42, Caroline Street And Attached Railings

This is an early 19th century manufactory, originally built as a pair of houses with rear workshop ranges. It’s located in Hockley, Birmingham, near St Paul's Square, which was developed as a residential and industrial area from the 1820s and is now part of the Jewellery Quarter.

The building is constructed of red brick with a hipped slate roof, bracketed eaves, and plain band corniced chimneys. The front elevation, facing Caroline Street, is nearly symmetrical with four bays and is three stories high. The windows are revealed sash windows, some retaining their glazing bars; the ground and first floor windows have painted stone sills and reeded lintels supported by shallow consoles over thin cornices. The entrance, in the second bay from the left, has an attached door case featuring slender, fluted Greek Doric columns supporting an entablature and open bracketed pediment; the round-headed doorway has plain reveals and a six-panel door with a plain fanlight. A panel above the first floor windows reads “PICKERING & MAYELL LTD / RELIANCE WORKS”. The north return, along Kenyon Street, which is part of the attached workshop ranges, retains some original wooden-framed multi-pane windows.

To the front (west) are cast-iron railings with crescent-shaped tops, characteristic of Birmingham manufacture.

The building was initially constructed around 1826 as a pair of houses, numbered 41 and 42, with workshops at the rear. Previous occupants included the Birmingham silversmiths George Unite and Nathaniel Mills. Pickering and Mayell Ltd has occupied the premises since around 1900.

The building is designated at Grade II for its early 19th century architectural character as dwellings with rear workshops that embody the distinctive plan form of a jewellery manufactory. It also has strong group value with other listed buildings in the Jewellery Quarter and exemplifies the early development of the area, which is now internationally significant.