a railway company in order to build the railway tunnel for the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stour Valley Railway. The house was demolished.

In December 1849, the first Birmingham annual cattle show and poultry show were held in a temporary hall on the corner of Lower Essex Street and Kent Street, but the following year the 2nd shows were held in the new Bingley Hall.

Bingley Hall was built by Messrs Branson and Gwyther (architect J. A. Chatwin), for £6,000 in six weeks in 1850, using steel columns surplus to the construction of Euston railway station. It was built in the Roman Doric style using red and blue bricks (the Staffordshire blue bricks being diverted from building the Oxford Street viaduct. Covering one and a quarter acres internally, it measured 224 feet (68 m) by 221 feet (67 m), used 11,700 feet (3,600 m) of 21-inch (530 mm) glass, and had ten entrance doors.

During its life, it was used as a venue for the Birmingham Dog Show, cattle shows, chrysanthemum shows, circus, boxing, cinema, and in its later days for popular music concerts. It had a cycle track used for competitions. It was used as a huge meeting space. Gladstone held a political meeting in November 1888, following Joseph Chamberlain's split from the Liberal Party over Irish Home Rule, and spoke for two hours. The speech was recorded by the journal Political World on an Edison phonograph shipped from New York – the first political speech recorded. Chamberlain himself spoke there before an audience of some 10,000 people in November 1903, during his campaign for fiscal reform. The hall was used repeatedly for meetings and conversions by various non-conformist religions, including the Elim Pentecostal Church in 1930, led by George Jeffreys.

The hall was damaged by fire at the Midland Caravan, Camping and Leisure Exhibition in January 1984 and demolished, its functionality having been replaced by the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) just outside the city in Solihull. The International Convention Centre and Symphony Hall now stand in its place.

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Winkle

A nice interesting read, well done. I can add nothing save a few more photos of various exhibitions at the hall over the years, and one of it's demise.

Gill (History of Birmingham) agrees that Byngas Hall was present in the 16th century, before the Lloyds occupied it, so wikipedia is correct this time. Certainly Sampson Lloyd lived there in 1734
mike

Thanks Winkle, that's one of the most interesting posts I have read on BT for ages. SB

Very good and interesting winkle, I have worked on the black and white timbered building in the aerial photo many times, my mate had an antique shop on the Broad Street end.

I remember the Dancing Waters when I was a kid. I think they were always at The Ideal Home exhibition.

anyone remember the blue star competition where you had to spot the star on one of the stands, at the Ideal Home Exhibition run by the Birmingham Mail or was it the Dispatch then, it changed in later years to you had to spot someone and you had to go up to him to claim the prize

Phil

My wife remembered the Blue Star competition, she never won it though.
When we were kids we used to go to the Boys and Girls Exhibition.