Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 08/02/2013

SP 08 NE 7/58
5104

ICKNIELD STREET
Hockley B18
Front Range of the Birmingham Mint facing Icknield Street, and buildings around the courtyard

(Formerly listed as The Birmingham Mint)

II

Transferred to this site in 1860, the Birmingham Mint was the largest independent mint in the world. Built around a rectangular yard the works have a symmetrical formal elevation to the street, in an Italianate red brick style. A long range on 3 storeys of 2:5:1:5:2 bays, the end pairs and broader pedimented centre breaking forward. Hipped slate roofs. Ground floor has round headed windows recessed in arcade with ashlar impost band and keystones, rising from basement plinth and containing panelled sill zones. Entablature with projecting ashlar cornice over ground floor. Upper floors articulated by brick pilasters set on pedestals in the applied parapet, the first floor sill course broken forward over bases; panelled zones below second floor sills defined by sections of ashlar string course between the pilasters. Ashlar bed mould to main entablature with projecting ashlar eaves cornice. The centrepiece has channelled ashlar ground floor with large rounded archway, the keystone angled out as bracket to support 2 storey tripartite ashlar bow window with panelled aprons, divided by consoles on second floor; the main entablature is broken forward over the bow. The range along the street is the front range of a quadrangular plan, of which the interior faces of the courtyard have an arcaded treatment. The Mint owes its origin to a business founded by the Heaton family in 1794; by 1851 the company began minting coinage and was responsible for many important developments in minting technology. The Birmingham Mint has the longest history of any independent mint in the world.

Listing NGR: SP0574587810

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26340914

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)