Английская Википедия:Highfield, Birmingham
Highfield was a large house situated at 128 Selly Park Road in the Selly Park area of Birmingham, England.Шаблон:Sfn Built in the 1860s,Шаблон:Sfn it was bought in 1929 by Philip Sargant Florence and his wife Lella Secor Florence after Sargant Florence was appointed as a professor at the nearby University of Birmingham.Шаблон:Sfn
Under the Florence's ownership Highfield became a focal point for the cultural life of Birmingham in the 1930s, a period when the city was the focus of great intellectual ferment.[1] Secor Florence let self-contained flats within the house out to other members of the university and held regular unplanned and informal parties for "huge numbers" of students, academics and other guests, that could involve anything from dancing, to picnics on the lawn, to skating on the frozen lake in the house's four acres of grounds.Шаблон:Sfn Highfield also formed a focus for political activity; in 1932 the dining room was converted into a studio where artists painted anti-war posters which were paraded through the city the following weekend, and in 1933 the house was the site of the rehearsals for the play DISARM!, performed at Birmingham Town Hall, whose cast was recruited from trade unions and factory dramatic societies.Шаблон:Sfn
Highfield became a particular focus for local writers, and formed the centre of a vibrant literary circle that included the poets W. H. Auden[2] and Henry Reed,Шаблон:Sfn the Birmingham Group novelists Walter Allen and John Hampson,[3] the art historian Nikolaus PevsnerШаблон:Sfn and the radio dramatist R. D. Smith. The poet Louis MacNeice lived in the flat above the coach house at the rear of the main house throughout his entire time in Birmingham,Шаблон:Sfn and the literary critic William Empson lived at Highfield while seeking a post at the University of Birmingham after his expulsion from Cambridge.Шаблон:Sfn
The influence of Highfield also extended well beyond Birmingham. Walter Allen described how "Most English left-wing intellectuals and American intellectuals visiting Britain must have passed through Highfield between 1930 and 1950".Шаблон:Sfn Visitors from outside the city known to have stayed at Highfield included the philosopher G. E. Moore, the anthropologist Margaret Mead, the biologist Julian Huxley, the architect Walter Gropius, the politician Ernest Bevin, the American ambassador John Gilbert Winant,Шаблон:Sfn the poet Stephen Spender, the artist Robert Medley, the theatre director Rupert Doone,Шаблон:Sfn and the writers A. L. Rowse, Maurice Dobb, John Strachey and Naomi Mitchison.[4]
During the 1930s Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius was commissioned by Sargant Florence to design a modernist block of flats for Jack Pritchard's Isokon on a plot at the rear of Highfield on Kensington Road, but the plan was thwarted by local opposition.Шаблон:Sfn
Highfield, and the literary culture that surrounded it, were the subject of a TV documentary by David Lodge in 1982.[2] The house was demolished in 1984, and the site is now occupied by Southbourne Close.Шаблон:Sfn
References
Bibliography
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- Buildings and structures demolished in 1984
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