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Joseph Henry Ball, architect

J. H. Ball, RIBA, 1861-1931, was an English architect principally known nowadays for his design for St Agatha’s church in Portsmouth and for Undershaw, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s house in Surrey.

Henry Ball was born at Alderley, Cheshire in 1861. His marriage to Ella Gertrude Srake was registered at Axbridge in December 1889. (Ellen’s birth was registered at Clifton in June 1862).

He became a pupil of Alfred Waterhouse, (Ref 6),m the eminent British architect particularly associated with the Gothic Revival Movement who is best known for his design for the Natural History Museum, London. It has been claimed that Ball had been trained in Italy and was much influenced by the style of northern Italian churches. (Ref1). In 1887 he was in private practice at 2 Portland Place, Kent Road, Southsea, a suitably prestigious address in Portsmouth.

J. H. Ball died in 1931, the death registered at Tonbridge in the December quarter. The death of his wife, Ella, had been registered there eight years earlier.

WORKS

1885, St Columba’s Church, Highland Road, Southsea.

1887, The Capital and Counties Bank, Commercial Road, Portsmouth. Interestingly, four years later, his former mentor, Waterhouse,  built a Prudential building for that group close by.

1887, the Coppersmiths Arms, Lake Road, Portsmouth.

1892, St Boniface Mission, Clive Road, Fratton, Portsmouth In 1892 Ball was commissioned to produce the plans for St. Boniface Mission Church for Portsea Parish in Portsmouth. The large parish of dockyard workers houses had adopted a policy of  building a number of small mission churches throughout the parish in support of the large impressive parish church of St Mary, all served by a single large group of young curates under the guidance of the vicar. Thus was created a training system for curates which gained a notable reputation throughout the Anglican church. (ref 7).

St Boniface rook the form of a “hall church” in which the altar and sanctuary could be screened off to allow the building to be used for non-worship functions when required, with a block of ancillary rooms for Sunday School  and organisations. Henry Ball’s original plans show that he was initially influenced by the then-current fashion for the Tudor Revival style; the block of ancillary rooms having a half-timbered gable and mullioned windows. The limitations of the proposed internal layout for these rooms led him to abandon the style in favour of a gothic castellated block. The church thrived with at times as many as 3 curates, and a larger hall, a Walker and Hall organ and an ancient font were added. Like all other churches it suffered under the losses of the two world wars but was thriving again in the 1950s, when a crisis in Portsea parish finances brought about its closure in 1962 and its demolition a few years later. Today the only surviving relic is the stained glass window depicting St Boniface which is in the chapel of that name in the parish church of St Mary Portsea.

1894, St Agatha’s Church, Conway Street, Portsmouth.

Henry Ball was approached by Father Robert Radcliffe? Dolling in 1894 to build a new church in the worst slum area of Portsmouth, notorious for the terrible living conditions of the people, the prostitution, the multitude of pubs, and the resultant crime. As a result of his labours many women had been rescued from a life on the streets; many young lads had been rescued from crime by diversion to a career in the navy. Congregations had swollen and Dolling was seeking a new, larger and inspiring church. Dolling wanted an open plan church with no screens or divisions between the people and the altar.

Although Dolling was evangelistic, the ritual he employed in his services reflected that of the Catholic church, much to the indignation of mainstream Anglican authorities. In Henry Ball, himself an high church man, he found a sympathetic architect.

Ball provided a dignified and spacious "Early Christian" style basilica, well suited to Fr Dolling's mix of Catholic ritual and evangelical preaching. Thus, amid the street traders, brothels and pubs of Landport arose Fr Dolling's red brick basilica. Outwardly plain, the inside was graced by the graffito of Heywood Sumner, disciple of William Morris and the Arts &  Craft \movement. During World War2 the humble dockyard worker’s houses around it were completely destroyed but the church suffered only minor damage, later being used as a Naval Store. To their eternal shame, in the 1860s Portsmouth City Council agreed to the demolition of  St Agatha’s  Lady Chapel  with Heywood Sumner’s magnificent sgraffito  in order to build a road alongside the highly controversional  and unloved Tricorn Shopping Centre (itself demolished in recent years without much regret). 1897.  St Jude’s Church,Palmerston Road, Southsea. St Jude’s was built in 1851 by Thomas Ellis Owen as part of his development of Southsea. In 1897parishioner Henry Ball added the vestries, the chapel flanking the chancel to the north and south-west face of the nave, and the internal balcony to the aisles.

1897, Henry Ball, Conan Doyle and Undershaw

Henry Ball became a great friend of Arthur onan Doyle, who was living in \Southsea at that time. Like him, \Ball was a member of the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society, which had been founded in 1869. The two of them took part in some crude experiments in telepathy. Both were interested in Spiritualism.

When Conan Doyle was sketching out his ideas for his new house, “Undershaw,” that he was planning to have built at Hindhead to improve the health of his wife he turned to Henry Ball to produce the plans. He is reported as saying that Ball was “an old friend and a man of most fastidious taste and critical turn of mind who would keep a constant eye on the work”. In the event Ball was so occupied by the work on St Agatha’s that Doyle became a little frustrated by the delay. The house, in the '”Surrey-vernacular” style, was finished in 1897 Doyle wrote the first Sherlock Holmes book there, so it may be considered as Holme’s birthplace! He lived there until 1907, the year after the death of his wife. Conan Doyle enthusiasts are currently campaigning to save the house from being converted into apartments.

1907, St Luke’s, Parkstone, Dorset.

Ball’s gothic church was illustrated in the Building News of August 3rd 1906. The foundation stone was laid in 1907 but lack of money and the Great War prevented completion until many years later.

Year? Eastleigh, Hampshire, Parish Hall. (confirmation required)

-REFERENCES

1. Churches, Chapels and Places of Worship on Portsea Island. John Offord, 1889. (Published by John Harman 27 Henley Road Southsea).

2. St. Boniface Mission Church, Portsea Parish, Portsmouth, A History 1892-1962. Michael Dummer 2012 (held by The British Library &. Portsmouth History Centre)

3 . A Study in Southsea. The Unrevealed Life of Dr Arthur Conan Doyle, Geoffrey Stavert, (Milestone Publications, 1887).

4.Portsea Island Churches Rodney Hubbuck, Portsmouth Papers No.8, (Portsmouth City Council1969.

5. Building News August 3rd 1906.

6. Buildings of Portsmouth and Environs, David W. Lloyd, published by The City of Portsmouth 1974.

7. The Work of a Great Parish, by The rev.Cyril.Foster Garbett,The rev. “Tubby” Clayton and nine other curates,  published by Longmans, Green & Co. 1915.