17, Regent Place

Manufactory at 17 Regent Place, Birmingham

This is a multi-phase jewellery manufactory spanning from 1824 to 1914, representing nearly the full developmental history of Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. The building incorporates an earlier house of 1824 that was converted to industrial use, additions from 1887-1902, a major new construction of 1905-6 designed by Martin and Martin architects for Deakin and Francis (jewellery manufacturers), and further extensions between 1910 and 1914.

The building is constructed of red brick, partially rendered, with hipped slated roofs and north light glazed roof pitches. The Regent Street frontage comprises 5 bays over 2 storeys above a basement. Four wide semi-circular arch-headed openings to the left feature multi-paned metal windows at ground floor level and within the arch heads serving the upper floor. Basement windows have segmental arched heads. The entrance bay to the right sits below a gablet, with a recessed doorway, panelled door and rectangular overlight with internal grille. A shallow terracotta flat hood crowns the entrance, with a small multi-pane window to its left. The first floor has a 3-light window below a slit window to the gablet apex.

A 4-bay attached 2-storey workshop range to the rear features hipped north light roof pitches and multi-pane metal workshop windows set between plain brick piers. This adjoins the 1887-1902 workshop range of 2 storeys above basement, with segmental arched window heads and cast-iron workshop windows. A hipped roof cross range at the junction with the 1906 building contains 4-pane sash windows, indicating a different function from the main workshop range.

To the west stands a 1910 extension with flat lead roof and basement, adjoined by a basement engine house of circa 1914 containing an extant gas engine that powered machinery in the adjacent stamping shop via belt drive through a connecting tunnel.

The 1905-6 development represented advanced factory design, providing open-plan, double-depth workshop facilities with natural light from both side walls and roof lights. This allowed jewellers' boards to be positioned centrally as well as along the walls. The complex was equipped with telephones, advanced central heating, and compressed air for soldering blow pipes. The frontage and rear ranges were interconnected.

The interior retains a largely undisturbed plan form representing the constituent phases of development. The site forms a group with Nos. 16, 22, 24 and 26 Regent Place, and as a whole represents evidence of every phase of development of this manufacturing district now considered of international significance.