Trail:

Rosebery Buildings

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Birmingham, John Bright Street, Rosebery Buildings

The earliest survivor seems to be Rosebery Buildings on the corner of John Bright Street and Severn Street, designed by Marcus O. Type and built in 1902-3. It links factories to showrooms, as cars were made here, as well as sold, by the Heron Motor Company. This is a typical piece of Type's quirky and unexpected work, a slightly sinister GothicGlossary Term block with a corner turret like a small octagonal belfryGlossary Term. Heron, and its successor Mobile Motor and Engineering, were out of business by 1907. In 1913 Percy James Evans was selling his own motor cycles there. By the twenties he was specialising in second hand cars, particularly Morrises, and when P.J. Evans Ltd. moved to Bristol Street in the sixties it was one of the biggest car sales firms in the city. It is now the main Jaguar agent in the city.

Glossary

Belfry

Chamber or stage in a tower where bells are hung.

Gothic

The style of the Middle Ages from the later 12th century to the Renaissance, with which it co-existed in certain forms into the 17th century. Characterized in its full development by the pointed arch, the rib-vault and an often skeletal masonry structure for churches, combined with large glazed windows. The term was originally associated with the concept of the barbarian Goths as assailants of classical civilization.

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