Former factories which once supplied rifle munitions to US and European troops during the First World War are set to become the latest converted into apartments.
A trio of historic buildings spanning 30-52 Vittoria Street, some of which have sat derelict and unused for two decades, will house 41 flats and houses ranging from studios to three bedrooms.
The area, identified as the Industrial Middle of the historic Birmingham quarter, is described in the planning application as a "bleak picture of dereliction".
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London-based property developer Stonehurst Estates is behind the plans which follow a long line of regeneration projects in which old Jewellery Quarter factories have been earmarked for residential conversion.
Among the many in the pipeline and the
PCPT Architects, the Jewellery Quarter practice which has designed the project, wrote in a design statement accompanying the application: "The aim of the scheme is to bring into sustainable use two of the most significant listed buildings in the quarter which have been vacant for 20 years and remain in a very poor and deteriorating condition.
"The intention is to provide high-value, loft-style apartments which retain the industrial aesthetic.
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"The Industrial Middle was once at the vibrant core of the larger metal businesses of the Jewellery Quarter however, as a recent study shows, it is now a bleak picture of dereliction and empty property on Vittoria Street and particularly among the listed buildings."
The application encompasses three separate but connected three-storey buildings and will involve some demolition work.
It will contain eight studios, seven one-bedroom, 19 two-bedroom and five three-bedroom flats alongside two three-bedroom houses, 23 parking spaces and ten bike spaces.
The Grade II-listed Vittoria Works, at 30-34 Vittoria Street (above), was built in 1866 and was used for electroplating in the late 19th century.
More recently, it provided a home for smaller jewellery businesses including a period in the 1960s and 70s when it was known as Compass Works.
Next door at 36-46 Vittoria Street is Unity Works, which is also Grade II listed and was built between 1867 and 1887.
According to the design statement, the building (below) was purpose-built for Henry Jenkins & Sons which moved from nearby Spencer Street.
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Henry Jenkins & Sons was a die sinker and tool maker and the works had their own registered jewellers' mark with an engine house, furnace, hearth and drop forges.
During the First World War, the company produced munitions under contract to BSA and made more than one million rifle oilers for Lee Enfield rifles which were used by the European and American armies.
The firm survived on the site for more than a century and a company sign is still fixed to the outside of the building today as is one for silverware maker William Adams, a company later acquired by Henry Jenkins & Sons during a period of diversification.
Making up the application site is 48-52 Vittoria Street (below), a distinctive building due to its striking sky blue façade which appears out of keeping with its more traditional looking neighbours - something the planning application called "over restored".
This is the surviving element of an earlier terrace of five houses which were possibly built in the 1850s, providing space for owner occupiers.
By the 1880s, it had become a workshop for several businesses and in the 1990s it underwent a conversion to create a single office space, most recently the home of architecture firm Pinnegar Hayward Design.