Description

997/0/10375

BIRMINGHAM
WATER STREET, No 31
LIVERY STREET, No, 74
MARY ANN STREET, Derwent House

29-APR-04

II
Foundry and Offices. 1902-1912, extended 1913-1916, and c.1921, and with later alterations and mid-C20 remodelling. Extensions of 1913-1916 by Ewen Harper and James A Harper architects, of Birmingham, for Taylor and Challen Ltd, engineers. Red brick with terracotta, blue brick and painted concrete detailing. Flat and sheet covered roofs. Extensive accretional plan extending a full blocks length along Livery Street with main office frontage to Mary Anne Street and Foundry entrances to Water Street.

EXTERIOR: Water Street frontage of two phases. To left, 1913 foundry front, with symmetrical stepped brick facade of three bays, the bays defined by channelled brick piers, the tall centre piers with diamond-shaped decoration to their caps. Recessed brick panels between piers incorporate multi-pane metal window frames below plain heads. Above wide, four-tier centre window, a terracotta panel with 'TAYLOR AND CHALLEN' in raised lettering. Shallow parapet above brick dentil course. Further right, matching extension of 1913-1916 with angled corner to Livery Street, and low plain link between stepped frontages.

The Livery Street frontage, with tall multi-pane paired windows set between banded piers, originally of eight bays, was extended by 1921 along the full length of the block to return onto Mary Anne Street. Mary Anne Street frontage composed of four different elements. Three-bay left-hand end part of two and three storeys with angled corner, painted bands to window heads and three storey centre bay between banded pilasters, reflecting the detailing of the foundry frontages. Two-light windows with centre pier and upper floor with six narrow windows below deep parapet bearing terracotta panel with 'TAYLOR CHALLEN' in raised lettering. Two bay mid-C20 to right, and then principal office range 1902-1912 its giant four-bay arcade with tall tripartite windows to ground floor beneath flat joggled terracotta heads. Recessed entrance to left-hand bay. First floor windows within semi-circular headed rubbed brick arches with stepped keyblocks. Triple upper floor windows to each bay above linked gabled hood mould and below terracotta lintel band, cornice and shallow parapet. Mid-C20 flat-roofed extension above. Right-hand end a functionally- detailed three-bay addition of three storeys with multi-pane windows recessed between plain brick piers. Shallow parapet carries raised lettering which reads 'DERWENT IRON FOUNDRY'

INTERIOR: Not fully inspected. The foundry interiors were designed as single open working areas with travelling cranes mounted on tracks running along the side wall heads.

HISTORY: Taylor and Challen was founded by Joseph Taylor in 1852. The company produced metal working machinery including presses for the metal trades, examples of which are still found in workshops and manufactories throughout the Jewellery Quarter. The company developed rapidly over a 70-year period, mirroring the pattern of expansion within the jewellery trade. The design of the foundry and its extensions appears to reflect the influence of Peter Behrens'Kraftwerk Union Factory Hall in Berlin of 1909.

SOURCE: Cattell, J Ely, S and Jones, B 2002. The Birmingham Jewellery Quarter. An Architectural Survey of the Manufactories.

An early C20 foundry built by a highly influential manufacturer of metal- working machines used throughout the Jewellery Quarter, and of an innovative contemporary design influenced by the work of the eminent C20 German architect and industrial designer Peter Behrens.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670679

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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