Museum Of The Jewellery Quarter

Museum, formerly two jewellery manufactories, located on Vyse Street in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter.

The complex comprises numbers 75 and 77, both designed by George E. Pepper. Number 75 was built in 1909 for F. Moore, and number 77 was completed in 1914, also by Pepper. Number 79 was replaced in 1990. The buildings have been subject to twentieth-century alterations and additions, and were converted to museum use in 1999.

The structures are constructed of red brick with vitrified header patterning and ashlar sandstone dressings and decoration. The roofing comprises plain tiles, with brick gable stacks.

The complex forms an elongated E-shaped plan on a street corner site. The Vyse Street frontage is made up of two former works facades, with a former workshop elevation facing Branston Street. Central and south extensions enclose narrow yards.

The main Vyse Street elevation (west) comprises an asymmetrical three-bay frontage of two storeys above a basement. The right section features a doorway within a quoined surround, with a semi-circular arched head below a hoodmould, tripartite overlight, and attenuated keyblock. The double doors are formerly half-glazed. To the left are three wide semi-circular arch-headed windows with banded arches, rising from a moulded sill band. The window frames are tripartite with glazing bars to the upper parts and etched glass below. The upper floor has two windows to each bay, with the central bay advanced and its windows set below a wide banded semi-circular arch. The flanking bays have arched heads to openings with tile lintels, hollow-moulded brick surrounds, and a moulded cill band. A steeply-pitched gablet with moulded copings crowns the central bay.

Number 76 (two storeys) features a wide entrance to the right with a semi-circular arched head, voussoirs, and keyblock below a shallow arched hoodmould. The doors are half-glazed double doors below a semi-circular overlight with glazing bars. To the left are three closely-spaced windows with segmental arches to shouldered heads and sash windows with glazing bars to the upper sashes. Moulded sill and storey bands run across the facade. The central first floor window comprises three lights beneath a joggled flat head, with squat columns separating the three sashed lights. The flanking windows have shallow-arched heads with bands to heads and sills. The left-hand end window sits below a corner parapet with gablet above.

The parapet is returned onto a two-bay side elevation, similarly detailed with paired windows to the left-hand bay and single windows to the right-hand bay, each set below a gablet. Beyond this return is an attached ten-bay, two-storey former workshop range with doorways to bays 7, 9, and 10. The workshop features an asymmetrically-pitched roof and windows to each floor with multi-pane cast-iron window frames below shallow-arched heads. Within the rear enclosure, a single-storey workshop and taller twentieth-century wing to the south extend eastwards.

The interior combines the amalgamated and internally remodelled two former works to form a museum of the Jewellery Quarter. Original interiors have been retained alongside remodelled spaces for museum display. Upper floor offices and workshop interiors have been reinstated with original fittings and equipment, including jewellers' peg benches. The entire central wing workshop retains in-situ stamps and line shafting.

The museum is devoted to the history of the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter and displays the distinctive architectural detailing characteristic of the industrial buildings in this manufacturing district, now recognised as being of international significance.