12, 13 AND 14, VYSE STREET

Manufactory at 12, 13 and 14 Vyse Street, Birmingham

A purpose-built late 19th-century manufactory with late 20th-century alterations, constructed in red brick with painted stone dressings and banding, brick ridge stacks, and an artificial slate roof.

The building occupies an acutely angled corner plot with an L-shaped plan. Office and showroom areas face Vyse Street, while a workshop range extends westwards along Pitsford Street.

The Vyse Street frontage rises to 3 storeys above a basement across 4 bays (arranged 2:2:2:3), with the bays delineated by shallow pilasters. The right-hand bay features a stepped approach to triple doorways, the openings separated by narrow brick piers and set below a moulded cornice. The doorways have shallow segmental arched heads with painted keystones, and double 3-panel doors set beneath undivided overlights. The remaining bays contain paired showroom windows to each level with late 20th-century replacement frames. Below these are shallow paired basement lights. Paired first-floor windows sit on a continuous sill band, set back between pilasters with banded heads. Ground and first-floor openings have shallow segmental brick-arched heads with painted keystones, linked by an eaves string course.

The Pitsford Street elevation features an elongated workshop range of 2 storeys above a basement on a downward-sloping frontage. This comprises 14 bays (arranged 6:1:5:2), many with multi-pane metal frames incorporating pivoting lights. The openings have moulded brick surrounds and segmental arched heads with painted keystones and projecting sills. At the east end, 2 bays form a return of the frontage range with a projecting chimney breast separating narrow windows. The remaining workshop bays have flat-headed basement lights beneath a continuous lintel band and a moulded storey band above. Ground and first floors of 8 of 9 bays to the west retain multi-pane frames. A secondary entrance occurs at the eighth bay from the east end, with a single window at half-landing level above. Further west, 3 workshop bays are followed by 4 bays with undivided sash frames above triple doorways, replicating the detail of the Vyse Street elevation. These doorways have double 3-panel doors below rectangular overlights and a moulded common lintel with a diminutive pediment to the centre.

The interior retains triple doorways providing separate access to showrooms, offices, and workshops. The left-hand doorway on Pitsford Street contains an inner 2-panel door, a staircase with turned baluster construction, and vertical wainscot boarding.

Historical records show that the Piggot-Smith map of 1855–1862 depicts a developed frontage on both streets, but with a different pattern from that which now exists. The present arrangement is shown on the 1887 Ordnance Survey map, where the building ranges are described as 'Jewellery Works' and enclose a narrow rear yard.

The building forms a group with Nos. 16–18 Vyse Street and No. 15 Vyse Street. It remains a little-altered late 19th-century manufactory, retaining its original showroom, office, and workshop accommodation. It displays both architectural and plan form characteristics distinctive to the industrial building types of this quarter of Birmingham, now recognised as being of international significance.