St Edmund's Hostel for boys
Deritend Birmingham
Photo source Elliott Brown/ flickr
In Digbeth, Birmingham, this is a very visually prominent building, largely because it looks so ornate amongst the industrial buildings of this are so close to the city centre.
On Digbeth High Street between the junctions of Adderley Street and Heath Mill Lane, it was designed in the late 1890s by Father Lopes, a clergyman evidently with a great eye for design. John Lopes was ordained in 1906
His idea was that it would serve as the chapel and home for working boys. Areas like Deritend had a huge thirst for boys to work in the burgeoning local industries but, if they had no family, they needed somewhere to live. .
In October 1912, a service was held in whcih the Bishop of Birmingham licensed Rev. John Lopes to take on the chaplaincy of St Edmund's Hostel, 175 Deritend, a Church of England institution for boys.
In June 1915, the Reverend John Lopes was received into the Catholic Church.
Having converted to Roman Catholicism and moving away from Birmingham, Lopes appears to have given away the hostel to the Church of England. It is not clear how long the Hostel continued after this.
I have yet to find any official records of the hostel.
For more about former children's homes in Birmingham, please go to our page on Birmingham and Birmingham in 1929
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