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Digbeth, Deritend and Bordesley High Streets Conservation Area
The Digbeth, Deritend and Bordesley High Streets Conservation area contains part of the site of mediaeval Birmingham.
Traces of the mediaeval town are still discernible in the surrounding street patterns which clearly incorporate narrow land strips (burgage plots) that were incrementally added to the town from surrounding manorial fields.
However, the only surviving mediaeval building is the 15th century Old Crown Inn on High Street Deritend.
Nonetheless, the conservation area includes many Victorian and Edwardian social and industrial buildings of architectural interest such as the former Bird Custard offices (circa 1890) on High Street Deritend, and the Digbeth Institute (circa 1907), a former church hall, now a live music venue, on Digbeth High Street.
Listed Buildings in the Digbeth, Deritend & Bordesley Conservation Area
The Bonser Warehouse on Digbeth is a narrow building with a pyramidal slate roof; it was built in brick with stone dressings in 1860; the name of the iron merchants Bonser & Co is carved on the door lintel.
Links: Digbeth Secular Listed Buildings
Devonshire House (circa 1890) is located on High Street Deritend; it was originally the head office of Birds Custard whose Birmingham factory occupied an adjoining 3 acre site.
After Birds relocated to Banbury in 1963, the building became semi-derelict but has recently been refurbished as 110 studios and offices for creative entrepreneurs.
Links:
Digbeth Secular Listed Buildings
The Digbeth Institute is on Digbeth High Street; it was built as an institutional church attached to the Carr Lane Congregational Church and hosted secular activities such as variety shows intended to encourage church attendance.
Designed by Arthur Harrison, the Institute was built in red-brick and grey terracotta dressings in 1907. Its main facade features a central double lantern capped by a diminutive dome and spire flanked by two end lanterns.
Links:
Digbeth Secular Listed Buildings
The Floodgate Board School (1890), which now forms part of the Digbeth campus of South Birmingham College, was designed by Chamberlain and Martin and built in red-brick and terracotta.
The school has a landmark tower, spire and belfry, and features a series of typically Gothic gables and clustered chimneys; it was once divided into open halls where supervised pupil teachers could teach younger children in small groups.
The halls were lit by vast windows which remained permanently closed because of the foul pollution from surrounding factories; the tower served as a ventilation shaft, sucking in air that was heated in the basement and pumped through sill vents.
Digbeth Secular Listed Buildings
The Makepeace Clothing Mart on Digbeth High Street was built on a steel frame in brick with terracotta dressings in 1913. It features orange pilasters and a green-glazed parapet.
Links: Digbeth Secular Listed Buildings
The Old Crown stands at the junction of High Street Deritend and Heath Mill Lane; it is a plaster-infill and timber-framed structure with a jettied upper storey that probably dates from around 1500. There are vaulted cellars, a rear courtyard and well.
A fleurs-de-lis has been carved on the ceiling of the upstairs Gallorye chamber where Queen Elizabeth I is said to have spent the night when passing through Birmingham.
Links: Digbeth Secular Listed Buildings
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