NOS. 94, 96 AND 100, MILTON STREET

Nos. 94, 96 and 100 Milton Street, Sheffield

Terraced workers' housing incorporating back-to-back houses, built in the early 1860s. Brick with stone dressings and slate roofs. The row consists of four properties arranged as follows: two deeper back-to-back houses with a central passageway through to the rear yard at No.100 (the south-west end); a through house with central passageway and outshot to the rear at No.96; and a through house at No.94 (the north-east end).

The exterior is three storeys over cellars, built in Flemish bond with a plinth and wooden modillion eaves to double-pitched roofs. Two gable stacks rise from No.100, and four ridge stacks from Nos. 94 and 96. The row was built in two contemporary phases, marked by a straight joint between No.96 and the building originally numbered as No.98. The gable wall of No.94 abuts Beehive Works to the right, while the gable wall of No.100 is rendered, as the adjoining building has been demolished.

The seven-bay front elevation employs similar detailing throughout. Windows have stone sills and wedge lintels, with twelve-pane sashes on the ground and first floors and nine-pane sashes on the second floor. No.100 has a symmetrical front elevation of two wide bays on the first and second floors, each with a single window to the outer edge. The ground floor features a central round-arched entry with a recessed modern door and overlight, flanked by two doorways with two stone steps, pilaster door surrounds, modern panelled doors with overlights, and windows beyond. No.96 has three window bays on the first and second floors, with a central round-headed ground-floor entry, a closely-spaced blocked doorway and window to the left, and two closely-spaced windows to the right. No.94 has two wider window bays on the upper floors and three ground-floor windows with a doorway in the right-hand bay.

Internally, No.100 retains features of note including moulded architraves, kite winder stairs, original four-panelled doors to the stair recesses, panelled cupboards alongside fireplaces, cast-iron fireplaces, and plain moulded ceiling roses. No.100 preserves the original plan form of unconnected front and rear houses, each comprising a single room on each floor, reached by narrow staircases built end-to-end to form the party wall between properties. The building formerly No.98 has been altered to accommodate a modern staircase between front and rear rooms; No.98 and No.100 are now known as No.100.

The row was built adjoining Beehive Works (known in the 19th century as Milton Works). Much of the area around Milton Street remained undeveloped in the mid-19th century, but by approximately 1890 the neighbourhood had been completely built up with factories—most commonly cutlery or edge tool works—and terraces and courts of workers' housing. The back-to-back houses at No.100 represent a rare survival; this housing type was banned by local bylaw in 1864.

The integrity of the building is retained through its intact and simply detailed front elevation. Although internal alterations have occurred, sufficient of the plan form survives to demonstrate the rare survival of back-to-back housing at No.100. This plan-form was commonly adopted in 19th-century industrial towns as an expedient means of housing rapidly growing populations, though later condemned as unhealthy and banned from construction by various local bylaws. The row stands closely juxtaposed with two contemporary integrated cutlery works: Beehive Works and Taylor's Eye Witness Works. These three components run along the north-west side of Milton Street and form a miniature mid to late 19th-century industrial landscape of exceptional completeness and legibility, with the housing complementing the setting of the works and enhancing their context.