Victoria Works (Including Formerly Listed Flagstaff And Retaining Wall)

The Victoria Works is a factory complex built in several phases between 1838 and 1845, around 1850, and again in 1887. It is constructed primarily of red brick with ashlar and stucco dressings.

The main street facade has eleven bays and three storeys. It features a deep ashlar plinth, a first-floor ashlar band, and a 20th-century brick coped parapet. A central archway is defined by a projecting, rusticated surround and a segmental ashlar arch, flanked by sash windows. Further along are paired sash windows, followed by single doorways in ashlar surrounds with bracketed triangular hoods, and then more single sash windows. Above the central tripartite sash, which has a pilaster surround and entablature, are three sashes on either side. Beyond these are single sashes with bracketed ashlar hoods, followed by more single sashes. Above again is a central tripartite casement window with ashlar mullions, alongside five casements on each side, all with concrete lintels.

To the right of the main facade is a 4-metre-high brick wall with inset Tuscan pilasters and an ashlar blocking course. A terracotta relief of Queen Victoria, flanked by palm fronds and set into an attic storey, is positioned centrally on the wall. The attic storey conceals a small building set at right angles behind the wall, from which a large flagstaff rises. This wall continues around the corner and along Vittoria Street. Adjacent to the wall is a three-storey, two-bay building with a hipped roof and irregular fenestration. Beyond that is an eight-bay, three-storey building with dentilated eaves, a central segmental archway, three sashes to the left and two to the right, a doorway, and eight irregular windows above. Further along are eight small, irregular windows above.

The Frederick Street front consists of thirteen bays, similarly fenestrated to the main facade, connected to a ten-bay building with plainer detailing and ground and first-floor cill bands. The ground-floor windows are primarily glazing bar casements, while the first-floor windows have iron frames with segmental heads. The inner courtyard features a 27-bay, three-storey rear wing with irregular fenestration and mostly iron-framed windows with segmental heads.

The factory complex was originally built for Joseph Gillort to produce steel pen nibs using a new pressing method. It is believed that Charles Edge of Birmingham contributed to the design. The building is historically significant due to its role in the industrial development of Birmingham and the international importance of its early mass production of pen nibs.