Listing Lowdown - December 2024
The Former Market Hotel, Station Street, Birmingham, listed at grade II on 6th November 2024
It is very exciting to see a third listing on Station Street, especially in the midst of a tireless local and national campaign for the protection of the street's cultural heritage. The former Market Hotel was built in 1883 by Thomas Plevins, and has been recognised for its landmark terracotta façade and for its rarity as a combined hotel and basket warehouse.
In July, SAVE supported the listing of The Electric Cinema, which stands only a few doors down from the hotel, and which, until its closure on 29th February 2024, was the oldest working cinema in Britain. The decision on whether to list the cinema is still pending, though this is the second statutory listing on the street so far this year (the Crown Inn was listed in March). It’s fantastic to see Historic England taking note of the cultural significance of this part of Birmingham.
Flockton Viaduct Wagonway, West Yorkshire, listed at grade II* on 21st November 2024
We have hit the highest-grade listing since August! The Flockton Viaduct Wagonway has now been listed at grade II*, with Historic England noting it as the oldest known multi-span railway bridge anywhere in the world. This follows a listing application from the Wakefield Historical Society earlier this year.
The twenty-arch viaduct was built in the 1790s to provide a more direct route for the Flockton Wagonway across a damp depression on the hillside. The wagonway itself was timber-railed and worked by horses, constructed in the early 1770s for the transportation of coal from pits at Dial Wood around two miles down to the canal at Horbury Bridge. The viaduct was part of an extension of this railway in order to include what became Lane End Colliery. Around 1825, the railway was even fitted with wrought iron rails traversed by trains of wagons, but ceased to run following the closure of the colliery in 1893.
Former air raid shelter and plant room, Joss Street, Invergordon
The former air raid shelter on Joss Street is not much to look at from the outside, but has just been Category-B listed by Historic Environment Scotland for its rarity and intactness. Built to serve the surrounding houses and nearby Royal Navy fuel depot, it is thought to be Scotland’s only surviving communal surface shelter built on a public road. While millions of air raid shelters were constructed during the war, very few communal surface shelters survive due to their obstruction of roads.
Arts and Crafts style houses at The Close, Birmingham, listed at grade II on 8th November 2024
These houses have been boarded up for almost twenty years. Built between 1911 and 1915 by W Alexander Harvey and W Graham Wicks, they were designed as a group for the Society of Friends in memory of the philanthropist Henry Stanley Newman and his wife Anna Newman.
These houses are valuable in part due to their connection with Harvey, who was appointed to design the Bournville garden suburb for Cadbury in 1895 when he was only twenty years old. The houses at The Close were built as a group in the Arts and Crafts style – they are of red brick with clay tiled roofs and large chimney stacks. As far as we know, these vacant properties are still owned by the University of Birmingham, and we hope that Historic England’s acknowledgement of their importance will trigger some action on their restoration and reuse!