67-69, WARSTONE LANE

This is a late 19th-century manufactory, likely dating from around 1880, and altered in the late 20th century. It is constructed of red brick with painted stone dressings and blue brick detailing, topped with a slate roof. The building has gable and ridge chimneys.

The building has a rectangular street frontage range with a central passage entrance leading to rear workshops. The frontage is near-symmetrical, with seven bays and three storeys, built on a shallow blue brick plinth. There are three doorways: two to the outer bays, and a narrower, plainer doorway to the centre accessing the passage. The outer doorways have moulded surrounds, shallow segmental arched heads, double doors, and arch-headed overlights. The centre doorway has a deep barred overlight. To the left of the centre doorway is a wide segmental arch above a display window with a transomed four-light 20th-century frame. To the right is a pair of tall, arch-headed windows with undivided sash frames. The arched heads to the door and window openings are linked within an undulating lintel band, with a continuous drip mould above. A moulded storey band runs across the first floor, above a painted cill band. An arcade of seven semi-circular arch-headed openings, each with undivided sash frames, is found on the first floor. Imposts, cills, and arched heads of the arcade are painted. The upper floor windows have painted flat lintels set within bands of blue brick, and margin-glazed sashes set upon a painted cill band.

The building complex first appeared on an Ordnance Survey map in 1889, comprised of two separate sections: The Warstone Buildings to the east and The Lion Electro-plating Works to the west. In 1886, The Warstone Buildings housed twelve separate occupants, with a central dividing wall in the rear yard indicating the complex was designed for shared occupancy. The 1886 trade directory identifies The Lion Works as the premises of Frederick Whitehouse, a manufacturer of cutlery and electro-plated goods.

The building forms a group with Nos. 62-64 Warstone Lane. This late 19th-century manufactory was designed for shared occupancy, its plan and architectural detailing reflecting a specialist industrial area in Birmingham, now considered to be of international significance.