Description

BIRMINGHAM

997/0/10324
29-APR-04
VYSE STREET
12, 13 AND 14

II

Manufactory. Late C19 with late C20 alterations. Red brick with painted stone dressings and banding, brick ridge stacks and an artificial slate roof covering.
PLAN: Acutely angled L-plan on corner plot with office and showroom areas to Vyse Street and workshop range extending westwards along Pitsford Street.
EXTERIOR: Vyse Street frontage of 3 storeys above a basement, 4 bays, arranged 2:2:2:3, the bays delineated by shallow pilasters. Right-hand bay with stepped approach to triple doorways, the openings separated by narrow brick piers and set below a moulded cornice. Shallow segmental arched heads with painted keystones, and double 3-panel doors set below undivided overlights. To the left, 2 paired showroom windows to each bay with C20 replacement frames. Below, shallow paired basement lights. Paired first floor windows on continuous sill band and set back between pilasters with banded heads. Ground and first floor openings with shallow segmental brick- arched heads with painted keystones linked by eaves string course.
Pitsford Street elevation with elongated workshop range of 2 storeys above a basement on downward- sloping frontage. 14 bays, arranged 6:1:5:2: many of the workshop windows with multi-pane metal frames with pivoting lights. Openings with moulded brick surrounds and segmental arched heads with painted keystones and projecting sills. 2 bays to east end form return of frontage range with projecting chimney breast separating narrow windows. Remaining workshop bays with flat-headed basemen lights beneath continuous lintel band, with moulded storey band above. Ground and first with multi-pane frames to 8 of 9 bays to west, with a secondary entrance at bay 8 from east end with a single window at half landing level above. Further west, 3 workshop bays, and 4 bays with undivided sash frames above triple doorways, replicating the detail of the Vyse Street elevation. Doorways with double 3-panel doors below rectangular overlights and a moulded common lintel with diminutive pediment to centre. INTERIOR: Triple doorways provide separate access to showrooms, offices and workshops. Left-hand doorway to Pitsford Street with inner 2-panel door, and staircase with turned baluster stair, and vertical wainscott boarding.
HISTORY: The Piggot-Smith map of 1855-1862 shows a developed frontage on both streets, but of a different pattern to that which now exists. The present arrangement is depicted on the Ordnance Survey map of 1887, with the building ranges enclosing a narrow rear yard and described as 'Jewellery Works'.
Forms a group with Nos. 16-18 Vyse Street (q.v.) and No.15 Vyse Street (q.v.)
A purpose-built and little-altered late C19 manufactory, retaining showroom, office and workshop accommodation, and displaying both architectural and plan form characteristics associated with the distinctive building types of this industrial quarter of Birmingham, now identified as being of international significance.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672029

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

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)