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Birmingham, Daimler House, Paradise Street

Showrooms in the city centre were unusual. The only survivor is Daimler House in Paradise Street, on a prestigious site almost opposite the Town Hall, of 1911 by A. Gilbey Latham. Daimler produced expensive, luxury cars, hence the location. Its facade is an essay in Edwardian BaroqueGlossary Term, with giant attached IonicGlossary Term columns and a big broken pedimentGlossary Term over the entrance: a rare style in Birmingham, and one never used by the Arts and CraftsGlossary Term trained architects at the head of the profession in the city. Latham was a very different kind of man, who called himself an architect and surveyor. The interior included a ground floor showroom and basementGlossary Term repair shop with a car lift between them, all destroyed by substantial alterations of 1991.