Handsworth Park Lodge listed at Grade II
Calthorpe Park Lodge subject to an arson attack
On 4th August the Victorian Society received notification from Historic England that following our application, the Victorian Handsworth Park Lodge, built in 1888, with its charming, jaunty, small timber clock tower, had been added to the official register of listed buildings. The arts and crafts style park lodge, built for the Park Warden, had been the subject of concern for the Birmingham & West Midlands Group of the Victorian Society for some time, as it had been left empty, and was subject to a recent arson attack.
Handsworth Park Lodge with its clock tower. Now listed thanks to the work of the Victorian Society. It is set in a Grade II registered park, 1897, Edwin Kenworthy. Photo: Tim Bridges.
However, the Society’s joy at having succeeded in obtaining statutory protection from the DCMS and Historic England for one of Birmingham’s heritage park lodges was very short-lived, as an earlier park lodge building, at Calthorpe Park in Edgbaston, was also subjected to an apparent arson attack sometime around 7th and 8th August. Both park lodges are owned by Birmingham City Council.
Calthorpe Park Lodge in Edgbaston after the arson attack Photo: Elliot Brown
Calthorpe Park is one of Birmingham’s oldest and most cherished green spaces. It was the second public park to open in the city in 1857. The unlisted Calthorpe Park lodge has had no park keeper living there for some time. The property appears to be perfectly suited to sensitive reuse. The Society warns regularly that historic buildings left vacant and without a secure, viable use inevitably become increasingly vulnerable to neglect, vandalism and, in the worst cases, fire.
Stephen Hartland, Chair of the Birmingham & West Midlands Group of the Victorian Society said: Birmingham’s park lodges are modest buildings, but collectively they tell an important story about the Victorian city, its investment in public parks, recreation and the health and wellbeing of its citizens. They deserve better than abandonment followed by destruction.
Calthorpe Park Lodge before the arson attack. Photo: ahisgett, licensed under CC BY 2.0
Handsworth Park Lodge was designed by Edwin Kenworthy, the Borough Engineer, and was built as part of the extension of the park in 1895-1898. Handsworth only became part of the City of Birmingham in 1911. The building has minimal alteration from when it was built to house a park warden. The surviving interior features are of a higher quality than might be expected in this workman-like building type, but reflects the civic pride of Victorian Handsworth.
Thanks to the work of the Birmingham & West Midlands Group of the Victorian Society and their dedicated Conservation Adviser, Handsworth Park Lodge is now listed at Grade II. The Handsworth Lodge featured in an earlier campaign by the Birmingham & West Midlands Group in November 2025 to highlight the impact the heritage skills gap was having on the city’s heritage.
The painting depicts the opening of Calthorpe Park, Birmingham by Prince George, Duke of Cambridge on 1 June 1857. Painting by Samuel Lines Jnr. Image is in the public domain.
