Founded by Fredrick Charles Pickering in 1913, Pickering & Mayell supplied gift boxes for the Jewellery Quarters produce.
Although buildings in the Jewellery Quarter started as homes, many were converted into workshops as the various industries expanded. Many of the workshops that are still in use in the Jewellery Quarter are converted dwellings. Sometimes the front was little altered, with ‘shopping’ being added to the rear. This ‘shopping’ is nothing to do with the retail trade – these were workshops, small-scale industrial buildings which were designed to maximise natural light to allow craftsmen to work.
Number 42 Caroline Street is a good example. It was originally built as two quite fine houses but the residential use of this area of the city was very short-lived. Very soon this pair of houses was converted to industrial use and occupied by a famous Birmingham silversmith. Later on Pickering and Mayell, who were jewellery case manufacturers, conducted their business from here. You can see just from looking at the front that these were fine houses, with railings and decorative door cases and window detailing. These buildings are a good demonstration of how industrial uses eventually forced out the prosperous residents for whom these houses were originally built.
The jewellery-case making factory of Pickering & Mayell Ltd at 42 Caroline Street, built in the late 1820s as two separate houses each with rear workshops. George Unite and Nathaniel Mills, famous Birmingham silversmiths of the mid-19th century, once occupied part of the building.
Reliance Works 