7-11, Spencer Street

BIRMINGHAM

997/0/10351 SPENCER STREET 29-APR-04 7-11

GV II Manufactory. c.1865-8 with minor early C20 alteration; architect not known. Red brick with painted stone dressings and blue brick detailing. Gable and mid-pitch chimneys, coped gables and a slate roof covering. Gothic Revival Style. PLAN. Shallow U-plan with rectangular street frontage range with truncated workshop ranges to rear. EXTERIOR: Symmetrical 5-bay frontage range of 3 storeys above a basement with doorways to outer bays. Left-hand door with 4-panel door set within deep reveal below 2 pane overlight. Shallow-arched soffit to steeply-cambered head, the arch with painted springers and keystone. Right-hand doorway with vertically-boarded double doors below 2-pane overlight. Between the doors 5 ground floor window openings, arranged 2:1:2, below flat heads. Window arch detail matches that of doorways, with an undulating continuous hood mould above. Wide banded segmental arch to centre with replacement C20 multi-pane metal frame. Other windows with undivided sash frames. Projecting sills set within painted sill band. First floor windows with more steeply-cambered heads, the outer bay openings on stepped sill band within set- back brickwork panels. Slightly-advanced paired inner windows and coupled centre bay windows within quoined surround. Upper floor windows with sill and lintel bands and shouldered heads, bays 2 and 4 with steeply pointed-arched heads to 2-pane overlights below banded gablets with moulded copings. Deeply- bracketed eaves. Truncated rear ranges each of 2 bays and 3 storeys. INTERIOR: Ground floor with passage leading from right-hand doorway to rear range incorporating doorways into offices to left. Left-hand doorway gives access to staircase to upper floors. Ground floor office and showroom/ warehouse areas with vertically boarded walls and panelled doors. HISTORY: The manufactory, completed by 1871, was built for the Reading family, jewellers. The site was acquired c.1899 by H. Williamson Ltd, watchmakers, who used the manufactory for the production of electro-plated goods. The rear ranges were truncated and a rear cross-range demolished in 1999, at which time a stamping battery with overhead shafting was known to survive. SOURCES: Cattell,J Ely,S and Jones,B 2002. The Birmingham Jewellery Quarter: An Architectural Survey of the Manufactories.

A manufactory of c.1865-8, little-altered externally and displaying architectural and plan form characteristics which distinguish the buildings of this specialist industrial quarter of Birmingham, now recognised as being of international significance.