James Murray and the Art School

All - I've been following an interesting story over the past year or so which involves a friend of mine, Paul Michael Kennelly - some may recall Paul as he ran the Time Machine Model shops in Coventry many years ago. Paul and I are avid James Murray enthusiasts - Murray as many of you know was responsible for designing most of Victorian Coventry and had an amazing but short life working under EW Pugin. We've detailed his work on here before. Incredibly he died aged only 32 and is buried in LRC - we have many photos on the forum of his grave. Anyway a lot of Paul's interest stemmed from being a student at Murray's Art School in Ford Street shown here. As we all know it was sadly demolished, along with Trinity School, by George Hilditch. The lovely school building was also adorned with five lovely stone friezes - all the work of sculptor Richard Lockwood Boulton (a favourite of Pugin). During the demolition Hilditch offered the five sculptures to the Herbert for display and they chose to just store them. The result was that George Hilditch retained one (the artist). Lost for many years, thanks to Paul and Alan Denyer (the chap who ran the recent CET building exhibitions), it's been found sat in a Welsh garden! We're not entirely sure how it got there but Paul and Alan have been trying to work with the Herbert to recover the artwork and return it 'home'. With the then owner in agreement however, sadly the Herbert sat with it for over 6 months doing nothing and now the house and garden have been sold, with the 'new' owner wanting to now hold on to it This could have been the last chance for it as apparently the stone is now starting to crack up. Here's Paul with it and wearing his actual old Art School scarf! Here's hoping for any further developments. I'll be trying to 'hassle' the Herbert into action but don't hold your breath - but it's a great discovery all the same. Oh, and Paul also found this. Thanks to the Coventry Society, the only known photo of James Murray! I'm off to LRC in a couple of weeks to salute him! Mod's note: The buildings themselves have their own thread here

Great finds, Neil - but sad indictment on the Herbert and its inactivity Thanks for posting the story and the images

I wonder what the memorial to the architects of the present day Coventry will be.

A Crackerjack Cabbage (younger members, look it up). Derek.

Great bit of detective work by you and your comrades It's a shame that it's unlikely to come back to Coventry, but at least you now know where it is. The sculpting style appears to be quite reminiscent of the niches on James Murray's grave monument - was Mr Pugin responsible for this?

Yes, I had noticed that, Garlands, and suspect Pugin commissioned Boulton to work on that as well.

Spon End railway bridge arches were made of red sandstone in 1848/9 - for some years they were claimed unsafe, they fell down in 1857 causing a sensation in the city. A sketch drawn by Mr Murray showing the destruction of the arches, was sent to the Illustrated London News for display. The new arches were made of blue brick.

But this was in the days when the school was in Ford Street - previous to that, the school of design, or art school, was in St Mary's Hall.

Pugin’s last piece of art was the tower of Big Ben, and the House of Lords room.