17/09/2026
All of us who are part of the Moseley Road Baths community are devastated by the death of our very dear colleague, fellow-campaigner and friend Joe Holyoak.
Joe was a founding member and Chair of the Friends of Moseley Road Baths, and a founding trustee of Moseley Road Baths CIO.
This week, he was due to be leading tours of the Baths as part of Heritage Week.
Joe was a brilliant, deeply knowledgeable architect, urban designer and conservationist. And an understated and exceptional trustee colleague. His impact on us individually, collectively, and as a city, cannot be overstated.
As Stephen Hartland, Chairman of Victorian Society’s Birmingham & West Midlands Group, beautifully puts it in his tribute: “Above all, Joe understood Birmingham. He knew what the city had possessed, what it had lost and what remained worth fighting for. His knowledge had been accumulated not simply from books, but from decades of walking its streets, studying its buildings, practising architecture, examining planning proposals and participating directly in the conservation battles which shaped the modern city.
That was more than knowledge. It was wisdom.”
He was, to put it simply, a legend. We will miss him terribly.
We will be writing a longer tribute to Joe in due course, and finding a fitting way to celebrate his contribution to the saving of Moseley Road Baths, and Birmingham’s heritage.
