43 And 44, Vyse Street

BIRMINGHAM

997/0/10379 VYSE STREET 29-APR-04 43 AND 44

GV II A pair of manufactories incorporating shops. Late C19 with C20 alterations. Red brick withn rubbed brick detailing, central chimney stack and slate roof covering. PLAN : Double L-plan with workshop ranges to both boundaries enclosing a central yard. EXTERIOR: Near-symmetrical front elevation of 4 bays, rising from a shallow blue brick plinth. 3 doorways, those to the outer bays with stepped approaches and tall semi-circular rubbed brick arched heads incorporating overlights. Panelled doors give access to inner doorways to shops. Central opening with fanlight and rubbed brick arch gives access to angled passage to rear yard. Between the doorways are wide display windows below flat rubbed brick arched heads. C20 joinery. Above, 2 first floor workshop windows to each part, now with modified frames, the flat rubbed brick heads almost at eaves level. Listed for group value with No. 42 Vyse Street (q.v.) and Nos. 83 and 84 Vyse Street (q.v.), and forming an exceptionally well-preserved sequence of manufactories of similar scale. These buildings form part of a street frontage made up almost entirely of manufactories, all small-scale and detailed in domestic style, reflecting the earlier C19 pattern of converting and extending houses to form workspaces and offices. They are, however consciously-designed and planned purpose-built manufactories. Together with the parallel range of buildings to the south-east side of Hylton Street, they form a block of back- to- back manufactories, all with workshop ranges to the rear of frontage buildings. Eccentric plot shapes were fully utilised in this area, the densest such survival in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, now recognised as a manufacturing district of international significance.