9,10 AND 11, LEGGE LANE

Details

BIRMINGHAM

997/0/10327 LEGGE LANE 29-APR-04 9,10 AND 11

GV II* Manufactory. 1891-2, extended 1899. By J.P. Osbourne, architect for Messrs Alabaster and Wilson, jewellery manufacturers. Red brick with stone and terracotta detailing, ridge and eaves chimneys and slate roof coverings.
PLAN: Evolved L-plan site, with original part, Nos. 10 and 11 on street corner plot, later extended by addition of No. 9, itself L-shaped with a rear range of workshops and together forming the evolved plan.
EXTERIOR: Nos. 10 and 11, 10 bays, 2 storeys above a basement with a curved south end adjoining No.9. Asymmetrical west elevation with main doorway to bay 3 set within moulded brick surround, with shallow arched head below a triple light overlight and shallow terracotta pediment. Double 3-panel doors are flanked by tall segmental arch-headed windows with undivided sash frames, barred on the inner faces. This pattern of opening is continued at ground floor level around the curved corner to the plainer southern doorway, with a 4-panel door and a tall, shallow arch-headed overlight. To the left of the main entrance and flanking window, a wide double doorway with vertically-boarded gates. Moulded lintel band to ground floor openings and plain cill band to upper floor openings, those to the west elevation with multi-pane cast-iron window frames in wide shallow gauged brick arch-headed openings. The remaining first floor windows to the right are narrower and have undivided sash frames, as below. Moulded eaves course above shallow clerestorey lights which extend above the multi-pane workshop windows. Interrupting the clerestorey lights are 2 narrow chimneys to first floor hearths. No.9 has a 4-bay frontage of 3 storeys above a basement, with lintel and cill banding extended from the attached 2 storey range to the left. 3 ground floor sashes and a doorway to the right-hand end with 4-panel door below a tall overlight. 4 sash windows to each of the upper floors, those above the doorway narrower, and all with glazing bars to the upper sashes. 2 bay workshop range to rear, with clerestorey lights above eaves and rectangular, multi-pane workshop windows to all 3 floors.
INTERIOR: The complex retains most of its original plan form, and almost all of its original fittings, including ground floor fireplaces and jewel viewing booths, upper floor workshop partitions, peg benches ( jewellers workshop benches ) , small furnaces and reinforced doors.
HISTORY: The original plans for Nos. 10 and 11 show the ground floor planned for warehouse strong room and stock room functions, and the upper floor with open workshop space, a 'rough warehouse' and a 'stone room'.
Source. N.B.R. 105500. 2001.
An extremely rare survival of a purpose-built jewellery manufactory of 1891-2, extended in 1899, still in the ownership of the company that it was designed for. It has undergone very little alteration and retains almost all of its original plan form and fittings. A very significant and legible example of the distinctive industrial architecture of this late C19 manufacturing quarter of Birmingham, now recognised as being of international significance.

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