Great Barr Hall
52.556251 - 1.920944Koordinaten: 52 ° 33 ' 23 " N, 1 ° 55' 15 " W Great Barr Hall is a Grade II listed manor house in Great Barr (now a northern suburb of Birmingham) and which had been built in 1777 by the noble family Scott after the First world War, part of an asylum for the insane, was known to the " St. Margereths Hospital", also known as " Great Barr idiot Colony". Following closure of the site in the late 1970s, the building fell into disrepair and was rebuilt as part of a site reclassification since 2005. Great Barr Hall is considered next to Soho House as the most important meeting place of the Lunar Society 1790-1799.
The main house was 1777 instead of a building of about 1650, the so-called Nether House, built. The client was Joseph Scott, a Scottish baronet and later Sir, the Great Barr was selected as a residence for himself and his family and now house and park was anxious to make them adequate. When Scott 1788 but ran into financial difficulties, he was forced to lease the property. As a financially strong tenant Samuel John Galton found, an entrepreneur and banker of the early Industrial Revolution and a member of the Lunar Society. The property offered by its large number of rooms and the possibility of holding meetings of the scholarly group of the Lunar Society and optionally offer accommodation places. Thus, Great Barr Hall 1790-1799 to the popular destination for famous people such as James Watt, Joseph Priestley, Josiah Wedgwood and William Murdoch.
1791 was the site after the death of the builder to Sir Francis Scott, who moved to the lease contract expires in 1864 and there died at Great Barr Hall. 1840 and 1863 the original building was rebuilt to a design by renowned architect George Gilbert Scott, and especially extended to a very concise chapel, but was never ordained and served as a billiard room. After the death of Scott's Widow (1909 ), the land was acquired in 1911 by a hospital and in 1918 converted to an asylum for the mentally impaired people. Originally with the mansion was used for this purpose, but after completion of the new buildings of the asylum, the use of Great Barr Hall was set. Although at that time already heavily dilapidated mansion was added to the list of protected historic building still 1971, fell into disuse after the end of the hospital operation in 1978 rapidly. Early 1990s was Great Barr Hall only of the foundation walls and the Clock Tower. Only the associated landscape park was well maintained and open to the public.
Following a decision of the Health Commission of the City, the site was sold to a private investor in 1997, who wanted to demolish the old buildings of the hospital and build over with new settlement homes. After some excitement in the city's population, he got the support, not to demolish the ruins of the mansion, but to restore. Great Barr Hall should therefore be developed with apartments .. The construction work on the site of the former Institute began in 2005. Approximately one month before the work burned the historic part of the ruin of arson, the clock tower had to be stopped due to the damage. Although it looked for some time as if the ruin would have to be demolished in its entirety was a big part of the outer walls and obtain the intended renovations are supplied.