191, Halesowen Road

1868/0/10074 HALESOWEN ROAD 02-FEB-05 Old Hill 191

II Butcher's Shop and premises. Late C19. Flemish bond brick with a gabled slate roof. 2 storey premises with shop at front and living quarters to rear and on first floor with animal pen, fasting pen and slaughter house to the rear. Road front: Canted bay window to left with stained glass panels above showing busts of pig, cow and sheep in roundels. Shop door at right with fanlight grille. Pier at left with decorative brackets and fragment of similar pier showing at right. Decorative tilework below the window with panels reading "GILL" to front and "258" to angles. Fascia board above with curved gas pipe [adapted for electric light] and 3 spigots to support game rack. Decorated board projecting above this. 2-light sash window to first floor with central brick pier, painted band at sill level and painted lintel. Decorative board below the eaves and decorative ridge tiles. Chimney-stack to left gable with decorative top. Left hand reveal: Blocked shop door at right of centre. The rear wing projects at left. In the rear yard are a set of outhouses; an animal pen with hay loft, a fasting shed with pulley to roof and a slaughter shed with pulley and wall rail. Interior: The shop has a complete set of original wall tiles. There is a frieze at the top of the wall in turquoise and white, below are octagonal white tiles with black diamond insets. At dado level is a coloured frieze showing a repeating scene of cattle drinking and grazing divided by inset buff tiles showing profile heads of a sheep, cow and pig. Below these are Ionic pilasters with bordered panels of amber tiles. The tiling has been replicated on the left hand wall where a former shop door has been filled in. To the rear of the shop window is a tiered arrangement of brass rails for hanging cuts of meat. A brass rail with upswept ends is on the rear wall and two painted metal rails are on the left side wall. Suspended from the ceiling is a horseshoe-shaped metal rail with 2 attached hooks on wheels to enable carcasses to be moved around the shop. History: The front of the shop and the interior with its complete tilework and fittings together with the outhouses give a surprisingly complete impression of the functioning of a high street butcher's premises in late Victorian Britain. The shop is a rare survival of a late C19 butcher's shop with an elaborately tiled shop, original metalwork and associated outhouses. It is the sort of building which was once more common along British High Streets but is now rare, especially in this intact state. The adjoining property is not regarded as possessing special interest.