54-57, ALBION STREET B1

Manufactory, formerly a terrace of houses, located in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. The original terrace dates to 1837, with workshop extensions added between 1867 and 1883. The rear yards were roofed over around 1904. The building is constructed of brick with stucco, beneath shallow pitched roofs with slate coverings.

The front elevation presents three storeys across eight bays. Around 1900, canted bay windows of two storeys were added to numbers 54, 55 and 56, with a ground floor bay window to number 57. The ground and first floor windows retain sash frames, mostly without glazing bars. The second floor has seven rectangular openings with mostly 20th century multi-pane frames, though a single six-pane sash survives to number 54. Four doorways with approach steps feature semi-circular arched heads, panelled reveals and inset architraves. A passage entry between the inner pair of doorways provides access to the shopping in the rear yards. The four rear workshops are of two storeys. Those to numbers 54 and 57 have monopitch roofs and rear wall chimneys. The workshops to numbers 55 and 56 are set back-to-back beneath a pitched roof with ridge stacks. The yard between numbers 53 and 54 is now enclosed beneath a glazed roof. The workshops are built of red brick with blue brick detailing, multi-pane metal window frames and slate roof coverings.

The interior of number 54 retains its original staircase with stick balusters and treads studded with brass nails, along with fireplaces and plaster cornices. A rear extension added between 1867 and 1883 contains a domestic cast-iron cooking range with pot crane and overmantle shelf, now surrounded by shelving carrying industrial equipment as the space forms part of the manufactory.

The two-storied workshops to the rear of numbers 54, 55 and 56 remain fully equipped for industrial use, with fixed in-situ machinery, benching, furnaces and shelving for stamp dies and other equipment. Number 55 contains six drop stamps, three powered from in-situ line shafting and three hand-powered, with the stamp pit concealed beneath boarding. In the enclosed yard between numbers 54 and 55 are long workbenches with line shafting above and the location of the former gas engine which powered the line shafting before electricity was introduced. The workshop to number 55 has seven drop stamps and a small furnace in the party wall with number 56. The workshop to number 56 has four drop stamps and a small furnace sharing a common flue with the furnace to number 55. A large hand press is located at the south end of this workshop, on a raised platform. Upper floor workshops retain benching and hand presses.

Directory evidence indicates that the buildings were all in industrial use by 1886, a process which began between 1860 and 1867. A rate map of 1855 shows the buildings as a terrace of houses with rear extensions and yards. A rate map of circa 1867 to 1883 shows the rear yards almost completely overbuilt by workshops.

Numbers 54-57 Albion Street represent the best-preserved example of a manufactory developed from domestic premises in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter. The site is notable for the extensive survival of hand-operated and powered equipment in the workshops, or 'shopping', which were built in the rear yards and gardens of the former houses. This pattern of development was later replicated in the construction of numerous purpose-built manufactories, and helped create this highly distinctive industrial community, now considered to be of international significance. The building forms a group with number 52 Albion Street.