Victorian architecture

Ten endangered Victorian buildings Normally ‘Top Tens’ are celebratory, but there is something both sad and inspiring about the Victorian Society (VicSoc)’s annual list of the most threatened buildings from the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Inspiring because the buildings that feature in the list are often stupendous. This year’s list includes Icknield Street School, Birmingham: an astonishing architectural fantasy in brick and tile the colour of a robin’s breast, with multiple gables and steep-pitched roofs tumbling around a slated Rhenish spire bristling with subsidiary spirelets. The exterior of Icknield Street School in Birmingham. Photo: Stephen Hartland The schoo