Premises Of The Christopher Wray'S Lighting Company

PREMISES OF THE CHRISTOPHER WRAY'S LIGHTING COMPANY, BIRMINGHAM

A complex of houses and workshops, now a brassware factory, occupying numbers 7–12 Bartholomew Row and adjoining properties. The buildings date from the mid-19th century with possible late 18th and early 19th century remains, supplemented by late 19th and early 20th century additions.

The Bartholomew Row Facade

The principal facade to Bartholomew Row comprises three storeys above a cellar across seven irregular bays. A straight joint indicates two phases of construction. The ground floor brickwork is painted. Openings have painted surrounds, and the parapet is rendered. Windows throughout are casements.

The first floor windows feature a sill band, lugged architraves with cornices and pulvinated friezes. The second floor windows have plain surrounds. The ground floor arrangement is varied: the left-hand bay contains a blocked window opening; the second bay has a doorway with plain reveals and a painted round arch; the third bay houses a wide doorway with timber lintel. The fourth and seventh bays contain doorways similar in treatment to the first floor window surrounds (the left-hand one now containing a window). The fifth and sixth bays have windows with plain reveals and painted lintels. Between these bays is a door with painted surround, round arch, keystone and impost blocks, aligned with a ridge chimneystack.

The Fox Street Facade

The main building on Fox Street is rendered and comprises two storeys across three bays. The ground floor contains two wide entrance doorways with elliptical arches, separated by a blocked window with architrave. The first floor windows have plain surrounds with a sill band; windows are casements with glazing bars, the central window being tripartite.

To the right is the end wall of a late 19th century workshop range, two storeys high under a narrow gable on the left, and three storeys with two bays under a monopitch roof on the right.

Complex Plan and Rear Ranges

The main Fox Street building connects to the rear of numbers 7–10 Bartholomew Row via ranges of shopping of two and three storeys, one unit including a workshop with a lantern light rising above the roof line. A late 19th century workshop range, under monopitch roof, extends from Fox Street to the rear of numbers 11 and 12 Bartholomew Row. The construction is brick with painted stone or stucco dressings and slate roofs throughout.

Interior Features

The former houses facing Bartholomew Row retain brick vaulted cellars, a mid-19th century staircase, slate or marble fireplaces of mid and late 19th century date, and some brick floors.

The workshop interiors preserve many original features including fixed workbenches directly lit by ranges of single side-wall windows. At ground floor level, sunken walkways provide access to stamping machines. One central ground floor workshop area retains a two-bay vaulted ceiling reminiscent of fireproof construction found in 19th century textile mills, with a single cast metal pillar featuring a decorative capital. An upper room, rectangular in plan and originally lit by the raised lantern roof, now has an inserted 20th century ceiling that obscures this feature.

Historical Development

Map evidence shows Bartholomew Row was built up by 1779 and Fox Street by 1810. Numbers 7–10 may have late 18th century origins, while numbers 11 and 12 were likely rebuilt in the early 1860s. The earliest building fronting Fox Street may be William Spurrier's malthouse of 1800, altered in the late 1870s or early 1880s when occupied by a glass tablet maker. Shopping at the rear of numbers 7–10 Bartholomew Row existed by 1855 and may correspond to Spurrier's warehouse and shopping listed in 1823. The shopping behind numbers 11 and 12 Bartholomew Row was built around 1894 by Henry Austin Aquila, a ginger beer maker. In 1910, H.B. London and Bros., stampers, moved into 10 Bartholomew Row and by 1928 occupied the entire complex. London Bros. were incorporated into Christopher Wray in the early 1980s.