Joseph Lancaster Ball was born in Malton*, Yorkshire, England in July 1852 and was articled to William Willmer Pocock (1813-1899) in London in 1877. After completing his articles he formed a brief partnership with Algernon Goddard as Ball & Goddard in 1879. In 1880 he set up in independent practice in Birmingham and subsequently worked alone until his retirement in 1930. Ball was heavily influenced by the prevailing Arts & Crafts style.
Ball was was President of the Birmingham Architectural Association and from 1909 to 1916 was the Director of the Birmingham School of Architecture.
Ball's address was given as Warwick Chambers, Corporation Street, Birmingham in 1885; 3 Mount Street, Manchester in 1891; 17 Rotton Park Road, Edgbaston in 1901 and 1911; and 25A Paradise Street, Birmingham in 1912 and 1933. He died in Birmingham, Warwickshire on 11 December 1933.
_____
* Ball's place of birth is sometimes incorrectly given as Maltby
Most of Ball's architectural projects were in the Birmingham area. These included the Handsworth Wesleyan Theological College (1880); offices, shops and warehouses at the junction of Cannon Street and Cherry Street (1881); Princess Alice Orphanage in Sutton Coldfield (1881-83); Wesleyan Chapel and Sundfay School, corner of Corporation Street and Lower Priory, Birmingham (1884-85); Asbury Memorial Wesleyan Chapel, Holyhead Road, Handsworth (1885); "Earlsfield", 20 Westfield Road, Edgbaston (1889) for Thomas Barnsley); five houses at Wenman Street/Vincent Parade, Balsall Heath (1895) for Thomas Wheatley; eleven houses, Vincent Parade, Balsall Heath (1896) for Thomas Wheatley; factory for Austin Cycle Co., Monument Road, Ladywood (1896); Eagle Insurance Building, 122–124 Colmore Row, Birmingham, in collaboration with William R. Lethaby (1857-1931) (1899-1900); fourteen semi-detached house, west side of Barnsley Road, Edgbaston (1900) for J. Barnsley & Sons; Winterbourne House in Egbaston (1903); factory and offices for C. H. Pugh, Thornton Road, Bondesley (1906-10); factory for Lanchester Cars, Montgomery Street, Small Heath (1911); Church of St. Gregory the Great, Oldknow Road, Small Heath (1911-12); Chapel at St. Paul's College, Saltley (1912); The Carnegie Infant Welfare Institute, Hunter's Road, Handsworth (1918); and The Bluecoat School, Metchley Lane, Harborne, in collaboration with G. S. Simister (1923, 1929-32).
By Hammer and Hand: the Arts and Crafts movement in Birmingham. Edited by Alan C. Crawford. Birmingham, England: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 1984
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 1: A-K. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
Granelli, Remo. ‘Joseph Lancaster Ball’ in Birmingham's Victorian and Edwardian Architects, edited by Phillada Ballard. Wetherby: Oblong Creative Ltd. for the Birmingham and West Midlands Group of the Victorian Society, 2009, pp. 401–421
Gray, A. Stuart. Edwardian architecture: a biographical dictionary. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1985
Hamilton, Alec. Arts & Crafts Churches. London: Lund Humphries, 2020
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 145, 22 December 1933 p. 985
Reynolds, Edwin. ‘Obituary. Joseph Lancaster Ball’. Royal Institute of British Architects Journal vol. 41, 24 February 1934 pp. 418-419