19-23, VYSE STREET

BIRMINGHAM

997/0/10399 29-APR-04

VYSE STREET 19-23

GV II

A terrace of 4 manufactories and shops, formerly dwellings with rear attached workshops. c.1848, converted to industrial use soon afterwards, remodelled late C19 and with further minor C20 alterations. Red brick with painted dressings, cut and moulded brick detailing, mid-slope stacks to front and rear roof pitches and a composition slate roof covering. PLAN: A series of linear complexes, some L-shaped, set behind a frontage range of uniform design. EXTERIOR: Near-symmetrical 11 bay range of 2 storeys, with 4 entrance doorways and 2 passage doorways giving access to rear workshop ranges. Entrance doorways to bays 1, 5, 7 and 11, all but that to bay 7 with panelled reveals to recessed doors below ornamental fanlights and semi-circular rubbed brick arches. Remodelled and widened doorway to bay 7 with flanking pilasters framing a semi-circular overlight set back within cut brick surround. Above, brick panel with inset painted plaque, below semi-circular light with hood mould. Passage doorways to bays 2 and 9 with infilled overlights and C20 doors. Bays 4, 6, 8 and 10 have full-height canted bay windows, mostly with sash windows, some sashes 2-paned. Ground floor parts mainly shop display windows. Rear workshop ranges extend the full length of each plot, each served originally by a shared passage access. INTERIORS: Not fully inspected, but ground floor doorways reveal staircases to upper floor workshops, that to bay 7 the full width of a wide passage. Forms a group with Nos. 16-19 Vyse Street (q.v.) and No. 94 Vyse Street (q.v.) A terrace of late C19 manufactories, formed by the conversion of mid-C19 dwellings to industrial use with workshop ranges added at the rear. Such conversions characterised the early development of an historic manufacturing district now recognised as being of international significance.