43 And 44, Vyse Street

43 and 44 Vyse Street is a pair of manufactories that also incorporate shops, built in the late 19th century with some alterations in the 20th century. The buildings are constructed of red brick with rubbed brick detailing, featuring a central chimney stack and a slate roof.

The layout is a double L-plan, with workshop ranges on both sides that enclose a central yard. The front elevation is nearly symmetrical, consisting of four bays that rise from a shallow blue brick plinth. There are three doorways; the outer bays have stepped approaches and tall semi-circular rubbed brick arched heads with overlights. Panelled doors lead to inner doorways for the shops. The central opening, which has a fanlight and a rubbed brick arch, provides access to an angled passage leading to the rear yard. Between the doorways are wide display windows topped with flat rubbed brick arched heads, featuring 20th-century joinery. Above, there are two first-floor workshop windows on each side, now with modified frames, with flat rubbed brick heads positioned almost at the eaves level.

These buildings are listed for their group value with No. 42 Vyse Street and Nos. 83 and 84 Vyse Street, forming an exceptionally well-preserved sequence of manufactories of similar scale. They contribute to a street frontage predominantly made up of manufactories, which are small-scale and designed in a domestic style. This reflects the earlier 19th-century trend of converting and extending houses into workspaces and offices. However, these buildings are purpose-built manufactories. Along with the parallel range of buildings on the southeast side of Hylton Street, they create a block of back-to-back manufactories, all featuring workshop ranges behind the front buildings. The area showcases eccentric plot shapes and represents the densest surviving example in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, now recognized as an internationally significant manufacturing district.