The Jewellery Quarter today
Jewellery manufacturers have operated in this district for over 200 years and continue to do so today despite rising property values and new development. Jewellery is produced here for the general public and also for the wholesale and retail trade. The area is said to contain the highest concentration of dedicated jewellers in Europe with about one third of the jewellery manufactured in the UK being made within one mile of Birmingham city centre. There is also The Big Peg, a renovated 1960s tower block which is now studios for several hundred small arts & jewellery businesses. Many of the workshops retain their nineteenth-century appearance, and the Jewellery Quarter is promoted as a tourist attraction by Birmingham, with its own Museum of the Jewellery Quarter. Vittoria Street hosts the Jewellery teaching centre for the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.
The Jewellery Quarter also hosts a variety of art galleries including the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, St. Paul's Gallery and Colony.
The Jewellery Quarter is served by Jewellery Quarter railway station a co-joined stop on both the Midland Metro and the main rail line into Birmingham Snow Hill station.
The Chamberlain Building is to receive a major facelift as three companies are to move into the ground floor space. Tesco, William Hill and Subway all have signed up for the ground floor which is to be redeveloped by MCD.
History
A survey of 1553 named one of the first goldsmiths of Birmingham, Roger Pemberton. During the 18th and 19th centuries Birmingham was a large industrial town which was famous for manufacturing every kind of ware imaginable, often from various metals. Many large foundries and glassworks attracted workers from all areas of Britain. A considerable trade grew up in gilt buttons, cap badges, pins and small metal toys. According to a local directory from 1780, there were twenty-six jewellers at the time.
Hockley has only been a distinct "quarter" at the centre of the city's jewellery industry since the mid-1830s, evolving out of those earlier button, pin, buckle and toy trades. On May 28, 1845 a party of jewellery representatives was sent from Birmingham to Buckingham Palace with the intention of persuading the Queen to wear British made jewellery for the purpose of promoting it, and a meeting took place with the Royal couple. Gifts were offered to the Queen and the Prince; the items were valued at over 400 guineas. The party claimed that 5,000 families were dependent on the jewellery trades in Birmingham.
The Quarter's strong growth quickly eclipsed the jewellery trade in nearby Derby, which faded away. The Quarter made a large proportion of the British Empire's fine jewellery, and by 1880 there were nearly 700 workshops listed in a local directory. This figure may underestimate the number of jewellers there, since not all of them had the need to advertise in directories.
In 1883, less than half of all silver jewellery made in Birmingham was of high enough standard to pass through Birmingham Assay Office. However, in the same year no less than 30 tons 17 cwt 4 lb 4 oz (32.3630 megagrams) of silver jewellery and 3 tons 7 cwt 12 lb 3 oz (3.4093 Mg) of gold items were received bringing the total number of articles sent in for assaying that year to over 2.6 million.
The trade benefited greatly from the declining price of raw gold, from the 1880s onwards. It also benefited from the development and refinement of new processes such as electroplating.
By 1885, some of Birmingham's jewellers were experiencing a downturn in business, and thousands of workers were surviving on part time hours with many finding themselves unemployed. Many manufacturers went out of business, but many more remained and continued operation mainly in the area that became known as the Jewellery Quarter.
The silver and gold manufactured in the city around this period was of exceptionally high quality, with its own hallmark. These products are now considered collectibles. Coins were also manufactured in the Jewellery Quarter and The Birmingham Mint flourished in the city until recent years.
