46, Frederick Street

BIRMINGHAM

997/0/10286 FREDERICK STREET 29-APR-04 46

GV II Manufactory and dwelling. 1882. By Ewen Harper, architect for A.J. Smith, Jewellery manufacturer. Red brick with painted stone dressings and moulded brick detailing, tall gable chimneys and a Welsh slated roof with crested clay ridges. PLAN: Elongated L-plan with domestic accommodation in the frontage range, and office, warehouse and workshops in a long storeyed range extending to the end of the west side of the plot. EXTERIOR: Symmetrical 3-bay frontage range of 2 storeys and attic, rising from a blue brick plinth. The bays are delineated by full-height pilasters which carry decorative brick detailing and terracotta panels forming capitals. Wide gabled central bay with paired windows to all floors beneath segmental arched heads with advanced painted keystones to ground and taller first floor openings. Attic floor has flat- headed openings beneath a painted lintel band. Ground floor openings now overboarded, first and attic floors with 2-light transomed frames , the transom lights of 4 panes. Flanking bays each have segmental-arched doorways with shallow overlights. A tall first floor window to each bay, matching those of the centre bay. Wide storey bands between floors, the lower one carrying signage, the upper band with incised lettering which reads ' VARIETY WORKS' Decorative brick eaves corbelling and wide margin bands to gable apex. Stepped L-shaped range to rear, with 4 taller bays directly behind the frontage range, and 14 lower bays, and a 3-bay return at the end of the plot. HISTORY : The complex was designed to combine domestic and industrial accommodation. The ground floor of the house contained a living room, scullery, pantry, and entrances to the yard and to the house. Office and workshops were on the ground floor of the rear wing with warehousing above, and in the first floor of the house, with bedrooms above. Forms a group with No. 47 Frederick Street (q.v.) and No.45 Frederick Street (q.v.) A late C19 purpose- built combined manufactory and dwelling, of domestic scale and detailing to the street frontage range and with mixed interior functions. This design consciously replicates the early C19 conversions of houses and gardens to workshop accommodation which characterised the development of this industrial quarter of Birmingham, now recognised as being of international significance.