Conversion of historic Jewellery Quarter building begins
Work has begun to convert a Grade II listed building in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter.
The Reliance Works located on Caroline Street, was formerly occupied by jewellery manufacturing firm Pickering and Mayell, which specialised in producing jewellery cases, window display fittings, and silver-plated products.
It served as the hub for the company’s jewellery case making plant for almost 100 years from 1913 until 2012 when the business merged with the Talbot group and eventually vacated the premises to relocate nearby.
The historic building dates back to 1826 and will be converted into a mixture of townhouses, one bedroom and two bedroom apartments (nine apartments in total) with a new extension to the rear, and a small commercial unit on the ground floor after permission was secured by developers The Urban Project (part of the CityBlock Group) at the end of 2019.
The Urban Project is working in partnership with BPN architects, Logmoor (main contractor), Harris Lamb (employer’s agent), and Maguire Jackson (sales agents), to bring the new homes to market.
Trevor Bargh of The Urban Project said: “The Reliance Works building is a real gem in a famous and thriving part of Birmingham City Centre. It has been left in a serious state of disrepair for a long time and so we begin this work with a mixture of relief and excitement. Our intention is to retain the original character that makes the building so special, as we believe that the history of the building is crucial to its journey and its heritage should be respected.
“We fully intend to leverage our many years of expertise gained in property development to bring this building back to life with some truly original and much-needed new homes for the local market.”
