Front Range Of The Birmingham Mint Facing Icknield Street, And Buildings Around The Courtyard

The Birmingham Mint, dating from 1860, is a substantial complex that was the largest independent mint worldwide. The front range, facing Icknield Street, displays a symmetrical, formal design in an Italianate style, constructed of red brick. This long range comprises three storeys and five bays, with the end bays and a broader, pedimented centre projecting forward. The roof is hipped and slate-covered. The ground floor features round-headed windows recessed within an arcade, detailed with ashlar impost bands and keystones, rising from a basement plinth and containing panelled sills. An entablature with a projecting ashlar cornice sits above the ground floor. The upper floors are articulated by brick pilasters on pedestals set within an applied parapet; the first-floor sill course juts out over the bases, and panelled zones are defined below the second-floor sills by an ashlar string course between the pilasters. An ashlar bed mould is present on the main entablature, with a projecting eaves cornice. The central section of the front range has channelled ashlar on the ground floor, featuring a large rounded archway where the keystone angles out as a bracket to support a two-storey tripartite ashlar bow window with panelled aprons and consoles on the second floor. The main entablature breaks forward over the bow. This front range is part of a quadrangular plan, and the interior faces of the courtyard have an arcaded treatment. The Mint’s origins lie in a business founded by the Heaton family in 1794; by 1851 the company began minting coinage and was instrumental in numerous developments in minting technology, giving it the longest history of any independent mint.