30, Mowbray Street

30 Mowbray Street, Sheffield: Workers' Housing from the 1850s

This is a pair of blind-back cottages built in the 1850s, facing south and east respectively into Mowbray Street and a narrow yard. The building is constructed in handmade bricks with a stone plinth and dressings, beneath a slate roof. It survives as an exceptionally rare example of urban workers' housing from the pre-bylaw era of industrial expansion.

Plan and Layout

Each cottage is rectangular with a single room on each of three floors, plus a separate scullery area on the ground floor beneath the staircase, and a cellar below. The front cottage (facing the street) has its staircase against the east wall, while the rear cottage's staircase is against the west wall. Both cottages share a party wall. The front cottage contains the main chimneystack in the centre of its west wall, with a smaller stack at the north-east corner. The rear cottage has a chimneystack in the centre of its north wall and another small stack at the north-west corner.

Exterior: Front Cottage

The main south-facing elevation is built in Flemish bond brickwork with stone plinth and hipped slate roof. Three hung-sash windows are positioned off-centre to the west, one on each floor, with the second-floor window being shorter than those below. All windows have stone sills and stone wedge lintels. The ground-floor sash is one pane over two panes; the first floor is four over six panes; the second floor is three over six panes. The doorway is set to the right of centre and raised by two shallow steps cut into the plinth, with a stone wedge lintel above. The door itself is four-panelled, later reinforced with sheet metal, and has a rectangular overlight above. A coal drop set into the pavement provides access to the cellar. The side elevation walls are built in irregular bond without a plinth and were originally blind; two small windows have been inserted on the ground and second floors of the east wall but are now boarded over and lack original sills or lintels.

Exterior: Rear Cottage

The east-facing elevation is built in irregular bond without plinth, with the roof gabled to the north. Three hung-sash windows are positioned off-centre to the north, one on each floor, with the second-floor window shorter than those below. All have stone sills and brick soldier lintels. The ground and first-floor windows are six-over-six panes; the second-floor sash is boarded over. The doorway is set to the left of centre with a brick soldier lintel and retains its original four-panelled door with a three-pane rectangular overlight above. A coal drop into the cellar is set into the yard to the north side of the windows. The side and rear elevations are blind.

Interior: Front Cottage

The ground floor is stone-flagged with a fireplace containing a cast-iron range from Shales Moor Foundry and an adjacent cupboard. A partition wall separates the narrow scullery from the main room, with a doorway featuring original moulded architrave on the south side; an additional doorway has been inserted. The position of a copper is marked in the north-east corner next to an inserted window. The first floor contains a single plastered room with a fireplace with stone surround and a cupboard beneath the stairs. A gas light mount is fixed to the east side of the window. The second floor is a single room, open into the hipped roof space, with plastered walls and vertical boarding to the east wall; there is no fireplace. Timber staircases rise immediately adjacent to the front door (its door is now missing) and display four-panelled construction. The cellar has double-vaulted brick barrel vaults built on low stone walls, with brick steps and stone treads.

Interior: Rear Cottage

The first and second floors and cellar of the rear cottage were not inspected during the survey.

Notable Features

Throughout the building, features of note include the timber staircases, four-panelled doors, hung-sash windows, moulded architraves, and fireplaces with surrounds. Many original fixtures and fittings survive.

Historical Context

Mowbray Street appears to have been laid out in the early 1850s. Contemporary trade directories do not allow clear identification of the property in that period. The Ordnance Survey map of 1894 shows the area heavily built-up, with steel works and a saw mill on the south side of the street, whilst the north side and adjacent streets contained high-density workers' housing. This reflects the symbiotic relationship between industrial factories and adjacent workers' housing. The majority of housing in the area was cleared after 1935.

The building is extremely rare as a surviving example of free-standing urban blind-back cottages, a vulnerable building type built speculatively that has been subject to substantive loss nationally. It is indicative of pre-bylaw workers' housing constructed before speculative builders were regulated, and it remains substantially intact as originally built, with original plan form and fabric displaying a subtle hierarchy of accommodation.