46, Frederick Street

46 Frederick Street is a late 19th-century manufactory and dwelling, built in 1882 by Ewen Harper, the architect for A.J. Smith, a Jewellery manufacturer. The building is constructed of red brick with painted stone dressings, moulded brick detailing, tall gable chimneys, and a Welsh slated roof with crested clay ridges.

The building has an elongated L-plan. The frontage range contains domestic accommodation, while a long, two-storey range to the west of the plot houses offices, a warehouse, and workshops. The symmetrical frontage range is two storeys and an attic, rising from a blue brick plinth. Full-height pilasters delineate the three bays, carrying decorative brick detailing and terracotta panel capitals. The central bay has a wide gable and paired windows to all floors, with segmental arched heads and advanced painted keystones to the ground and first floor openings. The attic floor has flat-headed openings beneath a painted lintel band. The ground floor openings have been boarded over, while the first and attic floors have 2-light transomed windows with 4 panes in the transom lights. Segmental-arched doorways with shallow overlights are located in the flanking bays. A tall first-floor window is present in each bay, mirroring the central bay’s design. Wide storey bands separate the floors, with a lower band carrying signage that reads 'VARIETY WORKS' and an upper band with incised lettering. Decorative brick eaves corbelling and wide margin bands are present at the gable apex. A stepped L-shaped range extends to the rear, featuring four taller bays directly behind the frontage range, followed by fourteen lower bays, and a three-bay return at the end of the plot.

The complex was designed to combine domestic and industrial accommodation. The ground floor of the dwelling housed a living room, scullery, pantry, and entrances to the yard and the house. The ground floor of the rear wing contained offices and workshops, with warehousing above and first-floor bedrooms in the dwelling.

The building forms a group with 47 and 45 Frederick Street. It is a late 19th-century purpose-built combination of manufactory and dwelling, with domestic scale and detailing to the street frontage. The design consciously replicates earlier 19th-century conversions of houses and gardens to workshop accommodation, characteristic of Birmingham’s industrial quarter, now of international significance.