Highfield was a large house situated at 128 Selly Park Road in theSelly Park area ofBirmingham, England.[1] Built in the 1860s,[1] it was bought in 1929 byPhilip Sargant Florence and his wifeLella Secor Florence after Sargant Florence was appointed as aprofessor at the nearbyUniversity of Birmingham.[2]
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.[3] Secor Florence let self-containedflats 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.[4]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 playDISARM!, performed atBirmingham Town Hall, whose cast was recruited fromtrade unions and factory dramatic societies.[5]
Highfield became a particular focus for local writers, and formed the centre of a vibrant literary circle that included the poetsW. H. Auden[6] andHenry Reed,[7] theBirmingham Group novelistsWalter Allen andJohn Hampson,[8] the art historianNikolaus Pevsner[1] and the radio dramatistR. D. Smith. The poetLouis MacNeice lived in the flat above the coach house at the rear of the main house throughout his entire time in Birmingham,[9] and the literary criticWilliam Empson lived at Highfield while seeking a post at the University of Birmingham after his expulsion fromCambridge.[10]
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".[11] Visitors from outside the city known to have stayed atHighfield included the philosopherG. E. Moore, the anthropologistMargaret Mead, the biologistJulian Huxley, the architectWalter Gropius, the politicianErnest Bevin, the American ambassadorJohn Gilbert Winant,[12] the poetStephen Spender, the artistRobert Medley, the theatre directorRupert Doone,[7] and the writersA. L. Rowse,Maurice Dobb,John Strachey andNaomi Mitchison.[13]
During the 1930sBauhaus founderWalter Gropius was commissioned by Sargant Florence to design a modernist block of flats forJack Pritchard'sIsokon on a plot at the rear of Highfield on Kensington Road, but the plan was thwarted by local opposition.[14]
Highfield, and the literary culture that surrounded it, were the subject of a TV documentary byDavid Lodge in 1982.[6] The house was demolished in 1984, and the site is now occupied by Southbourne Close.[1]
52°26′32″N1°55′18″W / 52.4421°N 1.9217°W /52.4421; -1.9217
