Silverware-Shop.co.uk
Title
The Silverware Shop - Home
Description
Birmingham.
Birmingham was once described as the city of a thousand and one trades. A place where all manner of metal goods were hand made and fashioned by the many metal workers and smiths that made Birmingham their home.
"Workshop of the World"
Different trades settled in particular areas, the gunsmiths in one area, the foundries in another , buckle and button manufacturers along with toymakers and eventually with such an abundance of skilled labour the jewellers and silversmiths in the area that became known as the jewellery quarter. This came into being around 1760 when John Betts and sons opened the first precious metal refinery in the suburb to the north West of the city that was known as Hockley.
It was a typical inner city area filled with back-to-back terraced houses that were inhabited by mainly poor people who were more than happy to let off part of their home to men that wanted to start a small business. It was not long before the landlords of these properties were evicting the tenants after realising that there was more money to be made from letting out single rooms to workers than whole houses to families. This is the reason that there were and still are so many converted houses used as business premises in the jewellery quarter.
