John George Bland was born in East Farndon, near Market Harborough, Northamptonshire, England in 1820 and was baptised in East Farndon on 22 August 1820. By the late 1840s he had moved to the neighbouring county of Leicestershire. In 1849 his address was given as St. Mary's Road, Great Bowden, Market Harborough, Leicestershire.
Bland was articled to William Adams Nicholson (1803-1853), a church builder in Lincoln. He began his career in Leicestershire in the 1840s.
By 1856 he he moved to Birmingham where he established a practice and worked as a sole practitioner until c.1875 when he formed a partnership with Jethro Anstice Cossins (1830-1917) as Bland & Coussins. Following the dissolution of the partnership in 1882 he returned to practising alone.
Bland died at Temple Street, Birmingham, on 16 May 1898.
Bland's practice worked on a range of architectural commissions including public, industrial, commercial and domestic buildings. Among these were a school in Wilbarston, Northamptonshire built (1846); Rectory, Papworth St. Agnes, Cambridgeshire (1847-48); Rebuilding of Church of St. Michael, Cranoe, Leicestershire (1847-49); School, Irchester, Northamptonshire (1848); Lodges to Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire (1848-50); Carpet Factory , Long Meadow Mills, Dixon Street, Kidderminster, Worcestershire (1853-54); Carpet factory, Stour Vale Mills, Green Street, Kidderminster, Worcestershire (1855-56); Carpet Factory for Crane & Barton, Kidderminster, Worcestershire (1856); House, 174 Slad Road, Stroud, Gloucestershire (1858); Extension to Church of the Ascension, Hall Green, Birmingham c.1860); Carpet Factory, Waterside Mill, Kidderminster, Worcestershire (c.1862); Albert Works pen factory, Legge Lane, Birmingham (1862-63); Baptist Chapel, Rye Lane, Camberwell, Surrey (1863); Russell Hill Schools of the Warehousemen, Clarks and Drapers, Croydon, Surrey (1864); Carpet factory, Imperial Mill, Kidderminster, Worcestershire (c.1864); Chhurch of St. Mary the Virgin, Warwick Road, Acock's Green, Birmingham (1864-66?); Goldsmith's Factory and offices, 82-86, Vittoria Street, Birmingham (c.1865); Reredos, Church of St. Mary, Wythall, Worcestershire (1866); Repairs and additions, Church of All Saints, Emberton, Buckinghamshire (1868-69); Carpet factory for Morton's, New Road, Kidderminster, Worcestershire (1869-70); Kidderminster Infirmary, Mill Street, Kidderminster, Worcestershire (1870-71); Extension to St. Saviour's Juniors' and Infants' School, Alum Rock Road, Birmingham (1871); Carpet factory, offices, showroom and warehouse for Barton's, Vicar Street, Kidderminster, Worcestershire (1872); House, Augusta Road, Birmingham (1876); Carpet factory offices, Worcester Cross, Oxford Street, Kidderminster, Worcestershire (1878-79); Shops and offices, Corporation Street, Birmingham (1880); Vaults to Warwick House, New Street, Birmingham (1880); Factory, New Bartholomew Street, Birmingham (1882); Four shops, 189-195 Hagley Road, Birmingham (1882); and a house, Oxford Road, Moseley (1882).
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
Leather, Peter. ‘John George Bland’ 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. 183-194 [Little research has been done on the life and work of John George Bland and this is the main source on his career as an architect]
‘Obotuary’. The Builder vol. 74, 1898 p. 497