Why should the beautiful die?
This was the home of a prosperous shopkeeper in East Birmingham, one who had two full floors of living quarters above the shop, with the addition of a couple of comfortable attic rooms. The ground floor has been altered somewhat, but only in the incidentals; on the whole, the building is in a splendid state of preservation.
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The uneven spacing of the windows is interesting. Wonder if it has something to do with the interior layout, since there is no obvious reason for it viewed from the outside.
Aesthetically, it might be a way of integrating the prominent dormer with the façade. Evenly spaced windows might make it look out of place, whereas the narrower gap in the center creates a vertical that seems to rise uninterrupted to a climax in the dormer. Whoever designed the building seems to have paid attention to such questions of rhythm: note the subtle alternation of pointed lintels over the second-floor windows, flat lintels over the third-floor windows, and a broad pointed lintel embracing both windows in the attic dormer.
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