36, Tenby Street

This is a small manufactory, built in the late 19th century and expanded in the early 20th century. It is located in Birmingham and forms a group with the buildings at numbers 28-29 and 30-31 Tenby Street. The front of the building is red brick with slate roofing, while the front range has been remodelled with dark red brick and concrete detailing.

The building has an elongated L-shaped plan. At the front is a narrow range of three storeys above a basement, and extending eastwards is a long, four-part workshop range which fills the length of a narrow plot, enclosing a narrow passage to the south.

The front range has two bays, with a coupled entrance beneath a common lintel on the right side. The outermost opening leads to a side passage, and the other to the front entrance. To the left of the doorways, a triple sash window sits beneath a lintel band that extends over the multi-pane doorway overlights to the right. Upper sashes have glazing bars, as do the windows on the first and second floors, arranged in two groups of three sash frames within recessed panels defined by brick piers. There are deep brick aprons below the upper floor window openings and an eaves band forming the lintel to the second floor openings. The height of the window openings decreases on each ascending storey. The rear elevation of the front range contains multi-paned cast-iron windows at stair landing levels.

A four-phase range of workshops from the late 19th century extends from the rear. The first two phases consist of 11 and 7 bays of three storeys each, with the remaining parts being 6 and 4 bays of two storeys. Ground and first floor workshop windows have small pane cast-iron frames within segmental brick arches made of red and blue brick. These openings have chamfered surrounds and blue brick cills. Upper floor windows have wooden lintels. Ground floor doorways give access to stairs leading to upper floors. The roofs are monopitch slate roofs with rear wall stacks serving the workshop hearths.

The site was undeveloped in 1861, according to the Piggot-Smith map. By 1886-87, the Ordnance Survey map showed the workshops extending from a vacant front yard where the present street frontage range now stands.

The building illustrates the economic growth and distinctive architectural character of a 19th-century industrial area in Birmingham, which is now recognised internationally for its significance.