116, SPENCER STREET (See details for further address information)

This is a small manufactory, dating from the mid-19th century, with later 19th-century additions and alterations. It is constructed of red brick with a blue brick plinth, painted stone dressings, tall gable stacks with corbelled caps, gable copings, and a slate roof.

The building occupies a triangular corner site at the junction of Spencer Street and Vyse Street. The Vyse Street frontage has four bays, with the northernmost bay added in the late 19th century. The earlier, symmetrical three-bay section features a central doorway within a moulded surround, now containing an altered panelled door set within a deep reveal. Above the door is a semi-circular arched overlight with a moulded surround beneath a gauged brick arch. The ground-floor windows have margin glazing to their upper sashes, each with a shallow bracketed hood and flat lintel. The upper floor also has margin-glazed sash windows with similar detailing. A further bay has been added to the left, featuring stacked sashes with a canopied hood over the ground floor. The wedge-shaped end of the building has a blocked doorway beneath a shallow canopied hood and a semi-circular arch-headed two-over-two pane sash window above. The Spencer Street elevation has two bays with stacked sash windows below bracketed hoods. A steeply-ramped boundary wall adjoins the left end of the building and connects to a single-storey monopitch shopping range extending eastwards from the rear of the Vyse Street frontage.

The building appears on Piggot-Smith’s map of 1855-62 with a small rear range, indicating it was in industrial use by that time. The 1889 Ordnance Survey map shows the building in its present form, including the addition of a bay at the north end and a workshop range extending along the Spencer Street frontage.

This evolved manufactory, likely dating to around 1850, started as a dwelling and retains clear evidence of adaptation and expansion in the later 19th century. It demonstrates the dynamic growth of a specialist industrial quarter of Birmingham, recognised internationally for its significance.