Gatehouses to the Roundhouse (formerly City of Birmingham Engineers Department)

Gatehouses to the Roundhouse, Sheepcote Street, Birmingham, B16 8AE

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Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1076186
Date first listed:: 22-Nov-1976
List Entry Name:: Gatehouses to the Roundhouse (formerly City of Birmingham Engineers Department)
Statutory Address:: Gatehouses to the Roundhouse, Sheepcote Street, Birmingham, B16 8AE

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Date:: 2001-10-22
Reference:: IOE01/03694/35
Rights:: © Mr Peter Garratt. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1076186
Date first listed:: 22-Nov-1976
Date of most recent amendment:: 05-Mar-2025
List Entry Name:: Gatehouses to the Roundhouse (formerly City of Birmingham Engineers Department)
Statutory Address 1:: Gatehouses to the Roundhouse, Sheepcote Street, Birmingham, B16 8AE

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Gatehouses to the Roundhouse, Sheepcote Street, Birmingham, B16 8AE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Birmingham (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SP0564486820, SP0565986815

Summary

A pair of symmetrical gatehouses built in 1873-1874.

Reasons for Designation

The pair of symmetrical gatehouses to the Roundhouse are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the architectural quality and well-considered positioning of the two houses which gives them a striking presence in the street scene and provides a strong entrance to the Roundhouse complex.

Historic interest:

* for their construction as part of a comprehensive scheme designed by W H Ward for the Corporation of Birmingham.

Group value:

* built contemporaneously with the Roundhouse, the gatehouses form an important group with the listed Roundhouse, workshop and storage building,

History

The Birmingham to Wolverhampton canal was constructed in 1766-1769 with engineering from James Brindley and was the first canal to be constructed in Birmingham. The canal was later ‘straightened’ by engineer John Smeaton in order to create a more direct and cost-effective route for goods transportation.

Prior to development, this site functioned as a canal wharf for stone deliveries, such as Rowley Rag, and possibly for other materials such as coal. The complex of buildings on the junction of Sheepcote Street and St Vincent Street and on the side of the newly straightened stretch of canal first appears to have been developed in the 1870s, when the stable and gatehouses were built for the Corporation of Birmingham on the land in 1873-1874 following a suggestion by the Lamp and Paving sub-committee that the wharf become the principal depot for the Public Works committee. The development was the subject of an architectural competition in the early 1870s, which was won by W H Ward, an architect based in nearby Paradise Street. Ward was also the architect responsible for the Great Western Arcade, the Gazette Buildings and Queen’s Corner, Corporation Street.

It is thought that, owing to slight differences in the design and brickwork, that the former Workshop was constructed at a slightly later date than the stables and gatehouses. However, the stables, gatehouses and former workshop all appear on the 1890 OS map as a complete group. Whilst the stables and gatehouses appear to remain largely unchanged throughout the map regression, the former workshop is depicted with the western and northern end notated as open sided. By the early-C20, these have been enclosed.

The site was still in use as the City of Birmingham Engineers Department when the stables and gatehouses were first designated in 1976. The former stables, gatehouses and adjoining former workshop were then acquired by British Waterways (now the Canal and River Trust) in 2001, and in 2017 funding was secured for a programme of conservation works. The gatehouses now house offices.

Details

A pair of symmetrical gatehouses built in 1873-1874.

MATERIALS: red brick with slate roofs and stone dressings.

PLAN: T-plan form and arranged symmetrically at the entrance to the stables.

EXTERIOR: the buildings are both two storeys with a prominent gable end facing the street. The roofs are steeply pitched, with a Welsh slate covering and each gatehouse has two chimney stacks. There is a brick dentil frieze below the eaves.

The elevations to the corner entrance to the site are polygonal with a conical roofline. The fenestration across the pair is symmetrical, with both possessing a mixture of flat-headed and pointed brick arches with painted rusticated surrounds; the larger windows on the gabled elevation are divided by painted stone mullions. The windows are all sashes. Within the gable, there is an arrow-slit ventilator to each building.

The entrance to the western gatehouses is located on the northern elevation and the entrance to the south-eastern is located on the eastern elevation. A secondary entrance to each building is located to the rear, within the courtyard; all doors are timber panelled. The western gatehouse has an additional large door in the rear gable wing, whilst the mirrored elevation on the south-eastern gatehouse has a sash window.

INTERIOR: there is a large proportion of retained architrave within the south-eastern gatehouse, including skirting, doorways, and panelled doors. There are also surviving cast-iron fireplaces in some rooms.

The interior of the western gatehouse has been more altered, with the removal and insertion of a modern staircase in a different location and the removal of rooms to create office space.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 217604
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Other
First edition Ordnance Survey Map, 1890
Roundhouse- Researching the Roundhouse, a Volunteer Project
Second edition Ordnance Survey map, 1904

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.