Friday Photo – 27-32 Mary Street

Today’s Good Friday, so I suppose this week it’s a ‘Good Friday Photo’! Unfortunately, it’s not an Easter-themed photo, but one of a building you may have spotted, but probably not, as it’s off the main Jewellery Quarter thoroughfare. If you take a stroll to Mary Street, you’ll spot a house that’s a little different from the rest, because this building is the earliest identified of its kind in the Jewellery Quarter. The house and workshops were built in three different phases by James Kimberley, a well-known speculative builder and property owner in Birmingham during the nineteenth century. The three-storey house dates back to 1818, and James most likely lived in the house and rented the workshop spaces in the two-storey adjacent workshop out to local artisans and craftsmen. This pattern of use was very common in Birmingham and the Jewellery Quarter. The workshop extension was built slightly later in 1823, and one of the first tenants was a man called George Wyon, who was a die-sinker, modeller and chaser. The Wyons were a well-known manufacturing family in Birmingham, specialising in medals and engraving. There are some exciting plans to turn this building into a home once more.